Wednesday, October 26, 2005

commander in chief

http://abc.go.com/primetime/commanderinchief/summaries/overview.html

Commander In Chief


I'm wondering if anyone watched last night the new episode of commander in chief on ABC channel at 8:00 pm central time. Any way, it was about a guy who supposedly tried to enter the United States through the Canadian borders with a car loaded with explosives. The guy got caught and was brought in for interrogation by the FBI.

The plot that he was scheming allegedly calls for blowing up several elementary schools around the country. He also was supposed to have had unknown accomplices plotting with him & were going to aid him in blowing up those targeted elementary schools.

To make the story short, when the FBI failed to extract a confession out of the guy using the allowable under the law conventional methods of interrogation, they decided to send him to Amman-Jordan for an aggressive type of interrogation, it was supposed to be a 'euphemism' for torture. However, the President understood that torture wouldn't be used, or if it was used, she doesn't want to hear about it.

After the alleged terrorist was flown into Jordan and was subjected to the prescribed aggressive methods of interrogations, he confessed, and provided the investigators with a list of his accomplices and another list of the targeted schools that were supposed to be blown up.

So the plot was uncovered the perpetrators were caught and no school children were blown up. Thanks to Jordan for having a reputation of extracting confessions out of suspects using unconventional methods.

I'm wondering if this was something Jordan knows about and condone, or was it something that Jordan was accused of and somehow become a stereotypical cliché that went on for so long and has become imbued to Jordan.

I remember last year during an interview conducted by the late Abc news anchorman Peter Jennings with his Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan, in it, the king denied having any information about prisoners being subjected to torture in Jordan for the purpose of extracting confession.

If this is the case then I think that letters of protest should be sent to the owners and sponsors of the commander in chief show and ABC station and its affiliates, questioning and denouncing the portrayal of Jordan as a hub for torturing prisoners. Especially in light of doing it on behalf of a third country, and in this case it was the United States Of America, the country that was supposed to be championing the cause human rights.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I watched last night episode i remember in 1978 i was student in LEBANON Torture was used in jordan FOR confession i dont no about now

Anonymous said...

i saw the episode.

i cant say i agree or disagree. theres really no evidence to say there is torture or to say there isnt.

the reason u saw this mentioned in the episode is because it was made public about a year ago after (i think) an Israeli paper said the CIA was sending alqueda prisoners to Jordan to be tortured.

i dont really buy it, but im on the borderline of belief

Anonymous said...

here is an interesting article that came out yesterday

Hatem Abunimeh said...

In essence, torture has no clear cut definition. What some people may view aggressive forms of interrogation as torture, other people may think of it as just that: An aggressive interrogation. Let us wait and see while the jury is still deliberating, and the verdict hasn't yet been delivered.