Now we know that our torture methods originated with the Communists in the Korean War and were adapted by our military for training purposes to teach our military how to resist torture. They were given a "sample" under carefully controlled conditions, which they knew were simulated and could be stopped. Further, they were told it was being done to build up their resistance to torture, in case they were ever captured by the enemy.
Many of those who were in charge want to claim it's not torture, based on the fact that we used it on our own troops. I can agree that, under these conditions, it is not torture. But those are not the conditions we are talking about.
The Geneva Conventions and the International Red Cross say waterboarding is torture. The 9/11 Commission found that it was torture and that it didn't work. We have prosecuted others for waterboarding, even leading to the execution of some Japanese for war crimes -- and we called it torture then.
Dick Cheney and others have claimed that we got lots of invaluable intelligence from using it but have not given examples, claiming they are classified. (In the bush/cheney world, "classified" often means "we're covering our ass.")
Probably the most useful bit of information obtained from the Al Qaeda prisoner who was waterboarded 183 times was the name of one of the chief recruiters for Al Qaeda. That may have been useful information, but it hardly seems to justify compromising our own moral and legal standards and tarnishing our image in the world. One of the supporters of these "enhanced techniques" even said about this that he's not sure the same information couldn't have been obtained by other methods.
And we now know from reports coming out that one of the reasons they were so persistent with this prisoner was orders from Cheney and Rumsfeld to try to get information out of him to back up their claim of a connection between Al Qaeda and Sadaam Hussein. Apparently they wouldn't accept that he had no such info to give, and they just kept torturing him trying to make him break. Perhaps they didn't even care if it was true -- just something they could use to back up their false claims.
It's almost suggests a caricature of a movie in which the evil torturer rubs his hands with glee as he turns up the rack another notch, saying "you veel tell me vat I vant to know."
Others more intimately involved in the use of torture have said that it does not work, that it leads most often to false information or minimally useful information.
On balance, there seems no doubt that our use of torture has done us far more harm than good; and rational, as well as moral, values should prevail. But many people are persuaded by the "time bomb set to go off in Times Square, and you have captured the person who knows where it is hidden" scenario. That's good for action movies and for selling torture to the average, scared citizen; but it is hugely unlikely to occur in real life.
Ralph
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Flash ! This just in !!
ReplyDeleteRepublican House Minority Leader John Boehner has called it torture. In criticizing the release of the torture memos, he said:
"Last week, they released these memos outlining torture techniques. That was clearly a political decision and ignored the advice of their Director of National Intelligence and their CIA director."
Boehner argued that a discussion of such torture techniques was "inappropriate," as it could tip off U.S. enemies to the tactics used and "denigrate" the United States and its allies.
Whether he did it intentionally, he is now on record as saying that we did torture prisoners.
PS: Obama did not "ignore" the advice of the DNI and CIA. He heard it and weighed it, over some deliberative time, against contrary advice from others of equally high standing, like his Attorney General.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans seem to have trouble distinguishing disagree and ignore. I guess because they do just ignore opposing points of view.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates also supported the release of the torture memos, reasoning that they will eventually be released anyway and better to do it on our own terms.
ReplyDeleteAlso, note to John Boehner: you're kidding yourself if you think releasing the memos will "tip off" the enemy. You think they don't know we've been torturing their kind? Of course they do, in great detail.