Jun 15, 2011 | Constitution
By Dr. Harold Pease
The Associated Press recently announced that “The Book of Mormon,” a new Broadway production, took home nine Tony Awards. What interested me the most about this was their admission that it was “designed to gently mock Mormons….”
Imagine a script designed to “gently mock” Islam or their sacred book the Koran, or Christianity or their sacred book the Bible. The Middle East would be in flames, al-Qaida would grow, and President Barack Obama would travel abroad on bended knee delivering speeches of apology. How could Americans produce or support mocking them as entertainment and be so insensitive? Muslim factions, of which there are many, just like Christianity, would bind together to block and oppose the production. They would view such as an attack on all. Hopefully, Christians will do the same for their sister faith known more precisely as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Broadway production should bother all. The three authors are openly promoted for being crude, profane, and blasphemous. In fact, the lyrics of one song have to be constantly beeped for non-adult audiences and they take pride in “breaking barriers.” Apparently, “one of those bleeps now has the distinction of having been uttered from a Broadway stage for the first time in history.” This certainly makes me want to line-up as one of the first viewers as has Hillary Clinton (‘Book of Mormon’ Creators Now Pushing the Edge on Broadway, The Associated Press, 11June 2011, Mlive.com).
Not one of my many Christian Pastor friends emphasizes crudity, profanity, and blasphemy, emphasized in this production, as virtues. None believe that “every religion is rooted in myths” as do the authors. Not one of them advocates giving into humanly passions, as does this production, because they are hard to resist and it is unrealistic to ask people to just say no to them. Failure to do so is why we have pregnancy at 15.
The fact that one of the “Mormon Elders” is gay, and that a highlight of the play is the song “I Believe,” full of perversions of Mormon theology for hilarity, should be offensive to all. That this can be done to one denomination or religion shows that it can be done to all. The authors excuse themselves by saying. “We just try to keep it in the context of how we can treat each other right and laugh about it without being too offended about it.” But none of them are the least bit religious, as implied by their own admissions, and how can targeting a religion be seen as “treating each other right?” For them there is nothing sacred (Ibid). Upon acceptance of the awards Trey Parker said that he would be “remiss if he didn’t thank his late book co-writer—Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion. ‘You did it, Joseph! You got the Tony!’ Looking skyward and holding up his award (‘Book of Mormon’ Shines at Annual Tony Awards, Mark Kennedy AP Writer, The Bakersfield Californian, 13 June 2011 p.16).” Again, what if that name had been Mohammad or Christ?
The biggest irony of all, however, is that the people who create this kind of satirical expression who defend, trumpet or advocate diversity, inclusion and acceptance—largely the entertainment and intellectual industries—often show none of these qualities in their own productions. Instead, they demonstrate quite the opposite, and in this case, profit off the mockery of the sacred beliefs of others to fatten their bank accounts oblivious to who or what they may offend. They also, hypocritically, condemn capitalism and the free market while they do so.
So, what is the Mormon response? In typical fashion, as in previous opposition, they let it go. Reportedly they say, in effect, “that the musical might entertain you for a night, but the Book of Mormon, the scripture, will save your life” (‘Book of Mormon’ Creators Now Pushing the Edge on Broadway, The Associated Press, 11June 2011, Mlive.com). Basically they believe that the righteous will not be attracted to crudity, profanity or blasphemy and will want to know what they really believe and what the book really says.
Will the president apologize on bended knee to them as he has to past offenses against Islam? Probably not!
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 25 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Jun 9, 2011 | Constitution
By Dr. Harold Pease
According to Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, “the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) runs a global abduction and internment operation of suspected terrorists, known as ‘extraordinary rendition,’ which since 2001 has captured an estimated 3,000 people and transported them around the world persons have undergone torture by the receiving states….” (“Extraordinary Rendition by the United States,” Wikipedia). George W. Bush has been credited for having descended to the lowest shades of humanity for this practice. Can you imagine the Founding Fathers consenting to such hedonistic levels?
