Via Crooks and Liars, we learn about a Forbes article that describes how Americans have been detained and tortured for reporting the illegal sales of arms.

He had thought he was doing a good and noble thing when he started telling the FBI about the guns and the land mines and the rocket-launchers - all of them being sold for cash, no receipts necessary, he said. He told a federal agent the buyers were Iraqi insurgents, American soldiers, State Department workers, and Iraqi embassy and ministry employees.

For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.

All I can say is that I now live in total and utter fear of the United States government. I feel that the country is slipping into being a fascist state so quickly that nobody can fully recognize all of the signs. I don't tend to be a paranoid person. In fact, I tend to be overly optimistic and give everyone and everything the benefit of the doubt.

When and why did we start allowing the police and military have so much power that they regularly get away with torture?

“Let me tell you what we're gonna do,” explained Franklin, the moral tutor to Campbell County's youth, as Siler – who had already been beaten once – cringed in terror. “We're gonna put them handcuffs in front of ya. Cut you a little slack. But if you don't start operating [sic], we're gonna put the motherf****rs behind your back, and I'm gonna take this slapjack and I'm gonna start working that head over, you understand?”

Officer David Webber elaborated on the plan: “We're gonna know everything about your business today. And you're gonna take us and where you got your money, we're gonna take every dime you have today and if we don't walk out of here with every piece of dope you got and every dime you got, your f*****g a** is not going to make it to the jail.... We're doing this on our own, and you're gonna sign a consent to search form and you're gonna give us permission to be here and you're gonna do it our way, cause we're tired of f*****g with your a**.”

Make sure (if you can) to listen to the mp3 recording (transcript) of police beating and torturing a small-time drug dealer trying to coerce him into signing a form that would grant the officers beating him consent to search his home.