Wednesday, December 10, 2014

You will know the truth and the truth will make you flinch before it sets you free | thoughts on torture as an American policy

"You will know the truth and the truth will make you flinch before it sets you free." 

It's a saying passed down by friends of the Baptist preacher Carlyle Marney, He doesn't seem to have included the line in any of his writings or published sermons, but he appears to be stuck with until somebody steps forward to claim it for someone else.

We are in the grip of one of those massive flinches right now as we digest the summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture as a tool of US policy.

Some of us feel blindsided by the release of hundreds of pages detailing horrendous acts committed in our name. But not everyone. The conversation has been going on for more than a decade. In 2006, I decided to stop just talking about torture and start recording what I knew, what I suspected and what I feared about my country's decent into officially sanctioned torture.

I'm indebted to those who held the light so others could read the handwriting on the wall.

Here, for what it's worth, is one person's progression of posts — some original, much borrowed —tracking how the wind's been blowing on torture as an American pursuit. 

March 06 2006 | Mr. Conyers Steps Up 

Democracy Undone with the Stroke of a Pen



February 15 2008 | Senator McCain Said What?







May 23 2013 | Barack Obama on the components of a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy 

October 27, 2014 | If... National Security + Moral Law 01



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