To: Terry Maloney who wrote (386295 ) 5/14/2009 12:02:47 PM From: Pogeu Mahone 9 Recommendations Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 436258 This whole torture thing is starting to crystallize and it’s appearing even uglier and more disgusting than imagined. Its one thing to be outraged that our government entered into this pact with the devil, yet believe those responsible were simply desperate and made very poor decisions under duress. Or even that they were really just closet sadists in search of retribution and whatever sick thrill resulted from meeting out “justice”. It appears, however, they were neither well meaning fools, nor callous revenge seekers. They were Machiavellian sociopaths. They well knew, like anyone of intelligence who took the time to reflect unemotionally on this subject, that since The Inquisition, the aim of torture is not to elicit the truth, but to force a false confession to whatever it is the torturer seeks. At this, it is overwhelmingly successful. This torture regime did not begin under a “ticking time bomb” scenario. It began when the Bush Administration became frustrated at their inability to find any evidence corroborating their completely fabricated and utterly unsubstantiated justification for an Iraq invasion – the asserted connection between Saddam and Al Queda. They ratcheted up the brutality of detainee treatment not because they weren’t getting actionable, truthful information but because they were not getting the specific false information that they wanted as cover for the fait acompli that was the Iraq invasion. It’s hard to fathom a more despicable motivation. Former President Ferdinand and Vice President Torquemada should be in chains.