In 2004 the Justice Department outlined, in a 20-page once top-secret memo, the process of “rendition” after the detainee is kidnapped. “The process starts with ‘capture shock.’ The detainee is … shackled, and deprived of sight and sound through the use of blindfolds, earmuffs and hoods” during flight and is also “stripped naked and shaved” and “a series of pictures are taken of him while nude.” Once in a “black prison” the detainee is subjected to “nudity, sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation” considered standard preparatory steps if operated by the CIA (New CIA Docs Detail Brutal “Extraordinary Rendition” Process, by Scott Horton, Special to the Huffington Post, 8 Aug 2009. Accessed Jan 2, 2010).
Black sites are secret prisons in other countries ran by the CIA purposely outside the legal jurisdiction of the United States for the intent of allowing the U.S. Government to do as it wishes with those accused of terrorism without benefit of any defense or contrary evidence. It also allows for the government’s plausible denial. After years of such, and much leakage regarding the black projects, the European Union (EU) adopted a report on February 14, 2007 stating that “the CIA operated 1,245 flights and that it was not possible to contradict evidence or suggestions that secret detention centres were operated in Poland and Romania” (“EU Endorses Damning Report on CIA,” BBC, February 14, 2007). President George W. Bush also finally admitted the existence of CIA operated secret prisons in a speech made Sept. 6, 2006 covered by BBC News (Bush Admits to CIA Secret Prisons, BBC News 2006-09-07. See speech, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5321606.stm). Where was the American press? Apparently 28 countries have “cooperated with the U.S. to detain their prisons, and sometimes to interrogate and torture, suspects arrested as part of the U.S. ‘War on Terror’… the total number of prisons operated by the U.S. and/or its allies to house alleged terrorist suspects since 2001 exceeds 100” (The Public Record “More Than Two-Dozen Countries Complicit in US Torture Program,” by Sherwood Ross, 1 April 2010).
If the detainee has been “rendered” to a country without a black site administered by the CIA, there is no limit to the procedures. For Canadian Maher Arar, who was kidnapped by the CIA in New York on his way to Montreal and “rendered” to Syria, his torture included “beatings on his palms, hips, and lower back with a two-inch thick electric cable and punches to his stomach, face, and back of the neck, along with threats of added torments with a spine-breaking chair and electrical shocks.” Later he was “found to be innocent of all charges and was awarded $10.5 million and an apology by the Canadian government thereafter” (New American, 5 July 2010, p. 7). On October 18, 2007, Maher Arar received apologies from the U.S. House of Representatives for the kidnapping and rendering as well (“U.S. Legislators Apologize to Maher Arar,” CBS News, 18 Oct. 2007). Another detainee, Bin Yan Mohammad, shipped to Morocco, complained of receiving monthly painful razor cuts on his genitals as torture (CNN News, “Most News in the Morning,” 23, May 2009, Report of Republican Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley Defense Counsel).
Upon taking office President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order “Ensuring Lawful Interrogation” that gave hope for an end. It seems that the procedure is not as common as during the Bush administration but the “practice of sending terrorism suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation,” countries having no moral qualms about exceeding the CIA approved torture methods, continues although the Obama administration “pledges to closely monitor their treatment to ensure that they are not tortured.” This does not satisfy human right groups who argue that Bush also requested “diplomatic assurances” from countries with a history of torture which, for these groups, translate to “no protection against abuse.”
For Raymond Azar, a more recent detainee, there was no difference between the “new” standard procedures of the Obama administration from the “old” standard procedures of the Bush administration. What is worse, torture formerly reserved for “High-Value Detainees” in the Bush administration was used by the new administration “on businessmen involved in petty contract fraud cases” (New CIA Docs Detail Brutal “Extraordinary Rendition” Process, by Scott Horton, Huffington Post, 28 Aug. 2009). Other information also suggests that real change in this area was mostly just words (Obama’s War on Terror May Resemble Bush’s in Some Areas,” by Charlie Savage, 17 Feb. 2009).
