The Torture Administration

by Damozel | Joe Klein has written a useful piece on the Bush administration's policy of permitting torture in situations when they and their operatives decided torture was authorized.  In addition to all the other evidence which has mounted up, the Senate Armed Services Committee released what Klein calls "the most definitive official account" just before Christmas.  

Much of the committee's report remains secret, but a 19-page executive summary was published...   The story begins with an obscure military training program called Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE), in which various forms of torture are simulated to prepare U.S. special-ops personnel for the sorts of treatment they might receive if they're taken prisoner. Incredibly, the Bush Administration decided to have SERE trainers instruct its interrogation teams on how to torture prisoners. (Read "Shell-Shocked at Abu Ghraib?")

 Klein calls the executive summary "infuriating," which strikes me as not exactly le mot juste. According to me, more accurate words include:  horrifying, scarifying, disgusting, nauseating, and most of all, cowardly and---yes--- un-American.

Klein reminds us of one fact on which most experienced interrogators seem to agree:

It should be noted that there was, and is, no evidence that these techniques actually work. Experienced military and FBI interrogators believe that torture leads, more often than not, to fabricated confessions. Patient, persistent questioning using subtle psychological carrots and sticks is the surest way to get actionable information.  (TIME)

And of history:

[P]risoners held by the U.S. were tortured — first at Guantánamo Bay and later in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Armed Services Committee report details the techniques used on one prisoner: "Military working dogs had been used against [Mohammed al-] Khatani. He had also been deprived of adequate sleep for weeks on end, stripped naked, subjected to loud music, and made to wear a leash and perform dog tricks."... (TIME)

And of how Bush & Co. made these practices into a policy:

Since we live in an advanced Western civilization, there needs to be legal justification when we torture people, and the Bush Administration proudly produced it. Memos authorizing the use of "enhanced" techniques were written in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Council. Vice President Dick Cheney and his nefarious aide, David Addington, had a hand in the process. The memos were approved by Bush's legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales. A memo listing specific interrogation techniques that could be used to torture prisoners like Mohammed al-Khatani was passed to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He signed it on Dec. 2, 2002, although he seemed a bit disappointed by the lack of rigor when it came to stress positions: "I stand for 8-10 hours a day," he noted. "Why is standing limited to four hours?" (TIME)

I'm glad Joe Klein gets this.  He's been wrong about a lot of things, but at least he's got this one right.  Some people never will.

The Mahablog:

Poor Joe Klein, who has been somewhat more awake these past few months than he used to be, writes about President Bush’s authorization of torture, “his single most callous and despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency.”

Is, Joe. He’s still POTUS, for a few more days. But we’re at the same place on the torture question. You absolutely cannot find a right-winger with half a clue why the rest of us are upset about torture.

I've commented on numerous occasions about the Bush administration's policy on torture.  I'm not going to repeat what I've already said about all the ways in which it's wrong----never mind ineffective.

Some people think that history will remember Bush more kindly than do the American people who are now looking back on the next eight years.  I can only hope that they're wrong.   I trust that the full truth will eventually sink in.  

What Americans of the future will remember about born-again Bush's regime is---among other failures--- his administration's abandonment of the principles of christianity, decency, democracy and of civilized nations, to its (one can only hope) everlasting shame.

Memeorandum has more commentary on the Klein article here.

RELATED BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS

Former Interrogator Still Tormented by Recollections of Practices Used in Iraq

Bush Approved Torture in Memos

Iraq Detainees Held in Small Crates (8-13-08)

'A Landmark Day for Torture-Disclosure' (Updated) (7-24-08)
 
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft: Waterboarding Isn't Torture (7-18-08)

'You Don't Care About Me,' Sobbed Teen Gitmo Detainee (7-2-08)

Were 'Brainwashing' Techniques Used on US Servicemen in Korea Part of the Training at Guantanamo? (7-2-08)

Hitchens: 'If Waterboarding Isn't Torture, There's No Such Thing as Torture'  (7-2-08)

Bush Confirms Torture Policy (Part 2) to the Sound of Crickets Chirping (4-13-08)

Bush to Veto Anti-Torture Legislation (3-8-08)

New Images from Abu Ghraib (2-28-08)

Despite Veto Threat, Retired Generals & Admirals Support Bill Restricting CIA’s Detainee Treatment; Bush Demands Freedom from Restrictions on Torture (Updated)  (12-14-07)

Another Expert Explains Waterboarding to Congress (Updated) (11-9-07)

Military Interrogator: Torture isn't Operationally Effective (11-8-07)

US Military & Intelligence Officials Weigh in on Torture Issue (Deaf Ears Dept) (12-6-07)

Is Waterboarding Torture? Part 5: Schooling the Senate

Comments

[Ron Russell]

Torture---we must do whatever is necessary to keep this country safe. The agruement that if we mistreat the terrorist then they will in turn mistreat our guys if they capture them is bullshi....t--they just torture and then cut off the heads of their prisoners. So give me a break.

[Buck Naked Politics]

History and experience prove that you're mistaken. Sad.

[Buck Naked Politics]

HI Ron,

Another issue: many military experts have said that torture is not effective, if only because such duress can compel people to make up intel simply to stop the torturing.

[Buck Naked Politics]

Test comment

[Buck Naked Politics]

Test comment: name only.

[Ron Russell]

Bad intel. if often better than no intel. All information has to be checked out. Would you have us sit down with these people for months to gain their trust, only in the end to have them tell us of some terrible event that happened a week before that could have been prevented by aggresive interrogation. And when have these people spared the life of an american soldier---this is a new type of conflict for the U.S., not many historical standards to guide us on this one. And let us be honest about things--the United States and all countries have always tortured to get information--the Am. Rev.,Civil War, Spanish American War,WWI,WWII,Korean Conflict,Vietnam---in every case its been done!!!!!!!!!!!!!