Monkey no see, monkey no do

You need pictures, or better yet video, to grab the attention even briefly of the public. Video is key to nearly all news stories and “if it bleeds, it leads”. The Abu Grahib scandal broke because of the pictures. Conversely, the public can shrug off horrific stories that are not accompanied by images. The administration forbids pictures of flag-draped coffins because they know that no pictures means no story. This is why the CIA destroyed the videotapes of agents torturing accused extremists. The CIA calculated that they could remove the most emotionally engaging and incriminating evidence of their criminality.

Maybe not all the tapes were erased. Cheney, and especially Bush, have shown a disturbing callousness toward human misery, an inability to empathize, bordering on sadism. Both men defend systematic torture in their disastrously misguided war on terror. They are indifferent to the horrors their war has visited upon Iraqis. Bush's twisted nature might have preceded 9/11. As governor, Bush is said to have joked while a woman who had pleaded for clemency was put to death. As a student, he is reported to have laughed off torturing pledges to a club at Yale. I suggest that a copy of the CIA torture tape be sought in his personal video collection.