How did the Bush administration try and build nationalistic fervor?
What was ironic about building a wall between the US and Mexico?
What was shocking about hurricane Katrina?
How did Americans say “no” to the Bush administration?
EXTRA: (for bilingual student)
I. CIA Torture
In 2006, Bush banned torture by the military because of discriminating photos of
US soldiers torturing prisoners in Iraq (see Abu Ghraib). However, Bush did NOT ban torture by
the CIA.
Keep in mind that torturing POWs, or anyone is illegal by international law
(UN Convention Against Torture 聯合國禁止酷刑公約).
A. Abu Ghraib The name of the prison and scandal where American soldiers brutalized detained Iraqis including rape, torture, electrocution, sodomy and even murder (weekly executions). The brutality began in March 2003 and ended in 2006 (See CNN). B. Waterboarding坐水凳 A form of torture that drowns the victim so that they confess to anything. Not a reliable way to gain factual information, and considered cruel and inhumane by most moral people. C. Guantanamo (關塔那摩灣拘押中心) was a prison for terrorists who were subject to torture, especially waterboarding. Later a secret military file, the Manuel操作手冊 for Operation運作 of Guantanamo was leaked by military whistleblower Chelsea Manning to the website WikiLeaks (維基解密)founded by Julian Assange (朱利安·亞桑傑). WikiLeaks and Manning published a series of leaks 洩 including US soldiers in Iraq targeting and killing civilians and journalists. Manning faced jail time and Assange was recently arrested in London after hiding out in an Ecuadorean embassy for 7 years.
D. Black Sites: Secret CIA prisons where the CIA torture suspected terrorists. When Germany found out about these Black Sites operating in Germany and other EU countries it created a diplomatic storm. The new German leader Angela Merkel was livid and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to go to Germany to smooth over the tension. (See BreakingNews English). At that time, Germany and the world only knew about 8 of these so-called sites, but after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks, we know these Black sites were far more numerous and extensive (See Washington Post).
