It's weird that the the author of this article finds something to quote from that imbecile Bernard Lewis that's actually true.

"Saying we taught them torture is like saying we taught them how to weave rugs!"

Lewis was exactly right, and the myth of "torture training" is just another another hobby horse in the liberal playroom. Any idiot can invent his or her own form of torture, and none of them is any more effective than any of the others at producing usable intelligence.

George is putting on his new pair of IRON HEELs. He's going to be taking a little stomp around the Middle East. Being careful, of course, not to step on poor little Israel. Iran won't be the first footprint the IRON HEEL leaves, but I'm sure Bush will will want to do a Texas line dance across Iran. Especially with his shiny new boots.
Hoa binh

Can you say Zionism?

of course you can't.

of course anyone can torture, but like the American school of the Americas, it is a question of endorsing it as accepted operating procedure by end games around the practice by using willful convoluted wordplay.

What would Iran be without their cursed oil?

Don't forget; Noriega was Hitler too.

We're teaching the world that waterboarding is a fraternity prank which must be defended because it is useful to the government. Not being the inventors doesn't absolve us. Hobby horses don't go anywhere. Sanctioning torture will definitely take us places, many would say it already has.

Probably one of the most frustrating things the military high command has to deal with is civilian leaders who are ignorant, fanatical and corrupt. That's not to say there are no corrupt military leaders, but they in general spend many many years studying international relations and strategy, are deeply aware of our military capabilities, are concerned about the men they command and the overall well being of the collective armed forces (including the families and dependents). In other words, every one that I have met is a consummate professional and very well educated (most have at least an MA). These people are under the command of semi illiterate imbecillic incoherent lying corrupt fools who have managed to manipulate their way into positions of power.
I can't imagine the level of frustration.

"Islam's cosmic struggle for world domination"

Wow! So, are they are the latest civilization to master Cochran's theory of warp drive? Have the Romulans converted to Isalm?

"It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century."

The last time the Persians has any real expansionist ambitions was under Xerxes around 480 BC...

I agree with the "IRON HEEL" references.

One thought keeps entering my mind when I read about the lack of Iran contact and this seemingly unstoppable march to striking Iran:

What is Adm. Fallon going to do when Georgie orders the strikes to begin? Think about it.

Another good reference that this article echoes:
The Secret History of the Impending War With Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know
By John H. Richardson
Esquire October 2007

Two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush Administration say the US has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise. It'll be Iraq all over again.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102407B.shtml

MAY YOUR HIGHER POWER GRANT YOU PEACE TODAY

CD friends, WE know the facts... because most of us check out this site and its "intellectual cousins." The average IDIOT watching Fox "news" may yet believe the rhetoric. Bush and his handlers operate like defense attorneys of mafia clients. They know the probability of there always being dummies they can manipulate with partial facts and half-truths, and passionate prejudices that make these poor hard working slobs feel superior to someone else. The levels of deception currently underway in too many churches, the MSM, and peoples' entire physiologies (given the false faux food filler, the levels of drug addiction, use of alcohol, use of anti-depressants, etc) makes for a people that is no longer "at the wheel," or utilizing a viable intelligence. All things work for good... eventually.

God loves us, they are like Hitler, God loves us, they are evil, God loves U.S., If they have oil we want they need to be liberated. All together now, GOD LOVES US.

Siouxrose,

I always like to quote the definition of hubris, as Aristotle expounded it;

"to cause shame to the victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater."

Isn't this the poison at the tip of the spear of the bush/cheney cabal's psychosis?

I truly believe they are the four horsemen, and some antient foe to humanity is throwing the wipe at their hind quarters, urging them on, openly secreting the planet defiling bile that will poison us all.

Are you seeing this Babaji?

The US government creates enemy characters for a mass media theater production carefully done by the zionist controlled media. The deliberate attempts by these producers to manipulate the American people with these fabricated enemies are crimes that will earn those producers jail sentences after the revolution.

In the absence of context, the Islamic theocracy in Tehran could be a problem worth looking into. But the context is this: The US largely created the theocracy by meddling in Iranian affairs for decades, weakening the opposition in the process. The Iranian population fears bombing/invasion and the regime quells those fears and builds public support for itself by taking aggressive stances against the zionists and their allies.

This is the context that the zionists do not want the American people to hear. This context is censored by the zionist-controlled US media. This censorship is criminal and the perpetrators will be treated as such.

