Sex Crimes in the White House

NEW YORK - Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

I had a sense of déjà vu when I saw the photos that emerged in 2004 from Abu Ghraib prison. Even as the Bush administration was spinning the notion that the torture of prisoners was the work of "a few bad apples" low in the military hierarchy, I knew that we were seeing evidence of a systemic policy set at the top. It's not that I am a genius. It's simply that, having worked at a rape crisis center and been trained in the basics of sex crime, I have learned that all sex predators go about things in certain recognizable ways.

We now know that the torture of prisoners was the result of a policy set in the White House by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rice -- who actually chaired the torture meetings. The Pentagon has also acknowledged that it had authorized sexualized abuse of detainees as part of interrogation practices to be performed by female operatives. And documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union have Rumsfeld, in his own words, checking in on the sexualized humiliation of prisoners.

The sexualization of torture from the top basically turned Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay into an organized sex-crime ring in which the trafficked sex slaves were US-held prisoners. Looking at the classic S and M nature of some of this torture, it is hard not to speculate that someone setting policy was aroused by all of this. And Phillipe Sands' impeccably documented Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, now proves that sex crime was authorized and, at least one source reports, eroticized: Diane Beaver, the Staff Judge Advocate at Guantanamo who signed off on many torture techniques, told Sands about brainstorming sessions that included the use of "sexual tension," which was "culturally taboo, disrespectful, humiliating and potentially unexpected."

"These brainstorming meetings at Guantanamo produced animated discussion," writes Sands. "'Who has the glassy eyes?" Beaver asked herself as she surveyed the men around the room, thirty or more of them. She was invariably the only woman in the room, keeping control of the boys. The younger men would get excited, agitated, even: "You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas" [reported Beaver]. A wan smile crossed Beaver's face: "And I said to myself, you know what, I don't have a dick to get hard, I can stay detached."' [Sands, p 63]

The nonsexual torture that was committed ranged from beatings and suffocation, electrodes attached to sensitive areas, and forced sleep deprivation, to prisoners being hung by the wrists from the ceiling and placed in solitary confinement until psychosis was induced. These abuses violate both US and international law. Three former military attorneys, recognizing this blunt truth, refused to participate in the "military tribunals" -- rather, "show trials" -- aimed at condemning men whose confessions were elicited through torture.

Though we can now debate what the penalty for waterboarding should be, America as a nation, maintaining an odd silence, still cannot seem to discuss the sex crimes involved.

Why? It's not as if the sex crimes that US leaders either authorized or tolerated are not staring Americans in the face: the images of male prisoners with their heads hooded with women's underwear; the documented reports of female US soldiers deployed to smear menstrual blood on the faces of male prisoners, and of military interrogators or contractors forcing prisoners to simulate sex with each other, to penetrate themselves with objects, or to submit to being penetrated by objects. Indeed, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was written deliberately with loopholes that gave immunity to perpetrators of many kinds of sexual humiliation and abuse.

There is also the testimony by female soldiers such as Lynndie England about compelling male prisoners to masturbate, as well as an FBI memo objecting to a policy of "highly aggressive interrogation techniques." The memo cites a female interrogator rubbing lotion on a shackled detainee and whispering in his ear -- during Ramadan when sexual contact with a strange woman would be most offensive -- then suddenly bending back his thumbs until he grimaced in pain, and violently grabbing his genitals. Sexual abuse in US-operated prisons got worse and worse over time, ultimately including, according to doctors who examined detainees, anal sodomy.

All this may sound bizarre if you are a normal person, but it is standard operating procedure for sex offenders. Those who work in the field know that once sex abusers control a powerless victim, they will invariably push the boundaries with ever more extreme behavior. Abusers start by undressing their victims, but once that line has been breached, you are likely to hear from the victim about oral and anal penetration, greater and greater pain and fear being inflicted, and more and more carelessness about exposing the crimes as the perpetrator's inhibitions fall away.

The perpetrator is also likely to engage in ever-escalating rationalizations, often arguing that the offenses serve a greater good. Finally, the victim is blamed for the abuse: in the case of the detainees, if they would only "behave," and confess, they wouldn't bring all this on themselves.

Silence, and even collusion, is also typical of sex crimes within a family. Americans are behaving like a dysfunctional family by shielding sex criminals in their midst through silence.

