From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act A Legacy of Torture By RON JACOBS
In today's world where torture and complicity in torture by various agents of the US government is part of the headlines on a regular basis, it seems that very few US citizens believe that methods like waterboarding, beating, electrical shocks and other methods would be used on US citizens. Indeed, the revelations by Jose Padilla concerning his treatment by US agents as a so-called enemy combatant barely made the news. Of course, there are those in this country who see nothing wrong with torturing (or even killing) supposed enemies and wrongdoers if such methods extract information.
This is true even though intelligence experts state repeatedly that information extracted through torture is usually unreliable, if not just plain false. What is more shocking, though, are the large numbers of US citizens who are in some way upset that their government is torturing people in their name, yet do nothing to stop said torture either out of a greater fear or some level of apathy or impotence.
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