Torture glossary and translation dictionary
Posted by R. Neal
As a follow up to some of the torture related news posted here in the last couple of days, here's a handy guide to help sort out some of the technical terms:
Enhanced interrogation techniques: Torture
Dietary manipulation: Torture by starvation
Sleep adjustment: Torture by sleep deprivation
Stress position: Torture similar to the medieval "rack", improvised
Waterboarding: Torture by simulated drowning or suffocating
Mild, non-injurious physical contact: Torture by beating
Extraordinary rendition: Kidnap and torture
Unlawful combatants: Prisoners in the War On Terror defined by the Bush administration as not subject to the Geneva Conventions or any other form of law or criminal justice
Counter-terrorism intelligence centers: Quasi-legal foreign detention centers where unlawful combatants are extraordinarily rendered
Black sites: Illegal secret foreign detention centers where unlawful combatants are extraordinarily rendered
Fraternity pranks: Right wing pundit characterization of torture
We do not torture: What the Bush administration says when they mean they order low-ranking soldiers to torture with the assistance of civilian "contractors"
Unpatriotic: Opposition to torture on the grounds that it is immoral, illegal, not generally believed to be effective, is not what America stands for, and puts future American POWs at higher risk of being tortured.
OK, then.
As a follow up to some of the torture related news posted here in the last couple of days, here's a handy guide to help sort out some of the technical terms:
Enhanced interrogation techniques: Torture
Dietary manipulation: Torture by starvation
Sleep adjustment: Torture by sleep deprivation
Stress position: Torture similar to the medieval "rack", improvised
Waterboarding: Torture by simulated drowning or suffocating
Mild, non-injurious physical contact: Torture by beating
Extraordinary rendition: Kidnap and torture
Unlawful combatants: Prisoners in the War On Terror defined by the Bush administration as not subject to the Geneva Conventions or any other form of law or criminal justice
Counter-terrorism intelligence centers: Quasi-legal foreign detention centers where unlawful combatants are extraordinarily rendered
Black sites: Illegal secret foreign detention centers where unlawful combatants are extraordinarily rendered
Fraternity pranks: Right wing pundit characterization of torture
We do not torture: What the Bush administration says when they mean they order low-ranking soldiers to torture with the assistance of civilian "contractors"
Unpatriotic: Opposition to torture on the grounds that it is immoral, illegal, not generally believed to be effective, is not what America stands for, and puts future American POWs at higher risk of being tortured.
OK, then.
1 Comments:
How can these translations be accurate when it was us democrats that started this mess? WMD (we must disagree) fdupr
Post a Comment
Return to Facing South's main page