May 25, 2007
What They Don't Let You See
Stare at this.
Now look back again.
I want this seared, seared into your memory.
This is an image from an al Qaeda torture manual captured in Iraq.
They use this and other techniques to torture Iraqi men and women, Shia, Sunni, and Kurd. They also use them when they can capture American and Iraqi soldiers and police.
I'd love to provide you with a link to the Washington Post or New York Times article detailing the atrocities contained, but they haven't been written yet. Nor can these articles be found in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, or the Philadelphia Daily News, and you won't see these images on the network nightly news, either.
While we are locked in wars against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq and other obscure places you couldn't find on a map, the American press has decided that you, the American citizen, don't need to see these images.
You don't deserve to see these images.
The near orgasmic contentment on the face of the torturer as he burns his victim with an iron is too inflammatory, and the American press wouldn't want you to become inflamed towards our enemy during a time of war, now would they?
I can completely understand where these media organizations are coming from.
They've spent years writing and buying into their own narrative that America is to blame for the problems in Iraq and that the threat of al Qaeda is over-hyped... and did I mention, over-hyped?
If they were to actually show, in stark terms, what al Qaeda truly is and what it is capable of, then the American people might start viewing them as Very. Bad. People. Such a thing could complicate the defeat of Chimperor Bush withdrawal plans. It is better to act like such things doesn't exist, and make sure most people miss it.
At the very least, they deserve a hand for staying "on message."
If these (and other) graphic images hadn't been picked up by The Smoking Gun and the Austrialian Press (Fox News posted, then retracted a story) you probably wouldn't have seen them at all.
Now consider that most people probably still won't see these images on the television news, or see them in print. They won't because the various news organizations in this and other countries either don't consider them newsworthy, or they consider the images too inflammatory.
Then wonder how much else you aren't seeing and hearing.
Our soldiers tell us time and time and time again that the war they are fighting in Iraq is not the war being reported by our media.
Do you believe them now?
Mr. CY, your right these men are animals. thats what they do, they torture their own kind. we cant rest till they are crushed. There spreading their torture like cancer with this manual. a bullets too good for them, first we should pop their arms loose from the sockets then the bullet
Posted by: Karl at May 25, 2007 03:09 PMsimply, yes.
Posted by: NolaGirl at May 25, 2007 04:20 PMUh, yeah, we GET it. Al Qaeda bad. Wow, what a revelation. Democrats were the ones who wanted to keep the focus ON Al Qaeda, if you recall. We wanted to, y'know, actually finish the job in Afghanistan? Instead we had to sit and watch as Bush the Younger went off on his little side trip in Iraq, creating a power vacuum in Iraq, and providing the ideal sanctuary and terrorist training ground for Al Qaeda. So spare us the sanctimonius lecture on the evils of Al Qaeda when it was your side that has unquestionably been their biggest benefactor.
Posted by: Arbotreeist at May 25, 2007 06:50 PMBDS survives in trees....details at 11. Tree huggers blamed.
Posted by: Specter at May 25, 2007 07:23 PMAbsolutely. It's all about the BDS. Hey doc, why is it I have these negative feelings towards the president? Why is that? Could it be because the actions and policies that he and his cohorts have taken are systematically dismantling everything good about this country, taking away our civil liberties, mortgaging our children's futures away with the billions spent on tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and unnecessary wars? Naw silly, that would be too logical. Chalk it up to Hollywood and the MSM, brainwashing me into disliking a guy who's in all actuality a great, intelligent, visionary leader, perhaps the greatest who has ever walked the earth.
Posted by: Arbotreeist at May 25, 2007 08:16 PMWe wanted to, y'know, actually finish the job in Afghanistan?
AQ has effectively been purged from Afghanistan. Even OBL himself has stated Iraq is their front line.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 25, 2007 09:39 PMFinishing the job meant eliminating the Taliban as an effective fighting force. That didn't exactly happen thanks to the switch of focus to Saddam. Now you've got a resurgent Taliban causing major problems in Afghanistan. And wherever the Taliban gains a foothold, Al Qaeda is sure to follow.
Posted by: Arbotreeist at May 25, 2007 10:51 PMFinishing the job meant eliminating the Taliban as an effective fighting force.
Which of course is so very important because of their international presence and terror operations, right?
Posted by: Purple Avenger at May 25, 2007 11:32 PMI thought that it was because they harbored the September 11 hijackers. Isn't that why we went into Afghanistan?
Posted by: Doc Washboard at May 25, 2007 11:35 PMFirst: Read up on why washboarding is an effective "enhanced" interrogation tool, psychologically brutal and leaving no marks or lasting impairment.
Then: I will pay any of you $10K to endure 60 minutes of this at my hands. You must last the entire time without protest.
Posted by: Random Guy at May 26, 2007 02:13 AModd, how the tortured look like the type of devout muslim al-q would seem to attract, fully bearded and all, but the *torturers* look like saddam hussein-type infidel psuedo-muslims al-q is constantly raving about--clean-shaven with simple mustaches and western clothing. those kind of details should not be overlooked. i mean, would *our* US manuals (of any type) show the "enemy" sporting a high-and-tight haircut and fellow US soldiers as bearded? something's not right here....
Posted by: j at May 26, 2007 02:56 AMThe problem is there are two wars.
One is being fought in Iraq by American troops. What makes this war different is the other equally important war that is being fought in the press. The only way AQ can win is if America gives up on Iraq.
The problem is in many ways the American press is on the wrong side of this war. Many American news organizations are actively repeating the propaganda of the enemy for various reasons but the result and goal is the same: to have us surrender in Iraq.
I didn't used to think we'd ever find ourselves in a psy-op war with our own free press, but the last four years are full of unequivocal proof: the MSM is carrying the message of our enemy, and wants us to capitulate to their demands. Even worse, there's an entire political party dedicated to seeing that surrender through: the Democrats.
But this week something very important happened. The Democrats held out against the nutroot fringe of the party and decided to give the troops what they should of had three months ago. While the party's presidential candidates are fully into the surrender mode of the Kos Kids, the rank and file of the Democrats firmly rejected this dangerous, traitorous fringe.
It's too late for the Dems to manage the damage at this point, they are politically dead in '08. The nutroots' civil war will split the party for a generation and assure the GOP is running this country well into the 21st century. Americans will not vote for traitors, losers, or self-serving defeatists. But at least history will look back on the fact that most of the Dems said "enough is enough" and funded the war.
The battle for the heart and soul of the Democrats is raging full force right now. But in the end, it's irrelevant. The people will turn to the GOP to lead the country against the Islamists.
Posted by: Lightwave at May 26, 2007 08:20 AM
