If you haven't watched the above short, please do so now. It's just under 7 minutes long and carries the distinction of being made by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein, and directed by Jonas Cuarón (Alfonso's son). The footage is disturbing, the animated graffiti art is outstanding, and the message rings loud and clear. I plan on buying the book soon. Has anybody read it yet?

I am currently researching the practice of torture on prisoners in Abu Ghraib (ironically the same prison that Saddam Hussein's regime used for massive torture), Guantanamo Bay, CIA "black" prisons and "extraordinary rendition". In addition to learning the history of certain torture cases, I'm analyzing the rhetoric used by U.S. administration to justify interrogation practices that are almost unanimously considered torture (and illegal). Since the administration can't deny recorded and reported events, they must make sure that the definition of torture doesn't include what they have been doing ubiquitously, and until now, shamelessly. Our governments' legal and semantic maneuvering is designed to avoid legal charges, not to excuse itself of its huge moral impropriety.

Now there will be an investigation into destroyed interrogation tapes that the CIA did not produce when asked by the 9/11 Commission. This is frustrating and damning, but not the least surprising.

I'm sure many of you already knew most of this, but the reports I'm reading are so shocking I felt compelled to post. For example, an independent Red Cross report stated that "... between 70 percent and 90 percent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake." Apparently we were so hell-bent on finding Saddam that incarcerating and torturing any Iraqi civilian was necessary. I would hope that we are far enough away from the shock of 9/11 to be appalled and disgusted by this. If we held ourselves up to Thoreau's standards, all who pay taxes would be considered responsible for these atrocities.

tony