Does the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints condone torture and murder by government?
This is Deputy White House Counsel Timothy Flanagan. Remember those porcine, well-fed, well-groomed features. We’ll be seeing them again at The Hague if there is any justice in the world.
This devout Mormon helped write the memo that allowed US troops to torture civilians at Abu Ghraib and secret US prisons elsewhere. This is one of the men who declared habeas corpus dead, said the Geneva Conventions were quaint and outdated and who declared that there were no human rights any longer. and that anywhere in the world, whoever or wherever you are, the US can kidnap, jail and torture you on a whim.
This is what that ‘devout’ ratfuck bastard enabled. (Warning, graphic violence)
Now he says he feels bad about it. Aww, bloody diddums. From Harpers:
I had a heartfelt conversation with Flanagan and told him what I had heard from Iraqis: that these techniques had been used on men, women and children in Iraq. He feels bad about it; I know he does. But the fact is that he and Yoo and some of these other people from the best law schools and universities in this country were the ones who came up with the legal definitions that allowed for the abuse to happen.
Quite. I urge you to read the whole article – it lays bare the horrendous torture that’s been happening and exactly who is to blame, including Flanagan. This is a man who should spend eternity with his eyes taped open watching endless looped movies of his own wife and children being raped and tortured. With a soundtrack on headphones.
What, you think that’s harsh? Why? It’s just what he made it legal for his underlings to do to others’ families, including children and babies. Flanagan is a monster, like his other ‘devout’colleagues-in-law John Yoo and Alberto Gonzalez; none of them got actual blood on their hands but they enabled a tide of blood, cruelty and filth in the hidden prisons of the US military and intelligence that will iflood the world with even more violence for decades to come.
So he says he feels bad now. What the hell does that mean? He has a vague sense of diquiet? Sincere repentance? Dismay at being caught? WTF? Saying he ‘feels bad’ is totally self-serving and meaningless. Are we supposed to show forgiveness and understanding to this psychopath now? Fuck that. He is a criminal against humanity.
What I really want to know now is whether the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints, AKA The Mormons, will denounce him. Flanagan was the Mormon Church’s blue-eyed boy in the White House; here he is speaking to a conference of LDS layers on religion and integrity in politics – from Meridian Magazine, ‘The Place Where Latter Day Saints Gather’ :
[..]
Timothy E. Flanagan
Timothy Flanagan has firsthand experience in Washington political circles, having worked as counsel in the Bush White House. He said,
“If you lined up people who have political influence against the wall, you would have a great many wonderful Jewish people. Do you know how many Latter-day Saints there would be? Only a few. There are roughly the same number of Jews in the U.S. as Latter-day Saints, but do we have the same political impact? I don’t think so.
[…]
I’m willing to admit that our system is far from perfect and we have a great many problems as money touches politics. It is an observed fact that many Latter-day Saints view giving to candidates as something they just don’t want to do. But we can build on a cornerstone of integrity. You bring to this process your principles and the world is hungry for those principles.”
Brother Flanagan emphasized that the mark of any political work should be quality.
“Too much of the effort that people put into political work is just shoddy. It is substandard. You will stand out if you put true quality into what you do.”
When they supported Brother Timothy Flanagan in pushing their agenda in in the GOP and the White House, was torture part of that quality, principled, Mormon agenda? If not, did the LDS know Flanagan was pro-torture? They certainly knew it when he published his memo.
But I don’t see any condemnation from his church then or now. In the same article one of the other elders Boyd Black, says:
“The Church attempts very hard to keep politically neutral. Silence by the Church should never be considered as endorsement.”
Well it damned well looks like endorsement to me. Sorry, but from what I can see, I’d say the LDS hierarchy, in sheltering and approving this monster of a hypocrite, is objectively pro-torture and murder.
