Democracy Now interview with professor Alfred McCoy, author "Torture and Impunity"
-Italy's High Court has upheld the sentences of 23 CIA operatives convicted of kidnapping a Muslim cleric under the U.S. program of "extraordinary rendition." The cleric, Abu Omar, was seized from the streets of Milan in 2003 and taken to U.S. bases in Italy and Germany before being sent to Egypt, where he was tortured during a four-year imprisonment. The Americans were all convicted in absentia after the United States refused to hand them over. The ruling marks the final appeal in the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's practice of rendering terror suspects to countries that allow torture. But back in 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama unequivocally denounced torture and extraordinary rendition. Well, according to our guest, four years after Obama made those comments impunity for torture has now become a bipartisan policy of the U.S. government. For more, we speak with Alfred McCoy, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of the new book, "Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation."
Part 1 (from the Friday 9/21 show) ( Transcript
Part 2 (online exclusive) http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/9/21/alfred_mccoy_torture_and_impunity_the_us_doctrine_of_coercive_interrogation_pt_2
DN recorded in Madison, Wisconsin on Friday as party of the 100 Cities Tour (tour.democracynow.org). I don't know which studios were used on Friday, sure doesn't look like the Madison community cable station WYOU that varies the show live daily (photos http://wyou4.blogspot.com/2009/05/amy-goodman-live-in-wyou-studio.html).