What country is between Iraq and Afghanistan? Iran. This is the next step for the criminals in the executive branch. I heard that bu$h played the board game Risk while a student at Yale. If you've ever played the game, you know that you don't leave your homeland weak and put all your strength far from home. Sad to say, this is not a simple game of Risk. This is serious business, and I mean BUSINESS. War has been a moneymaker for the bushies and their minions. Greed, arrogance, ignorance will bite you in the ass. God help us to survive whatever tricks these madmen are concocting. Watch the deception unfold. I just pray that karma bites the bushies in the ass before it's too late....

Something else Admiral Fallon might not have mentioned: Iran might have the poor man's equalizer to carrier battle groups. Dozens or even hundreds of cruise missiles, some Russian state-of the-art supersonic.

Of course, Iran only gets one exchange while Cheney can send in another carrier group to replace the one on the bottom of the gulf.

Jacob

The U.S. is famous for teaching the most up-to-date, technologically sophisticated forms of torture.

Much of our torture skills were built on the foundation put into place by ex-Nazis after WWII.

Do you think professional torturers trained by the Nazi regime were allowed to ply their craft without continued medical, psychological and technological research, testing and discussion?

For example, U.S. torturers (medical experts, psychologists, etc.) trained torture novices within the Brazilian military during the early '60s.

The humans used to train on and experiment with were usually homeless people.
One especially interesting form of torture and civil terrorism was based on mutilation rather than execution of victims.

The novices were taught to slice half of the victim's nose off (without painkilling drugs), sew up the victim's mouth and then use skin grafts to seal it, etc.

After several Leftists were put through these new, innovative forms of torture, they left for Cuba in order to reverse the medical procedures.

However, when a tortured woman's mouth was finally unsealed, the Cuban doctors found her teeth had been removed and replaced with canine teeth.

Most likely an American dentist taught the inclusion of the above technological flourish to his Brazilian apprentice.

So, Jacob, do you not think that US doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, dentists, and other skilled medical practitioners study and refine methods of torture? And do you not think that many Third and Second World clients want to learn the newest and most effective developments in the science and application of torture?

I remember a Chilean acquaintance discussing the (then new) forms of electric shock treatment he received on an almost daily basis.

One thing he mentioned stayed with me: the control device for the electronic equipment had the Westinghouse logos engraved on it.

That means these instruments of torture were mass-produced. If they were mass-produced, that means a market has to be generated for their use.

With a new technology, comes trained experts who train others.

Last, because torture has become an open policy of the US elite, much of our tax monies will be spent researching, designing, developing and testing ever newer forms of torture.

One reason for industrializing torture is that the torture industry will now have to keep in front of the human rights discussion curve.

The irony is: to attract the best and the brightest, the torture industry will have to transform the practice of torture from the obvious to the subtle.

Also, this transformation has to be accompanied with increased uses of euphemisms for torture...like "aggressive interrogation."
In addition, the hypothetical reasons for using aggressive interrogation techniques have to be constantly repeated, distributed and, of course, push the general population's fear buttons.

RTDRURY: Your thesis does not explain why and how the "US good guy, everyone else evil to defeat" rationale held bearing way before Israel ever entered the picture.

JJPETER: Interesting post on hubris. We all look at life through those lenses that we embraced somewhere our own developmental line. Edgar Cayce was a powerful teacher in my spiritual Initiation process and his discussion of what sunk Atlantis (since a very similar rendition is now underway) factors into how I view current events. Just as our own society has fractured into liberal/progressive versus authoritarian/neo-con camps, in the legendary times of Atlantis, there were those who instinctively recognized the ONENESS principle of life. Related to karma, and even metaphors drawn from quantum physics, the idea that each of us acts as a thread in a great weave was understood then, as now. Akin to the law of karma, this thesis means that how I treat others comes back to me. It behooves me to treat others well, obviously. But in Atlantis, there were those who were inordinately selfish, moved towards actions preferential ONLY to themselves at great cost to others. (Sound like Bush, Cheney, etc?) Cayce explained that the entire society began to feel this division. In other material he drew up clairvoyantly, he explained that the Atlanteans were highly evolved as per technological proficiency and indeed worked to alter the genetic code. It is my belief they pushed nature too far, exactly what's taking place today.