Just as sex criminals -- and the leaders who directed the use of rape and sexual abuse as a military strategy -- were tried and sentenced after the wars in Bosnia and Sierra Leone, so Americans must hold accountable those who committed, or authorized, sex crimes in US-operated prisons. Throughout the world, this perverse and graphic criminality has added fuel to anxiety about US cultural and military power. These acts need to be called by their true names -- war crimes and sex crimes -- and people in America need to demand justice for the perpetrators and their victims. As in a family, only when people start to speak out and tell the truth about rape and sexual assault can the healing begin.

© Project Syndicate

Comments

[gladys46]

Unfortunately, this is one of the more factual articles I've seen here in a very long time!! How in the name of all that's decent can G.W.B$sh and/or John McCain believe that people in that region should adhere to their exportation of law & order or just plain common decency!

Surely, this administration has created generations that will remember!!

[metogamekun]

I'm sure there's a connection between the US's cultural fear of sex and its use of sex as torture.

When sex is something you have to keep in the dark, it shows up in dark places.

[bobwalters]

Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney (especially) and Rice are all sick deviates in far more than the sexual sadism sense, but that is included. They all obviously come out of the shallow, polluted end of the gene pool. But remember, folks, this is a "Christain" nation, with "Christian" values...L­MAO!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

You forgot both Scooter Libby and Lynne Cheney -- both of whom have WRITTEN some pretty warped, and thinly veiled, sexual stuff respectively. Oh yeah, as fiction.

Then there's Rove.

[dugan45]

Powell, Tenet, Ashcroft, Rice, and Cheney met in the White House Situation Room to establish torture. They headed the entire affair. See HuffPo at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/10/cheney-others-okd-harsh-i_n_96158.html

Pelosi is guilty of an impeachable offense for not performing her duty as Speaker to bring about prosecution of these criminals.

The methods they chose they took from the Chinese who used such methods to obtain false admissions of guilt. They were and are aware of how and why the Chinese used those methods. I can't find the url for this, but this aspect of their treachery was published within the last month.

[medwreck]

A short comment, but one of the most insightful Ive ever heard. Bravo. i think it's about Christian values and their insistence on sacrifice and "stopping things" instead of moderating them. Alcohol and the ridiculous 12 step program fall into a similar category.

[progessiveevangelic]

this is the best blog articles Arianna Huffington ever allowed. EXCELLENT.

[ignorantwillyharper]

Start with the main four, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice. If I were any of these four war criminals, I would not travel outside the U.S., once I left Office.

[dugan45]

Surely Henry Kissinger has told them what countries to avoid.

[KHAAANNN]

This goes right to the top.(with enablers all along the way)
GWB has a long history of behaviors associated with acting out in response to repressed gay desires. (When a person cannot reconcile his/her homosexual desires with his/her public persona, he/she frequently represses it with substance abuse and/or sadomasochism (projected self-punis­hment.)
He abused animals at an early age (this is actually a sign of early sociopathic tendencies)
He was a heavy substance abuser in college, with many rumors of gay trysts at that time (his Father was said to be "furious" when he found out Georgie had joined the Cheerleading squad.)
His job in his college fraternity (where John Kerry was his rush chairman) was to "brand" pledges with a heated coat hanger (and he is said to have REALLY enjoyed the job.)
During his "stay" in the Martini Air Force (Texas ANG) he made frequent trips to New Orleans where he is rumored to have engaged many transvestite and gay prostitutes. (His sudden exit from the Texas ANG coincides with a rumored murder of a gay prostitute in NO.)
These types frequently gravitate to Fascist groups as this feeds their need to CONTROL others (in a projection of their own inability to control their desires.) Is is any wonder that this type of behavior becomes policy when they have no checks on their power?

[GiggidyGeshmoygen]

There have long been questions about Rice's sexual orientation and her personal life in general. As Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who authored 'The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy' notes, "She has built a wall of privacy around her that is never breached."

Rice's "closest female friend" is a woman named Randy Bean, who is unmarried and whose sexual orientation is not stated. According to information in the book (which Kessler found through real estate records), the two women, Rice and Bean (yes, hilarious), own a home together and have a line of credit together. Bean explains this to Kessler by saying that she had some medical bills that drained her financially years ago, and Rice helped her out by buying the house with Bean. Rice later got a line of credit with Bean to do some renovations on the home.

Kessler, when pressed, said he did not know if this meant there was something more to the relationship between the women beyond a friendship.

