We are not responsible citizens as long as we allow loopholes in the imprecise ways some of our laws are written, so they do not actually support the spirit of the protection we want to believe has been enacted by laws that are being enforced.
Our nation has to stop doing, through creating loophole laws, what we collectively want to believe has been made
illegal for our nation - for good reasons. In this case, a problem that has recently been reported is one of many schemes throughout the years that has found our nation, once again, to be financing what we believe is illegal and being enforced - like extraditing people to other
nations to torture them with our own people participating in the torture, or managing those who do the torturing; like financing animal experiments in
other nations that torture animals. We
need to make the financing and participation in torture of people and animals, anywhere, illegal for citizens and permanent residents of our nation - and of course within our nation also for people who are not here legally, since the extent of that problem continues to loom large and laws apply to all living in our nation.
Clearly,
our laws do not cover all the bases. Unfortunately, what they do is
create loopholes that, as too many laws are intended to do in some way or
another, allow ways to violate because of not being precisely
articulated to prevent the abuse. Of course the result fools our own people as
our nation slides further into the abyss of double-standard hypocrisy because of loophole laws designed to hide the hypocrisy of violations. People in other nations are not fooled as easily. They increasingly
connect our nation to becoming more and more hypocritical and
untrustworthy in contradiction to our nation's stated values, principles,
ideals, because they experience our hypocrisy in their own nations to which so many of us seem oblivious. We continue to believe are laws do what we assume they do, and are being adequately enforced. People in other nations are often aghast
that we allow this to happen when we are collectively empowered to
self-govern - that is to actively participate in advising those who are elected
and appointed to do what we need them to do for the benefit of our nation
and other people also. Truth be told our only effective laws are win-win, not
win-lose at the expense of some in our nation or other nations.
Decent
law abiding people in our own nation, do not expect loopholes to be
built into our laws - in this case laws that make torturing people and
animals illegal. People do not expect imprecise laws to allow our nation to be financing the torture of people it chooses to torture, or to finance the torturing of animals in nations where those violations are not
illegal. People do not expect loopholes in the laws that allow us to
pay people of other nations to torture people and animals we ask them
to, on our behalf; nor do we expect our own people to be used - contractors
and/or military folks - to engage in torture in other nations where
torture is legal; nor where it may be illegal, but is overlooked and
allowed - for profit that is extended by our nation, or any organization our nation is part of that fiances and participates in the violating abuse of
torture.
We can not allow what has become the stress of well
orchestrated and well timed perpetual crises, one after the other, to be obstacles that
redirect us in ways that prevent us from doing what must be done.
Laws must be revised so they are not misleading because of built-in
loopholes that do not precisely prevent abuse of the laws we believe exist
- which we also want to assume are being enforced. In this case the laws sound good
but apparently do not precisely cover the ways in which people intent on
refusing to say "no" to the evil of torture, are allowed to abuse the spirit of
the law.
The reality of the problem is more horrifying for
folks who have recently recognized the loophole problem. However, it is
nothing new under the sun in humanities history so why is it a problem and how can it be prevented? More precisely, how can we prevent it, because it is our collective responsibility to speak up about imprecise laws that allow violations by our nation we can not imagine - can not believe are occurring - until we know otherwise.
Imprecisely written laws are so common it is near to impossible for some of us to believe that loopholes in laws are unintended by the people representing our
wishes who write the laws on our behalves. Enough of these folks are highly
educated and skilled enough in the law and in being articulate, to avoid making space for the built-in loopholes we find in a myriad of
laws that allow them to be violated in ways that do not more precisely outlaw the violations it is in the spirit of we, the people, to want to prevent.
Sources
A few sources which suggest there is little or no effort to outlaw torture. Although it all sounds civil enough and is better than nothing, there appears to be little or no effort to outlaw U.S.A. from financing, supporting, and/or causing the torture of people and animals in other nations. After at least 9000 years of history recorded in writing which is accessible, "civil enough" and "better than nothing" is not enough and has not been for a very long time:
1. We can not be assured of Wikipedia accuracy but the article provides a big picture view:
Wikipedia article: Animal rights by country or territory
2. Recent information from the animal protection group White Coat Waste Project:
White Coat Waste Blog 3 March 2022: Breaking: WCW Discovers NIH Pays For Cruel Kitten Experiments…In Russia!
3. Also investigations from White Coat Waste Project from July 2012:
"The top recipients of NIH funds in 2020 were institutions in wealthy countries, with German and Canadian institutes receiving the most taxpayer dollars sent abroad for animal testing that year. Other major grant recipients included entities in Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Taiwan and Ghana."
Newsweek article: Zebrafish on Ecstasy and Feeding Mice Human Feces: NIH Hikes Funding for Animal Testing
117th Congress (2021-2022) text of H.R.5527: Accountability in Foreign Animal Research Act
"To prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the National Institutes of Health from conducting or supporting research on animals in certain foreign countries, and for other purposes."
5. Three links about extradition which only seem to dance around the issue of torture without intention to outlaw it:
Carmichael Ellis & Brock law firm provides a brief synopsis of extradition, to and from our nation, including U.S. Citizens, none of which seems intent on preventing torture by U.S.A. of anyone, anywhere to include U.S.A. citizens:
Extradition from the US
ACLU from 2008:
Documents Reveal U.S. Knowingly Transfers Detainees To Countries That Torture
From CSR Reports, as much detail as anyone might want within the time frame of September 30, 2003 – October 4, 2016:
Extradition To and From the United States: Overview of the Law and Contemporary Treaties (downloadable)
6. Department of Justice website which may be the current Law and Treaties - but is not stated as such. Reading the entirety of the 9-15.000, provisions may or may not specifically address an intention to outlaw torture:
9-15.000 - International Extradition And Related Matters
