Glenn Greenwald on post-9/11 use of torture.

Opening paragraphs quoted from Glenn Greenwald in THE INTERCEPT:
One of the worst myths official Washington and its establishment media have told itself about the torture debate is that the controversy is limited to three cases of waterboarding at Guantánamo and a handful of bad Republican actors. In fact, a wide array of torture techniques were approved at the highest levels of the U.S. Government and then systematically employed in lawless US prisons around the world - at Bagram (including during the Obama presidency), CIA black sites, even to US citizens on US soil. So systematic was the torture regime that a 2008 Senate report concluded that the criminal abuses at Abu Ghraib were the direct result of the torture mentality imposed by official Washington.
American torture was not confined to a handful of aberrational cases or techniques, nor was it the work of rogue CIA agents. It was an officially sanctioned, worldwide regime of torture that had the acquiescence, if not explicit approval, of the top members of both political parties in Congress. It was motivated by far more than interrogation. The evidence for all of this is conclusive and overwhelming. And the American media bears much of the blame, as they refused for years even to use the word “torture” to describe any of this (even as they called these same techniques “torture” when used by American adversaries), a shameful and cowardly abdication that continues literally to this day in many of the most influential outlets.

Link to the entire article: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/09/live-coverage-release-senate-torture-report/

And remember: the proper word is "torture."

The popular mainstream media synonym of "harsh interrogation techniques" no longer applies.

ZERO DARK THIRTY is a low point in Kathryn Bigelow's career.

Reposting a comment I just left on the HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE site:
Have finally seen ZDT. Another film glorifying whatever-it-takes vigilantism--and it's stretching far too much to attach moral complexity to the job-fatigue burnout exhibited by Clarke and Chastain's characters. Earlier Bigelow films like BLUE STEEL and K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER surpass ZDT in character depth and examining the limits of bordering-on-fascist absolutism.
And Jennifer Ehle blows Jessica Chastain off the screen in ZDT. The limits of Chastain's talent and overhype have been decisively exposed.

Adding to the above: ZDT built up a lot of manufactured controversy from comments about whether torture brought about the eventual discovery and execution of bin Laden (the old Dick Cheney "torture works" argument) instead of the "why are we sinking to this level of depravity" moral inquiry sparked by the Abu Ghraib naked detainee photos. 

Back to The Dark Side

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/us/politics/10holder.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig

And the new issue of NEWSWEEK on newsstands has this headline:

IS TERRORISM THE NEW COMMUNISM?

What would a world without the desire/need to manufacture enemies look like?

Bush torture memos set to music.

Courtesy of musician Jonathan Mann, a little ditty with found lyrics from a George Butch, Jr.-era memo about waterboarding: http://www.rockcookiebottom.com/post/97815385/109-for-this-song-i-took-language-directly-from

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/govt-running-out-the-clock-on-torture/
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/23/prosecutions/