Sunday, 12/14/14
Our readings today each featured an unselfish man.In the
first reading Isaiah thanked God for appointing him to bring glad tidings to
the poor. In the second reading Paul rejoiced at being sent to be a mentor to
the people of Thessalonica. In the Gospel John declared himself to be the
forerunner of one whose sandals he was not worthy to unlatch.
When I mentioned the unselfishness of Isaiah, Paul, and John
to a friend he told me that the third step in the AA Program speaks of such
people as being, “Released from, the bondage of self love.”
As Christians, and even as sincere humans, we need to treat
others fairly. This need was brought into question this week with the Senate’s
release of a C.I.A. report that they had unjustly retained or tortured
individuals.
The U.S. had always condemned secret imprisonment and
torture, but with the sudden deaths of almost 3000 innocent office workers and
1400 rescue workers in the 9/11 attack, and with a strong minority of the
Muslim world applauding the slaughter, we were made to see that we were in a game with different rules.
The president signed the secret guidelines called
“Memorandum of Notification” or MON, which carefully outlined the body of
evidence against any subject that would authorize the C.I.A. to secretly detain
him or her.
America, who had given real kindness to to her fallen enemies Germany and Japan, now had to live with the embarrassing report from the Senate this week. It gives
adequate accounts of at least 26 individuals who were imprisoned or tortured
even though their suspected irregularities fell far short of the MON
guidelines.
You can read newspaper stories on some of the 26 mistakenly
detained people. A Mr. Bashmilah with a business in Indonesia was traveling with his wife, carrying funds he had raised for an operation for his
mother when he was detained by our Jordanian allies. They hung him upside down,
beating him for three weeks. Back then he focused his attention on a fly at the
bottom of his wall, praying for the fly to find a way out. Three times during 19
months of solitary confinement he failed in suicide attempts. Then, eight years
ago, with no evidence against him, he was released without an apology. With his case coming out as part of the
Senate report, he is wondering if he would now receive that apology.
The Senate report speaks of an Algerian, Laid Saidi, who was
detained in place a suspect with a similar name. After being treated to
freezing baths, he was made to stand without sleeping for 66 hours, listening
to very loud music. He was released when our people realized they were mistaken
about him.
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