Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman
"AMY GOODMAN: Judge Mukasey's nomination thrusts the issue of waterboarding and torture into the spotlight. In her latest book, The Shock Doctrine, award-winning author Naomi Klein has a chapter all about the history of torture. She joins me now in the firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Naomi.....
AMY GOODMAN: Respond to what you’ve just heard.
NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I think that was an absolutely shocking display, and I think what’s most shocking about it is this idea that this is somehow a question of good government and the torture question can be belittled. I mean, what we just saw was lawmakers knowingly voting in favor of someone who has said that one of the classic modern torture techniques -- I mean, the classic torture techniques of the French in Algeria, for instance, were simulated drowning, electroshock and rape. These are the three main tools of contemporary torture. And this is a man who has said to the world that one of those key techniques, simulated drowning, water torture, is not illegal. So, with that knowledge, he was just endorsed.
And to elevate a man who has said this to the highest legal office in the country, I think, just puts everyone of those lawmakers, but particularly the Democrats who voted for him, into bold new territory. They have just crossed a line, because they can no longer pin this on Bush. They can no longer claim ignorance. Anyone who faces these techniques in the future, they will be complicit in those war crimes, in those crimes against humanity -- everybody who voted for this man......"
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