Worse Than We Could Have Ever Imagined

Since pro-torture conservatives like to use the fictional television series 24 as grounds for defending false imprisonment and torture of anyone they see fit, here’s a 24-style plot for you:

A group of evil super-villains orchestrate the fixing of a presidential election, and appoint one of their puppets as President of the United States.  Once they have seized power, this evil consortium puts into motion a sinister plot to start a completely unnecessary war, so that they can steal billions of dollars from the US treasury and hand it to their cronies running various military contractors.  As a way to get public sentiment behind the war, they allow a group of anti-American terrorists to execute an attack on American soil.  What better way to get American citizens fired up for revenge than an attack on their homeland?  Only, the attack turns out far worse than they imagined, and thousands of innocents die.  This small fact does not deter the group from proceeding with their plan.  If anything, the horror of the attack only helps them.  To justify their manufactured war,  all they need is to link a supposed evil nation to this band of rogue terrorists.  Only, there is no link at all, and in fact, this evil nation that we plan on starting a war with has been compliant with all UN sanctions and has disarmed themselves of all so-called “weapons of mass destruction.”  So, in lieu of any factual evidence, they create their own.  The diabolical US administration captures a supposed terrorist, and tortures him into a false confession linking the terrorists to the country in question.  This is used as the key piece of evidence to start a full scale invasion.  Just in the nick of time, Jack Bauer exposes the plot and prevents the invasion.  The President and Vice President are arrested and their villainous plans are thwarted.

Sound ridiculous?  Well, it happened.  Only in real life there is no Jack Bauer, and everyone was too busy watching My Super Sweet Sixteen to notice that control of our country was seized by a band of super-villains.  Actually, we elected them for a second term.

Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was captured in 2001 and sent to a secret US prison in Egypt.  There, with US approval (or perhaps orders) he was beaten and placed in a mock coffin for 17 hours.  Eventually, he divulged information the information they were looking for – linking Al Qaeda to Iraq, saying that Iraq had provided Al Qaeda operatives with training in chemical and biological weapons.  This forced testimony conveniently provided both the link to Iraq, and proof that Iraq still possessed WMD’s.  Despite much skepticism in the CIA, this information was used as the main piece of evidence in the administrations’ case for war and was included as a key point in Colin Powell’s now infamous presentation to the United Nations.

As if torturing a prisoner to get manufactured information to start an illegal war isn’t bad enough, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was found dead in his cell in Libya earlier this week (that’s right, we shipped him to Libya, noted ally in the so-called war on terror).  It was ruled a suicide, but the timing is far too coincidental.  At the same time that Dick Cheney (who previously was as hard to spot as Bigfoot) is all over cable news networks frantically defending their criminal activity, the main witness against their actions turns up dead?  Am I accusing Dick Cheney and pals of killing a witness to hide the truth regarding their crimes against humanity?  Yes, I am.

So as we debate whether water-boarding is torture, whether torture is justified, and whether the Bush administration “kept us safe”, the biggest war criminal in US history is on cable television, making a mockery of our nation’s democracy.  He is frantically trying to change the argument, and has even taken to pimping out his own daughter to argue on his behalf (I thought she was “off limits” for public debates – just ask John Edwards).

Clinton was impeached for lying about a blowjob.  Nixon was forced to resign over wire-tapping and burglaries.  Now, wire-tapping is accepted as standard practice and murder, torture, and illegal wars are orchestrated with public support (or at least approval in the form of silence).

While this 24-style political conspiracy should be the top story of every news network, they’re instead debating whether Obama should be giving a commencement speech at Notre Dame, who should win American Idol, or whether Brett Favre will come out of retirement again.

Too bad we don’t have a Jack Bauer to hold these criminals accountable, because the American public and the current administration certainly don’t appear to have the balls for it.  And those of us paying attention will have to watch the most insidious and deadliest criminal conspiracy in our nation’s history go unreported and unpunished, all while it’s perpetrators brag about it on national television.

When will we learn?

KP Silverman