Hooded
July 2, 2012 5:22 AM Subscribe
Amnesty International’s 'Security with Human Rights' campaign has just released a short film called Hooded. It is a powerful reminder that torture is barbaric and never justifiable. Just two minutes long, this film uses a unique approach by marrying abstract images with intense sound design to convey the auditory and visual experiences associated with torture. It's a disturbing but gripping film that demonstrates the shocking effects of torture techniques such as water boarding and "hooding".
The first person to even suggest that some amount of torture can be justified by dreaming up some movie-plot threat is going to get my virtual foot up their virtual ass. And they are welcome to ask for a visit in person, as well.
Torture is shit, gives you shit information, and builds shitty populations of people who, now, hate everything you stand for. If your government condones torture -- of any kind, and to any one deemed a domestic or foreign threat -- they are making their own citizens measurably unsafer.
These are the facts, regardless of how you torture the numbers.
posted by clvrmnky at 10:45 AM on July 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
Torture is shit, gives you shit information, and builds shitty populations of people who, now, hate everything you stand for. If your government condones torture -- of any kind, and to any one deemed a domestic or foreign threat -- they are making their own citizens measurably unsafer.
These are the facts, regardless of how you torture the numbers.
posted by clvrmnky at 10:45 AM on July 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
posted by Relay at 11:57 AM on July 2, 2012
So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
posted by Relay at 11:57 AM on July 2, 2012
The Torture Database
The White House's blemished record of disclosure on Bush-era torture
posted by homunculus at 1:11 PM on July 2, 2012
The White House's blemished record of disclosure on Bush-era torture
posted by homunculus at 1:11 PM on July 2, 2012
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From the Amnesty blog
Hooding also hides the identity of the torturer from the tortured empowering the torturer - or the guard on the midnight shift – to push the abuse as far as his or her imagination can take it without fear of repercussion.
The anonymity to transgress societal norms and taboos is one reason why abuse so often becomes sexual in nature.
Hooding, then, is a ‘gateway’ practice that enables greater abuse, the top of the slippery slope that ends in unimaginable pain, which is why it is banned by the European Court of Human Rights as amounting to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The court ruled against hooding – as well as the use of stress positions, white noise, sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation – in the landmark case Ireland v. United Kingdom after the British employed these techniques against IRA suspects in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s.
Yet hooding is still considered a legitimate practice by US forces in the field to this day. As, within certain parameters, are sleep deprivation and environmental management.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:40 AM on July 2, 2012 [3 favorites]