[wavpeac]

I currently work as a domestic violence/ sexual assault counselor. Back in 1992, there was an accusation that high level republicans were engaged in a child sex ring. Some aspects of the story have been debunked. I live in Omaha Ne where the story centered. Some questions are still left unanswered today. I was not shocked to see that these behaviors occurred under bush jr. (if the reports about the child sex ring were true). Why?

Bush senior was implicated in 1992.
Larry King (not the news guy) a black man, without a resume,found himself singing at the RNC.
Many deaths associated with this case- most noteworthy- the head investigator killed in plane crash. (Gary Caradori)
Michael Jackson visited the Larry King mansion after a concert in K.C Mo. Left several hours later. Did one interview. This was before he had been outted.
Numerous busts, a suicide and sexual predators in this administration.
The response to Clinton best understood within the paradigm of projection. That is they could see in him what they were denying in themselves.
child sex and porn are second only to drugs in terms of profit.

No surprises for me. All perps...mi­nimize, deny and blame.

[GOPorganizedcrime]

Plane crashes and suicides are extremely common any place where a Bush family member
may have committed a crime, especially when investigators or authors of books are moving in
and there is plenty of evidence or witnesses. Thanks for sharing your real life account of what
most people only 'briefly' caught wind of before the story was effectively blacked out by everyone
in the main stream media.

We still have not heard a thing from any surviving family member of Margie Schoendiger--
the African American business woman from Sugarland Texas who filed a rape and harassment lawsuit against George W and who allegedly committed suicide not too long after filing the lawsuit.

Minimize, deny and blame would about sum up all Republican operatives including their lap dogs in the media.

[Tellervo]

Such an important article! Keep talking! Prosecution is important though I doubt it will occur, but even more important is making the motives, dynamics, and modus operendi of sexual abuse and sadism conscious and bringing these dark instincts to light where they can begin to change.

[Bjorn316]

Where did this culture come from? In university in a history of law class my professor said that in America it is common for inmates to be raped as a hazing inituation when entering any prison in the US. They say terrorist are not like criminals but they rape them anyway. Why are criminals raped in the US prison system? I think it has to do with the 13th amendment, does it not abolish slavery in all cases except for punishment for crime? So if a prisoner is a slave, and God knows what goes through the mind of people in charge of slaves, then the true problem facing America is not limited with Gitmo terrorists but in a larger context what the hell is America doing raping men as a side effect of punishment for crime? You have brought US style democracy to Iraq and the asses of Iraqis will never be the same.

[Mort]

Torture isn't about sex. It's about breaking the will and domination. Putting the victim through pain and humiliation until they give you whatever answer you think you want. It's not even about finding the truth. Sure, there are sexual type tools in the arsenal and there are cases of sexual sadists. But it's a gross overgeneralization to say that it's all sexualized. That's like saying all assault cases are about sex. You can't even say that about rape. As a trained crisis worker, you know that many rapes are really brutal acts of dominance.

None of this should be condoned in any way. I just have a hard time equating water boarding and breaking knuckles with sex.

[progressiveevangelic]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/19/broken_laws_broken_lives_medical_study


Broken Laws, Broken Lives”: Medical Study Confirms Prisoners in US Custody Were Physically & Mentally Tortured



democracynow.org Headlines for March 10, 2008


Bush Vetoes Congressional Torture Ban


President Bush has vetoed a congressional measure that would have banned the CIA from using interrogation practices seen by many as forms of torture. The bill forced the CIA to abide by interrogation rules in the Army Field Manual. The manual specifically bans waterboarding, mock executions, electric shocks, beatings, forcing sexual acts and deprivation of food, water or medical care. In his weekly radio address, Bush said a ban on these practices would harm national security.

President Bush: “The fact that we have not been attacked over the past six-and-a-half years is not a matter of chance. It is the result of good policies and the determined efforts of individuals carrying them out. We owe these individuals our thanks, and we owe them the authorities they need to do their jobs effectively. We have no higher responsibility than stopping terrorist attacks. And this is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe."

Democrats and human rights groups roundly criticized the veto. House Democrats say they’ll try to override it with a new vote next week.

[OneWoman]

"As a trained crisis worker, you know that many rapes are really brutal acts of dominance.­"

Brutal acts of dominance that are sexualized; and that's the important part. There are many ways someone can brutally dominate another person. He can beat the person up, for example. Sex does not have to be used. The fact that sex is included speaks to arousal, i.e. the perpetrator is sexually aroused by the violence.