I have shared this before. We have been taught to see not only history through a narrow lens, but the very way we have been conditioned to think of time as a linear progressive movement into some BETTER future is erroneous. Time is a circle. We age in accord with the earth's circle dance around the sun, and women experience the interior reproductive tide in accord with the moon. Our place in time, which is to say where our planet is relative to the constellations, may well be the repeat of Atlantis. Free will comes down to what choices we make given the givens. It could be the work of an over-active imagination, but I have had fragments of what feels like recall from Atlantis (during deep massage sessions), and it's extremely painful to watch mankind fall to the same errors it faced 25,000 years ago.

What makes one child a genius? Another capable of composing music at 6, or doing complex formulas at 8? That is the legacy of what mystics term SOUL memory. This is what we keep. Every aptitude we've learned becomes part of our heritage. So, too, do our dark deeds. The universe is sentient, every particle has cognition, holds data. Many millions of people understand this, and much is conveyed through the Law of karma. I think it's not so much hubris, but that Cheney/Bush etc never evolved from Atlantean times. They still think it's all about self. That sect was known as the children of Belial... the concept of darkness and light found its way into our Bible. These notions have been simplified and watered down to feed the masses, but they originate in profound inviolate universal Truths.

Of course, America didn't invent torture or "learn" it from the Middle East. What America has done, under Bush's guiding hand, is LEGITIMIZE torture. We now have discussions about which types of torture are okay. He's managed to normalize kidnapping people and disappearing them. He's reversed a strong tradition of habeus corpus without much more than a murmur. He's created a way to spy on Americans without effective oversight.

And as Bush has done this in America, countries that have traditionally practiced torture and removed the civil rights of their citizens are understanding that they won't experience censure for these behaviors because _NOW_ America also practices them. So all over the world, despots, dictators instead of experiencing censure, experience implicit approval.

I think Bush secretly DOES admire Putin, Musharreef, all of them. They get to do what he wants to do. And why not extend your reach? The response to removing the freedoms I listed at the beginning has been markedly subdued.

I am nonplussed at the response to the removal of freedoms and the way Americans stand idly by. But my little protest is that ANYTIME a democratic fundraiser calls, I say, "When the dems start talking about my issues which is the restoration of habeus corpus, adherence to Geneva Conventions in the spirit and the letter of the law, oversight of wire-tapping and ending Extraordinary Rendition, then they will get my dollars.

balakirev, what is the source for your information?

In general, I do not doubt the notion that America has "studied" and exported torture, but I just wondered about the source of your information.

Siouxrose. I was pleased to read your post. Although the article is about torture, ideas such as Karma do find a place in the discussion. What I find so wonderful about quantum theory and physics, is that it brought the concept of a higher power or spirituality back into serious consideration.

At the beginnings of the 20th century, science reigned supreme: all could be explained by science. But then, after the twenties, quantum theory came into the picture. Scientists discovered that the physics of Newton could explain events at the visible, macro level; and Einstein's Theory of General Relativity could explain events occurring at the limits of velocity and gravity, but when it came to the sub-atomic level, neither approaches worked to explain events. Quantum Physics, however could, and as to this day, the theories have held up under scrutiny.

And now to my point: "God" was considered dead. However, quantum physics changed all of that. At the sub-atomic level, things are popping into and out of existence constantly and no one can explain why this is so. Is there truly an intelligent agent behind all of this, or is it just happening for no reason at all?

As a lover of both science and spirituality, I find this very comforting. Science and the idea of a higher power can live together. It is no longer – for me that us – a question of yes or no. It is now a question of following these new paths and perhaps reaching a level of civilization where things such as torture can be called "quaint" and no longer apply to the world as we know it today.

Molly J

Like my ma told me when I asked her about a word's meaning: Look it up!

There are plenty of books (and websites)that describe the history of the technology of torture, many who were on the receiving end of torture (my Chilean acquaintances were working at both UC -San Diego and UC -Irvine).

To study the U.S.'s development of the torture industry, start with ex-Nazis exported from Europe to Latin America via the rat line.

Of course, start by researching ex-Nazi Gellen's contributions toward developing the modern CIA and its practices.

Of course, study the history of the "Butcher of Lyon" Barbie's contribution to teaching torture for various US-sponsered Latin American regimes.

Some of the US-sponsered Latin American torture training was revealed during the Tumpaneros kidnapping and trial of US torture-trainer Dan Mitrione.

This incident was dramatized in the Costa-Gavras film, "State of Siege."

Of course, to pursue knowledge about the complicity of the US's medical, psychiatric, and other "healing arts" practitioners in developing, designing and applying new forms of torture, look through the online professional and critical journals like "Doctors without Borders."

