MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Jeb Bush is nostalgic for the days of Torture Inc. (Photo: Fibonacci Blue)

Jeb Bush apparently has stopped trying to put an inch of distance between himself and his brother, George W. Bush, when it comes to the Middle East.

First, Jeb blamed the current horrors and chaos in Iraq, including ISIS, on President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Then NPR reported in an August 15 article: "Jeb Bush laid out his plan to defeat ISIS this week, calling for a bigger U.S. military presence in the Middle East."

Another one of the George W. Bush administration's pernicious policies also resurfaced recently: Jeb announced that he might reinstitute waterboarding if he were president, according to The New York Times:

Jeb Bush said on Thursday that, as president, he would not rule out waterboarding in interrogations, another instance of how his plans to fight Islamic terrorism have drawn comparisons to his brother’s administration.

Enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, which were used by the C.I.A. against Qaeda suspects after Sept. 11 attacks, were prohibited in one of President Obama’s first executive orders in 2009.

Earlier on Thursday, at a forum on national security in Davenport, Iowa, Mr. Bush had declined to commit to preserving that order.

“I’m not ruling anything in or out,” he said in the evening when asked by reporters if he would prohibit waterboarding.

It's nightmarish déjà vu all over again.

Jeb tried to distinguish between waterboarding and torture by stating, as quoted in The New York Times, "There’s a difference between enhanced interrogation techniques and torture. America doesn’t torture.”

However, there is clear evidence that the George W. Bush administration wasn't too worried about where "enhanced interrogation" ended and torture began. Furthermore, in the amnesia that comes with the 24-hour "breaking news" cycle, few people remember that torture occurred at Abu Ghraib and other prisons and interrogation centers. How do we know? There were photos released to the press by whistleblowers that show US military personnel and contractors gloating over dead, mangled and tortured bodies.

The interrogators involved in the Abu Ghraib torture were not "a few bad apples," as Donald Rumsfeld would have had us believe. They were simply part of a massive, state-backed system. There were CIA so-called "black hole" sites around the world, where there was no accountability for the treatment of "suspects." Furthermore, many Iraqi and Afghan families reported that their relatives had entered "enhanced interrogation" sites but did not return alive. Then, of course, there's questions surrounding practices and deaths at Guantanamo.

Moreover, under Jeb's brother's administration - and possibly even now - many "terrorist suspects" were rendered to "friendly" nations where torture is officially condoned. These nations then brutalized "suspects," often with US oversight, and then handed "information" over to the CIA.

So, if Jeb is elected, get ready for the return of Bush Torture Incorporated.

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