I work with perpetrators. How violence is used is telling. Does he use just enough violence to get the victim under control so he can commit the rape (instrumental violence) or is there excessive, or gratiutous violence? The latter is an indication of sadism. Meaning, the perpetrator is sexually aroused by inflicting pain, and degragating or humiliating the victim.

[pmorlan]

We were just talking tonight about Mugabe's rape camps and how because of the Bush administration's torture program that we no longer have any moral standing in the world to try to shut these camps down.

[progressiveevangelic]

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/2/17/professor_mccoy_exposes_the_history_of




Let’s make one thing clear. Americans refer to this often times in common parlance as “torture light.” Psychological to torture, people who are involved in treatment tell us it’s far more destructive, does far more lasting damage to the human psyche than does physical torture.



Now, another thing we see is those photographs is the psychological techniques, but the initial research basically developed techniques for attacking universal human sensory receptors: sight, sound, heat, cold, sense of time. That’s why all of the detainees describe being put in dark rooms, being subjected to strobe lights, loud music, okay? That’s sensory deprivation or sensory assault. Okay, that was sort of the phase one of the CIA research. But the paradigm has proved to be quite adaptable.

Now, one of the things that Donald Rumsfeld did, right at the start of the war of terror, in late 2002, he appointed General Geoffrey Miller to be chief at Guantanamo, alright, because the previous commanders at Guantanamo were too soft on the detainees, and General Miller turned Guantanamo into a de facto behavioral research laboratory, a kind of torture research laboratory. And under General Miller at Guantanamo, they perfected the C.I.A. torture paradigm. They added two key techniques. They went beyond the universal sensory receptors of the original research. They added to it an attack on cultural sensitivity, particularly Arab male sensitivity to issues of gender and sexual identity.

[wordvarc]

Torture: Our collective shame.

We are defined not by what others do to us but by what we do to others.

.

[ghostsofamerica]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ES8Bv0_8w&feature=PlayList&p=F29E47D40D6C7E79&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXDASDDrDkM&feature=PlayList&p=F29E47D40D6C7E79&index=6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iflBkRlpRy0&feature=related


Real congressional hearings were held and these three brave women testified about radiation experiments done on them by the US government. I pray the huffpo monitors let the people see this testimony here. Thank you, Ms. Wolf. Naomi Klein has a short video on her site you must see, if you haven't.

[tbone99]

Chilling _ i don't remember any of this coming up in the nineties, you'd think with Clintons apology it would have made the papers .Any idea if it did?

[CitizenInformed]

With continued articles like this, hopefully the Congress will feel there is enough public interest in impeachment or indictments to pursue needed justice.

[progressiveevangelic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ES8Bv0_8w&feature=PlayList&p=F29E47D40D6C7E79&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXDASDDrDkM&feature=PlayList&p=F29E47D40D6C7E79&index=6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iflBkRlpRy0&feature=related


Real congressional hearings were held and these three brave women testified about radiation experiments done on them by the US government. I pray the huffpo monitors let the people see this testimony here. Thank you, Ms. Wolf. Naomi Klein has a short video on her site you must see, if you haven't.

[ghostsofamerica]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/240305mckinneygrills.htm

Representative Cynthia McKinney Grills Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames

C-Span | March 24 2005

[martinchill]

i watched a rerun of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room last night on PBS... it references the Milgram Experiment. Milgram became personally involved in the legal proceedings surrounding abu ghraib.

fascinating stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[girlgoneriled]

Martinchill, Milgram died in 1984.

[rwt1138]

I think you mean Philip Zimbardo. GGR's right, Milgram's dead. The problem with Zimbardo's testimony is that it plays to the "few bad apples" at the bottom of the barrel, completely insulating the upper echelons of the chain of command from culpability.

The Stanford and Milgram experiments are, collectively, provocative. One shows people are more likely, in controlled circumstances, to resist the infliction of pain on another when only the effects of the pain are apparent; the other showed that groups given complete power over others tend to become abusive and sadistic.

Milgram as a defense would implicate the chain of command; Stanford essentially exonerates it. Therefore, regardless of your philosophical position, it was probably a more sound legal strategy. The defense would have faced much more resistance with a case that shifted the blame up the ladder, rather than attributing it to weakness.

[ajax2]

It's quite possible Abu Grahib cd's were rushed to the WH for Jeff Gannon sleep-overs.