There are discussions concerning the ethics of participating in torture research or torture training.

However, you may find droves of info if you look for sites critical of US counter-insurgency, psyops, pacification and state-terrorist activities.

As you read about the history of torture, might as well catch up on the effects of the various sociopaths that have molded the world we live in. And to me and many others, one requirment of torture is the perp must be sociopathic. What normal human being would treat another in that way.

Veteran 66-68

Molly J

A quick way into the history of America's developing, designing, teaching and applying systematic torture worldwide: download www.google.com and then type in Dan Mitrione.

This is a good start.

Molly J

Use google and look up CIA Office of Technical Services (OTS), CIA Black Operations, CIA and Death Squads.

Also start investigating NED, the National Endowment for Democracy.

Siouxrose,

What a wonderful reading you posted. I have been a member of the Rosicrucian Order, and more recently a student of Paramahansa Yogananda. And along the way have read a great many works by the mystical teachers of our time, and writers from the past. Marie Corelli is one of my favorites.

Indeed; science + religion = mystisicm, the marriage of the study of the observable universe along with direct experience of the inner joy through inner contact with the divine bliss through meditation and Kriya Yoga.

This is the words of the universe, set to music.

It pains me so to see the dark forces in control of the planets destiny now. But it is our time on the circular orbit around the center point of our galaxy, and as the planets revolve around the sun, the solar system revolves around the birth place of the stars, at the heart of God's creative furnace.

We must endure these times while we are incarnated here. Do our best to bring light and love to the small circle we can influence, and follow our dharma-our mission, so that we can evolve, inspite of what the larger world is obsessed with, and determined to destroy.

Peace to all and give thanks for whatever blessings we have!

JJPETER: Inspired post, yourself. There have been a few articles suggesting the left lacks religion/spirituality and I am glad some of us bring THAT dimension into this forum, for the separation of disciplines teaches us not to recognize where one arena of our lives overlaps another. The human body takes on the appearance of being a singular entity, and yet it could not function in that singuarlity without a variety of organ systems each doing the function it was designed to fulfill.

HYBRIDOMA: Interesting comments. So long as science stops demonizing spirituality, lampooning those who believe in reincarnation, enforcing strictly materialistic notions over all observable phenomena, I lose respect for it. Same with religion. When religion departs from the covenant of teaching love, peace and unity among tribes, it taints itself and loses all grounds for respect. There is a place for science, religion, spirituality, logic, grace, etc at the HUMAN table. When we only grant fealty to brute force or rational intelligence, our entire experience as a humanity veers like a boat navigated by one single oar... what mankind is capable of surpasses our imaginations because it's been held in check for so long! The elitists want it that way and use fear/militarism, religion/culture/media to maintain a status quo that now is tantamount to a basis for torture (economic, medical, social, sensory, literally) for the vast majority. I've thought about the pervasiveness of suffering lately. How many of us don't know someone who's ill, mentally ill, addicted, impoverished, mourning a close loss, dealing with injustice, etc. We have the tools, resources, and ingenuity to build a very different world. This is why I admire those who have met for the WORLD SOCIAL FORUM, its motto: "Another World Is Possible."

Keep in mind at the turn of the 20th century, the Wright Brothers were probably considered mentally off balance. Who would have imagined the technological breakthroughs that have radically altered our world in 100 years or so? Necessity is always the Mother of invention, and given the triplicate challenges of global warming, the "war on terror" and its many violent and inevitable blowback events, and the US dollar, anemic and lacking of substance. If you like challenge, the 21st century was a good one to sign up for!

Balakirev, thanks for the direction. In her book _Shock Doctrine_, Naomi Klein talks about the origins of research on torture and how it provides a shock to an individual, as part of her thesis idea that a shock either imposed or naturally occurring but exploited creates an opportunity to implement radical ideas.

SIOUXROSE, JJPETER and HYBRIDOMA-----

Thanks for the considerable time and energy you are investing here to bring in ever deepening levels of understanding. I find myself looking for, and reading much more slowly, posts such as yours.

hybridoma---you may be interested in a book called QUANTUM THEOLOGY by Diarmuid O'Murchu It has a great deal to nourish, and perhaps expand your ideas about quantum physios.

Because of the perspective that the quantum piece offers, I am exploring more deeply the sense of being a "creator"---all of us are. That shared characteristic is one aspect of our interconnectedness. If we are all particpants in creating this particular story to one degree or other, and we have the capacity to draw on lessons from, let's say, Altlantis, or Lemuria, then how do we approach the forces that seem to want to impose something we do not want? Do we battle? DO we acknowledge our own contribution? Do we turn away and say we don't want any part of it? Can we?

