it just gets worse...

So I was reading some other blogs and found out that not only did Rumsfeld approve a program to expand the interrogation techniques, but (surprise surprise) Bush knew about it also... The rest of the story is supposed to break on Monday.

This is where everything gets even scarier. If I believe that violent action was the only way to go, I could *so* see a case for a black op program that allowed certain people almost complete freedom to do whatever they deemed necessary to accomplish the goal - strike down terrorist threats as soon as they're discovered. However, my problem doesn't only lie in the fact that I don't believe this type of operation is effective, it lies in where the line is drawn.

How do we know that the government hasn't already turned this kind of program on American citizens? We don't. Where is the line drawn - who determines which people are suspect enough to fall under the 'strike first, ask questions later' program? We don't know.

In any government that views military might and superior force of arms as the way to conduct business, there will be this kind of fear and terror also amongs its citizens. There is NO GUARANTEE that that government won't turn its eye on its own people - given a provocation it feels is great enough.

No guarantee that we won't be on the receiving end of those 'strike first' raids and interrogation sessions. I realize that many people would laugh at me and call me paranoid but I feel I'm just being truthful. Our government has completely stopped listening to us, if it ever did. Even though these kinds of operations may have been SOP in the past, that doesn't make them right or acceptable. How long before I do something the government decides, in secret, is threatening? Will I be whisked away and held in isolation like all those people in Guantanamo Bay?

Who knows?

One other tidbit - Yahoo! News reported on this also - here's a snippet from their site:
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"...Critics say the interrogation rules, first laid out in September after a visit to Iraq by the then-commander of the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amounted to a green light for abuse.

Defense Department officials deny that, saying prisoners always are treated under guidelines of the Geneva Conventions..."
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I probably wouldn't have taken a second glance at this except for one small fact - Donald Rumsfeld said in 2003 that America wasn't abiding by the Geneva Convention anymore. So, denying abuse on those grounds seems spurious at best. Maybe they can find another excuse...