Dear Mr. Cheney:
I had a dream last night, but there was no Tuscan villa, no newspaper, no coffee. Only darkness. And you.
If this sounds like a nightmare, it wasn't. Not really. I have had my share of nightmares -- terror dreams that are hard to distinguish from what really happened to me, in that cell, all those years ago.
No, this was different. I didn't wake up covered in sweat, wondering if the sounds in my head -- the sounds of muffled cries, of grown men whimpering like children -- would ever stop.
In this dream, we sat together, though I'm not sure where. I could not see you, but I could hear your voice. You were asking me questions. There was no malice in your tone, no aggression. No emotion whatsoever.
You asked if it was true, what I wrote in my book about the night they took me away. Yes, I answered. You were silent for a moment, then you said, "Tell me what it was like."
So I told you.
"I was 22, not that much older than your oldest grandchild. The government was waging war on what it considered to be subversive elements -- all those who opposed their totalitarian rule. I was considered a threat to national security, because I believed in freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of association. In the parlance of today, I was not a high-value target, but that didn't matter. The repression was indiscriminate, lacking the precision-guided 21st century intelligence that, we are assured, prevents bad things from happening to innocent people. The military came to my house and took me away. I was held for three days and three nights without food or water, deprived of sleep and subjected to what some of your friends like to call "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- electricity, waterboarding-- that would leave no marks. Of course I got off easy compared to many torture victims who endure weeks or months of more extreme persecution. In the end I was among the lucky ones. I was released and, after the murder of more friends than I can count, I left and came to this country."
When I stopped talking, we sat in silence for a few moments. Then you asked, "Why did they let you go?"
I paused, then said, "A delegation of human rights observers, some from the U.S., saved my life."
Several minutes passed. I waited for you to break the silence. Finally I said, "What would you have done if you were my interrogator? Would you have tortured me?"
Just then a faint light illuminated your face for a few seconds. I looked straight into your eyes, searching for a trace of compassion, of self-doubt, of humility. But all I saw was an old man staring right through me, as if I wasn't there. Then the light receded and we fell back into darkness.
Hector Aristizabal, a torture survivor from Colombia, is a psychotherapist and theater artist based in Los Angeles. He serves on the board of the Program for Torture Victims.
Rev. Richard L. Killmer: Torture and the Danger of Going Back to the Dark Side
The husk of our malevolent ancestry. Which evolution, praise god, may soon finally free us of.
As far as the enemy using enhanced interrogation. Given that they behead journalists and kill kids indiscriminately on trains and planes I have a sneaking suspicion they may already lean slightly in favor of it.
We here, are allowed to protest…the right way – the wrong way gets you placed in jail.
If you do things that are reprehensible…according to the moral majority (often times – our leaders, elected/appointed officials) – you go to jail. If ‘we the people’ don’t like it – they’ll get booted…one way or another.
If you know, OR – ASSOCIATE with people that are like those cited above and you do something as described above…you guessed it – you go to jail. Guess what…you become the authoritarian’s “favorite”.
Again, I’ll say it for clarity – we have fundamental rights here in this country, you are however compelled to exercise them in the correct manner…if you don’t…you guessed it.
ALL elected and appointed US government officials are compelled to abide by many principles – but one I’ll state – to protect this country from all enemy’s foreign and domestic.
At least that is what the cat told me.....
It produced the existence of a courier, who eventually led us to bin Laden's door.
They were dismissive about his importance, and didn't identify him beyond the nickname the CIA already knew. The key here: The CIA already knew that the courier had been a KSM protégé.
"It was their lies that alerted us," said one senior administration official with knowledge of the operation. All in all, Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times -- and he still lied. "The help that KSM provided was inadvertent," this source said. "He didn't know what we knew."
Indeed. The CIA knew he had something to protect. The next obvious question: How did the CIA get the info on the courier's importance? How did they know Mohammed and al-Libi were lying? Apparently from a less valued al Qaeda operative, who let it be known that the courier was actually a KSM protégé and close to al-Libi, too. Was he waterboarded? We do not know for sure, although one senior administration source said he was not waterboarded." Gloria Borger
By a fluke of my American citizenship I got away before being transported to prison, but my roommates were never again seen by their families and friends. We can only assume they were among the thousands of "desaparecidos" buried in mass graves throughout Argentina.
I don't think my personal experience qualified as torture, but I would not wish the same upon anyone, even upon the "guilty" or the "enemy." There is something fundamentally wrong with governments, agencies, and people (especially those in modern cultures) who find such treatment to be appropriate, whether or not it yields an intended result.
regardless of how much worse they make it.
the only retribution he is likely to receive in this life is he is doomed to be "that person", i would hate to be similarly cursed....
i suspect the old vpotus would only suffer shame if he were "caught"--perhaps finding himself in a place that justice would be measured and applied, a foreign country perhaps. i suspect he would be ashamed he was caught, not ashamed of his actions...
I am sorry he and his henchmenn, David Addington and Wu et alia , ever gained so much power in the previous administration.
They shamed us.
I feel very badly for this person and the way he was treated. I want to know specifically why he picks on Cheney. Now the author lives in this country and apparently profits from his background. He should be proud to be here but doesn't seem to be.
At the top of this article the word 'fiction' needs to appear beside the title.
I believe this was meant to bring the reader on a thought process of what he us feeling during Cheney's recent book tour and his unapologetic embrace of torture.
I'll tell you what I defend is my country. We didn't torture the author, his own people did. Why doesn't the author return to his homeland? No problem he's doing quite nicely here. It's folks on the left like you that pave the way for more hate when you should want to unite Americans. Someone should remind this person that he is very fortunate to be in this country, not pat him on the back for promoting the hatred of Dick Cheney.
America should be outraged, but we are not!
America should be afraid of our loss of freedom, but we are not!
America should be terrified of our loss of basic rights, but we are not!
America should be mortified by our ignorance, but we are not!
America should rebel from the destruction of our comitity, but we are not!
America should demand economic justice, but we do not!
Oh America, how could this noble experiment of governance with the consent of the governed have failed so badly?