Torturing Democracy - The PBS Documentary

by Robert Wilkinson

I was perusing the news, and here's a gem. A PBS documentary "Torturing Democracy" is struggling to be broadcast before the elections. It seems the powers that be just can't find time before Jan 21, coincidentally the day after the next inauguration, but it is being shown on quite a few individual stations. It connects the dots on the Bush torture policy and the grim reality of the barbaric acts and crimes against humanity that stain America's soul.

Torture of any sort should provoke national outrage, regardless of who practices it. That policy has no useful place in a humane world of civilized behavior between nations and individuals. The link to the documentary site offers a lot of explanation on the project, as well as a list of stations where it's being shown over the next few weeks.

From the site, Torturing Democracy:

Torturing Democracy: The Project

When the publication of the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq made prisoner abuse an international controversy in April, 2004, both the National Security Archive and Washington Media Associates were already pursuing the story.

Award-winning producer Sherry Jones was in the final stages of editing the first full-length television investigation of the Administration's detention and interrogation policies, with a focus on the detention camp at Guantanamo. That ABC news special, "Peter Jennings Reporting: Guantanamo" aired on June 25, 2004.

The Archive had just published a reference collection of more than 1500 documents on U.S. counter-terrorism policy - from the earliest plane hijacking crises in 1968 through the war in Afghanistan in 2002 - and had filed hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests for Bush administration documents on terrorism and detention policies.

In May, 2004 the Archive was the first to post on the web the historic CIA interrogation manuals that were precursors to the treatment of prisoners in U.S custody during the war on terror. In June and July, 2004 the Archive added the full posting of the administration's legal and decision memos on interrogation policies - from the officially released papers, and the more revealing leaked documents.

Over the next two years, Washington Media would keep in touch with its sources and keep on the story. And the Archive would collect thousands of primary source documents, thanks to a multitude of investigations, leaks, journalistic coups, and successful lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Associated Press, and others. (For a more complete list of sources, see the introduction to the "Entire Archive.")

In January, 2007, the Archive and Washington Media decided to join forces, as we had done on documentary film projects over the past 20 years. The results are seen on this web site: The documentary, "Torturing Democracy," and the first stage of a comprehensive Torture Archive that aims to serve as the online institutional memory of the essential documentary evidence.

I'll definitely be watching on November 2 in my part of the world. Seems a fitting Sunday fare before I vote on November 4. It'll definitely be one of the sweetest ballots I've ever cast, since I do believe I'm voting for democracy this time, as imperfect as it may be.

© Copyright 2008 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[michele]

robert i saw this, as well as "the dark taxi" about a middle eastern man that was taken & imprisoned & tortured @ abu...was innocent. he ended up dying....

we all need to connect to the light on this so that these atrocities don't continue....you are so right...it is behavior of the dark ages......of inquisition.
can't believe this happened and is happening in 2008!!!

keep shining the light of expanded consciousness of awareness & love

[BritLitChik]

Robert & friends...I started reading Robert's post Saturday AM and went to the website and you can actually watch the show. Got 2/3 of the way through, and it ended up being on TV Saturday night. The show does a solid job of putting together the documents, testimony and experts (chronologically) to establish that we as Americans have found our way into the darkness that is torture and mayhem. While I'm not naive enough to believe that America is pure and innocent, I've always certainly believed that we as a Nation had something worldwide that people respected - integrity. We owe it to ourselves to reestablish our reputation for the people of our world. Not so good times are coming for all, and at the end of the day all we have is self-respect. When we lose that, well, 'nuff said.

[Robert]

Hi Michele and BritLitChik - Even though the subject is very sad, I figured those who want to view it need to know that it's out there. America has never been pure and innocent since its inception, given the government's behavior in the Whiskey rebellion, Alien and Sedition act, broken treaties and genocide against the original inhabitants, etc. And yet Americans still like to think of this country as "Number One." While this is a great nation in many ways, it is not in many other ways, though eventually it will become one again, but with different criteria of what constitutes "greatness." When we finally mature beyond this present insane way of doing things, then we can take our productive place among nations and truly make a difference in helping bring forth a better world.