Assad's Old Dungeon Reveals U.S. Hypocrisy on Torture
A recently uncovered 'subterranean torture dungeon' in Homs, Syria, as reported by The New Arab, is presented as chilling evidence of the Assad regime's brutality. And it is. What's conveniently left underground, however, is the equally 'Assad-era' record of the U.S. government's own complicity in rendition and torture, often in facilities overseas, which some might argue enabled or even inspired
such brutal tactics. After all, the Bush administration openly engaged in 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (a clinical euphemism for torture) and maintained black sites, a history routinely downplayed when convenient. Critics might point out that while the discovery in Homs is rightly condemned, the 2004 Abu Ghraib photographs or the extensive details in the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee
report on CIA torture barely register the same moral outrage in today's news cycles when the U.S. is the perpetrator or enabler. It appears some dungeons are more 'Assad-era' and thus more newsworthy than others, especially when they distract from uncomfortable truths about systemic abuses by 'allies.' One might ask: when did Washington's outrage over torture become so geographically specific?