For me the only answer I've come up with thusfar is to ask myself: "So how would YOU have it be?"

If you can envision a different story, there is no reason it cannot come into being.There are countless others envisioning their own compatible versions

We have been told a lie---that we are victims of our circumstances, that we must turn to some diety (power) out there somewhere to punish the wicked and reward the virtuous. That we have no power ourselves. I believe that "I am in the Universe, the Universe is in my body, the Universe and I combine together," Don't like what you see? Go ahead----create it differently. You have always had the capabcity, you have temporarily forgotten what real power is. And it's right use. The Ascended Masters have already taught us, and will likely continue, until we all emerge from our collective amnesia. The situation we face now is that too many are creating their reality UNCONSCIOUSLY. They are being sucked in the undertow of the collective story, which some can see is not the one they want to energize.

How, indeed, will you have it be?

To my fellow mystics,

Below is a part of an article posted here a few months back, by Marianne Williamson. In it, I believe she shows us a way out - redemption.

If only her words could be cut in stone, and placed in every public hall in this land...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/01/2908/

"Wherever in our thinking we are bound by fear, the universe is invested in teaching us the transformative and freeing power of love. Where we are judgmental, the universe is invested in teaching us the ways of forgiveness. Where we are harsh, the universe is invested in teaching us how to be gentle. Where we are competitive, the universe is invested in teaching us the value of co-operation. Where we are ambitious, the universe is invested in teaching us the ways of inspiration. Where we are irresponsible toward our material resources, the universe is invested in teaching us the art of stewardship. Where we are defensive, the universe is invested in teaching us the power of defenselessness. Where we would attack, the universe is invested in teaching us that we are one with all, and therefore can only attack ourselves.

Where we have lessons to learn, the universe conspires to teach us. At first, the lessons are easy enough, even pleasant to learn. We're given the opportunity to learn, with joy, how to live our lives with more integrity and love.

Yet whatever lesson we refuse to learn, comes round again until we do — each time appearing in a more sobering form, with more serious implications should we refuse to learn it. We do have free will, but we do not have the freedom to slow down the universe. Our learning fuels the momentum of the universe, which will not be allowed to stop. One way or the other, we will learn what we need to learn … even if we have to learn it through suffering."

May the link to our higher selves be found, and enthroned there, may we see our reason for being. -

STAR: Good posting. Are you a Sag? JJPETER: Excellent posting, too.

SIOUXROSE---sent you an email through your website. I am a Libra, since you asked.

JJPETER---- great contribution, to which I humbly add,that each of us IS that Universe of which you speak that is so generous in its lessons/opportunities----it's not outside of us. I use the hologram to make sense of that.

We ALL are what comprises ALL THAT IS, SOURCE, GOD/GODDESS and thus we are the Intelligence that continues to create "new and more effective teaching moments" for our consciousness to evolve. Sometimes it's a specific lesson, sometimes it's expanding a lesson we want to explore ever more deeply. There is no choice but to EVOLVE. You can delay or slow it down, but that doesn't change what you are and are BECOMING.

This current situation we are all co-creating offers amazing challenges----some would say massive obstacles, to remembering who has explored and pursued the power within, and who has settled for the fake power-over, promulgated by the trickster. It's not always easy to remain clear eyed in the midst of all the razzle dazzle put before us.

Just keep remembering who you really are. You,me, all of us are creators. What do you wish to create now that you remember how? Don't be afraid. It's a grand adventure and there are no mistakes that can't be learned from.

STAR: Well you definitely perform a peace-making function in this forum! President Carter is Libra, and he tries to do likewise with the Middle East. Clinton, though a Leo, had a predominance of planets (along with his rising sign) in Libra, and as we all know, he was so good at combining both parties as to effectively (that centrist stance!) morph them into one. I believe Gandhi was also a Libra, as is John Dean, a truly principled Republican who realized the breach against justice furthered by his Republican cohorts and blew the whistle on their ways and means.

Also John Lennon with his "give peace a chance" mantra still sung 'round the world.

Siouxrose----then I am certainly in good and inspiring company, even apart from the wonderful souls here on Common Dreams Plan to take some time tonite to read some of the articles on your website. Glad you posted the linkn yesterday. Blessings! I read all your posts here.