In Defence of Marxism

In 2003, the Bush administration introduced Inquisition-like interrogation techniques. A memorandum to the Pentagon by the US Justice Department authorised the usage of various forms of torture as a way of getting confessions from Al-Qaeda suspects. Several violent actions without permanent consequences (slapping, poking, shoving) were regarded as allowed in the classified document, recently released by the ACLU. More impressively, also maiming a detainee was listed as an acceptable practice by the military, as long as the torturer could "prove" that the injuries were not "planned" to occur.

Who can expect an eye to become unusable after you cut it out? In fact, after giving them the green light, this is in fact a monstrous albeit laughable defence line for the torturers to use in the unlikely event that they should be asked to take responsibility for their actions.

The memo, issued on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, was officially revoked nine months later, but has since been used by the White House as a legal argument to protect its agents.