What do the "Torture Memos" Mean?

World Can't Wait wants to know what you think about the Torture Memos released April 16, 2009, and the controversy over prosecution of those in the Bush administration responsible for torture.

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Survey Responses by
Petros Evdokas

o- Do you favor prosecution of those who tortured during the Bush administration? Why or why not?

Yes, Prosecution throught the legal system as it exists now; failing that, we should pursue Prosecution in Peoples' Courts. Which brings up the question of arrest, possibly trials in absentia, and enforcement of Judgement.

o- Do you feel the release of the torture memos/Senate report, and the heightened media coverage of the torture issue during the past week, has changed the political climate in this country? If so, how so? If not, why not?

Yes. There is manipulation of the public in the US, and by way of a false transparency an effort to "normalize" atrocities.

o- Have the above mentioned developments around the torture issue changed the way you personally view the political situation in this country? Why or why not?

Only to the degree that the developments have revealed even more how deeply the liberal leadership of the Peace Movement is in bed with the Republocrat~Demagopublican party; they have effectively cancelled anti-war protesting in 2008 and 2009, and are now moving to use their influence to stop all dissent. Despicable.

o- Do you draw a distinction between the "deciders (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Ashcroft, Tenet)," the legal team (Yoo, Bybee, Addington, Feith, Haynes, Gonzales), and the CIA agents who did the torture?

Yes, but not much. "I was only following orders" can only so far as a legal or moral defence. Not far.

o- Why do you think broader numbers of people have NOT, thus far, stepped forward to demand an end to torture carried out openly by our government?

Radical and revolutionary sections of the global Liberation Movement have developed plenty of theoretical explanations of the role of popular consciousness as the "subjective" force of history. The ways in which the system cultivates identification with authority (and how to subvert that) are known. (See the works of Wilhelm Reich; Stanislav Groff; VI. Lenin; the Situationists; Mao; the Weather Underground). What we lack is vehicles (mobilizations, collectives, co-ops, organizations, campaigns, projects, etc.) capable of actualizing that knowledge within the Movement.

o- What do you think we should do to bring about justice and prevent current and future US goverments from using torture?

Keep building the process of political, personal and spiritual Liberation; keep building revolutionary organizations capable of providing liberatory experiences for their members and for the population at large; keep encouraging activities that provide the ability for people in the communities to self-organize along advanced values and principles that reflect a world of the future. Today.

Petros Evdokas, petros (at) cyprus-org.net
Belly of the Beast Collective/ Cyprus IndyMedia
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