In any case, this is a far cry from candidate Obama as expressed in Foreign Affairs, Summer 2007, who wrote: “To build a better, freer world, we must first behave in ways that reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people .… This means ending the practices of shipping away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, of detaining thousands without charge or trial, of maintaining a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law” (U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, but With More Oversight,” by David Johnson, New York Times, Aug. 24, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2011). If only the words matched the action.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 25 years at Taft College.
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Bush admits to CIA secret prisons
Jun 2, 2011 | Constitution
By Dr. Harold Pease
Supposedly the tip identifying the courier who led intelligence services to Osama Bin Laden’s hideout came three months after intensive interrogation of a terrorist in Guantanamo Prison. President George W. Bush has strongly defended enhanced interrogation and Barack Obama condemned it so, in light of the above, should we continue to do it?
Techniques to extract information from an enemy are not new. An acquaintance shared with me what was required of him to extract information from the enemy in the Vietnam War. If the enemy did not disclose the information requested he was thrown from a helicopter in flight. His friends, riding with him, watched with horror until it was their turn to be thrown. My acquaintance, whose job it was to throw them, said that they usually had the information needed before the last prisoner.
But what is enhanced interrogation today? According to ABC News, the CIA has used the following techniques: waterboarding, hypothermia, stress positions, abdomen strikes, slapping, and shaking. In waterboarding the prisoner is “bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Material is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over them, asphyxiating the prisoner,” who believes that he is drowning. In hypothermia the prisoner is “left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), while being regularly doused with cold water in order to increase the rate at which heat is lost from the body. (A water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) often leads to death in one hour).” In stress positions the prisoner is forced to stand, handcuffed and with his feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor, for more than 40 hours, causing his “weight to be placed on just one or two muscles. This creates an intense amount of pressure on the legs, leading first to pain and then muscle failure”(ABC News, CIA’s Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described, Brian Ross, Nov. 18, 2005). Violent abdominal strikes, slapping, and shaking are self-explanatory. A bipartisan Congressional Report issued December 2008 added forced nudity and sleep deprivation up to 40 hours to the list that we have used.
The George W. Bush administration did not define these techniques as torture. The rest of the world did, however. In two separate pronouncements the United Nations “denounced the U. S. abuse of prisoners as tantamount to torture” on Feb. 16, 2006, and on May 19, of the same year it viewed “the U.S.-termed enhanced interrogation techniques … as a form of torture” (UN Calls for Guantanamo Closure, BBC, Read the Full UN Report into Guantanamo Bay, February 16, 2005).
Only one man in Congress actually knows what torture is and that is Senator John McCain and he opposes the practice as the information extracted is unreliable (the victim will say anything to ease the pain) and it is just plain wrong. He says that we should be on a higher plain. He was shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam sustaining two fractured arms and a broken leg sustained in the fall then was bayoneted and beaten by villagers who first found him. Although these wounds were not torture inflicted they were not treated for some time thus they became torture related. His beatings and interrogations lasted periodically for five years and included two years in solitary confinement. At the height of their attempt to break him he was bound by tight ropes in very painful positions and beaten every two hours for four days, breaking teeth and bones (Politics in America, by Thomas R. Dye, 2009, p 280). He finally broke.
Oh! About our locating the secret courier leading us to Osama bin Laden by enhanced interrogation. It never happened. McCain asked CIA Director Leon Panetta if that were true and he said: “The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda” (CIA Director Leon Panetta to Sen. John McCain: “Torture Not Key to Finding Bin Laden” by Joan McCarter, May 16, 2011, Covey Views).
If you do not like our practice of enhanced interrogation you will be less pleased with our practice of “extraordinary rendition” covered in my next column. This is the practice of sending to other countries prisoners not broken by our techniques; countries that have no problem calling torture torture. We also send a list of the questions we want answered.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 25 years at Taft College.
