Do Americans care enough about torture?

By GottaLaff

Ray McGovern has an important post here. I'm giving you one short excerpt:

For me, the attendance will be a microcosmic answer to whether American citizens, including progressives, care enough about the torture conducted in their name that they will have the courage to learn more about it and then to hold accountable those responsible. I think we can safely assume that Obama and Holder are even more interested in a bottom-line answer to that.

Ray McGovern was an Army officer and CIA analyst for almost 30 year. He now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is a contributor to Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (Verso). He can be reached at: rrmcgovern@aol.com

Jason Leopold and I were discussing that very thing yesterday over lunch. We're both seeing that, now that the torture report is out there, now that we know who DoJ is most likely targeting, how futile a successful prosecution might be, who is really responsible (and who will skate), the public is losing interest. Unless a big, splashy headline makes it on to the media, attention wanes.

Yes, many important issues are out there (health care reform, financial reform, global warming, etc.), and they must take center stage. It concerned us, though, that horrific crimes and terrible precedent are slipping under the radar. America is becoming desensitized, or maybe just weary, of a story that takes too long to tell and conclude satisfactorily.

I hope we're wrong.

****

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.