AP Uses The Word 'Torture!' (And The Rest Of Your Scritti Politti)

So a federal judge has ordered the release of GITMO detainee Abd al Rahim Abdul Rassak, mainly because before he became a prisoner of the United States, he was the prisoner of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Federal prosecutors had thought that Rassak was allied with these forces, until videos found in an al-Qaeda safehouse proved otherwise. In the end, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon found the case for release too compelling to justify holding him any longer:

"I disagree!" wrote the judge, adding that U.S. officials are "taking a position that defies common sense."

The judge said the government and the U.S. media initially mistook Rassak as one of a number of suicide martyrs, based on a videotape captured at an al-Qaeda safehouse. Further investigation found the tape actually showed al Qaeda torturing him.
In a 13-page written decision, the judge heaped scorn on the suggestion that Rassak could be part of the same terrorist organizations that had abused him.

Rassak, a Syrian, had admitted to U.S. interrogators in 2000 that he stayed for several days at a guesthouse used by Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, where he helped clean weapons, and then briefly attended a terror training camp.

"There is no evidence -- from either side -- as to why he suddenly was suspected by al-Qaeda leaders of spying and was tortured for months into giving a false confession," Leon wrote. "It is highly unlikely that by that point in time al-Qaeda (or the Taliban) had any trust or confidence in him. Surely extreme treatment of that nature evinces a total evisceration of whatever relationship might have existed!"

If the prosecution's case was that Rassak had somehow bonded with his al Qaeda captors, maybe Sweden should have to take him into custody, to assist with all that Stockholm syndrome!

But here's my larger point. Here's the AP's take:

The discovery of suicide martyr videos seemed certain proof that Abd al Rahim Abdul Rassak was part of al-Qaeda. A closer look at his video, though, showed he was actually being tortured by al-Qaeda.

"Tortured" by al-Qaeda? Don't they mean "harshly interrogated?"

Bullshit Media Watchword Watch: Eric Boehlert notices that WaPo's Chris Cillizza loves the term post-partisanship, even though it makes for some extremely confused reporting. I have urged Cillizza away from this term before!

Courage In Journalism: Yahoo News. Not afraid to confront the tough questions.

Step Away From The Social Media: This post, from CJR's Richard Wexler, purports to demonstrate just how indistinguishable Howard Kurtz's tweets are from those of fake Doonesbury journalist Roland Hedley. But if you ask me, it builds a stronger case for encouraging people who don't add much value to Twitter to stop using it.

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Comments

[realpolitic]

Yes, I guess if al-Qaeda mistreats someone the AP can call it torture and when we do it it is called an enhanced interrogation technique or some other euphemism.

[BMK]

The Yahoo news bit is incredible! And they wonder why google cleans them out every time.

[pfrogger]

so al qaeda tortured this person. than when we had him, we did the same.
see, we aren't that different.
they want to impose their views on a region. and so do we. no problem except it's the same region.
they use cowardly attacks by strapping bombs on people. so do we, but we prefer it when a drone kills innocent civilians. or when ethnic cleansing is happening around us in Iraq, and we basically sit it out and let it. or when millions of Iraqi refugees have to leave their country. and we kinda let them and let the surrounding countries deal with it.
their way or the highway. funny, that's also our saying. except we prefer democracy at gun point.
so much in common, so little time. maybe we all just need to do a group hug.

[evekendall]

Faved!

[LeeCalif]

bush has f**ked us and our psyche for generations to come.

Look at this s**t we are arguing about.

[rocky77]

Wow.. this is great .. All the news about GITMO prisoners. What about domestic prisoners here in USA.

Does anyone care about their plight. They live in tiny holes with sub-standard care, hygiene and food.

These people are treated worse than Dogs and Cats in our . Some of them are chained, prisoned without sunlight and kicked. They are usually in unhygienic conditions with pneumonia, staph infection and TB.

I bet no one thinks about them. Only GITMO prisoners news??? Why???

If Human Rights laws are applied here, US prisons will fail with Huaman Rights Violations, just short of torture conditions.

Guess no one cares because they committed violations of laws in US. So let us treat them worse than humans or even Dogs?
2 million prisoners in USA to date, more than Iran, Korea, Iraq and the whole of Middle East Combined.

[tel8034]

AP uses the word TORTURE when al Qaeda does it, but calls it ENHANCED INTERROGATION when Bush and Cheney ORDERS it, and it's CARRIED OUT.

[brandnewstuff]

Damn - This man was tortured by ALQ- The The United States- Thank Goodness The Judge has common sense!

[HC4BO]

So with the basics I can perceive of his case, if Al Qaeda were to capture him right now, they would be charging him with conspiring WITH the USA since he was in our camps being "t0rtured" ....

[MikeRdg]

The media miss took? Wow, that is saying the media can get the story wrong. No shock here on that!!

( ok., some of you guys are all right, then there are some others....­..........­..........­)

Poor fellow cannot win, abused by one side, then abused by another.

[Dazey]

True... it only takes YEARS to get released sometimes. However - given that Guantanamo is (allegedly) going to close by end of this coming January - chances are good that he will be released. Whether he will be released to freedom or to Afghani custody as so many others is another question.

As for the AP using the word "torture" - sure they did - because it was in the context of Al Qaeda using it. Otherwise believe me, it would have been "enhanced interrogation techniques" or some other more palatable expression.

Truly I hate what the Bush administration has done to the world, truly I do!

[sviolette]

Let's see if he is actually released.

[Lori Bowles]

its about time yay!

[Solja]

Blasted. Foiled again.