Web Letters: Torturing Binyam Mohamed

By Barbara Ehrenreich

February 23, 2009

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  • When the NSA first began sharing the fruits of its eavesdropping operations with other spook agencies, it used to give only a short abstract of the content of the intercepted communication, never the entire text.

    It's entirely possible that in Binyam Mohamed's case the CIA was given so little information about the web page in question that the parody was lost on them.

    What terrible irony it would be if Mohamed's torture was the result of a bureaucratic cock-up. It's bad enough that our government sees fit to engage in torture at all, but the utter banality of a case like this particularly appalling. What have we come to?

    Thomas M. Saunders

    Rye, NY

    02/24/2009 @ 4:57pm


  • I admire Barbara Ehrenreich and have been reading her for many years. Indeed, I've read Kipper's Game too and thought it an intriguing novel. And so I'm surprised and more than a bit disappointed that the essay "Torturing Binyam Mohamed" did not reference the appalling decision by Obama's DOJ to continue the Bush policy on "state secrets" and deny Binyam Mohamed his day in a US courtroom. I suspect he'll be saying a lot now that he's been returned to the UK from his hell in Guantánamo.

    The Obama Administration has waffled dangerously, indeed disingenuously, on its commitment to end torture and rendition. Ms. Ehrenreich rightly rejects the thought that she is in "any way responsible for the torments suffered by Mohamed" but, unfortunately, Barack Obama no longer can.

    Heads up, America. We may have been punked.

    Chris Trakas

    New York, NY

    02/23/2009 @ 9:34pm


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