Former Vice President Dick Cheney is on a mission. He has taken to the airwaves, seeking to repair the tarnished legacy that belongs to him and George W. Bush. With the U.S. economy in free fall collapse due in large measure to the catastrophic fiscal policies of the late Bush-Cheney administration, the former Vice President has chosen a rationale that is far removed from the realm of economics. In the perverse logic that only Mr. Cheney seems capable of, he is claiming that his legacy should be revered because he and the 43rd U.S. president were willing to use torture in the so-called war against terrorism, what he and his supporters euphemistically refer to as "enhanced interrogation techniques." The essence of Dick Cheney's argument is that the ends justify the means, the rationalization favored by tyrannies since time immemorial.
Torture works, says Dick Cheney. Unquestionably, torture is very effective in obtaining false confessions. The Spanish Inquisition and the Stalinist show trials of the 1930s are among a rogue's gallery of evidence that these "enhanced interrogation techniques" will force most people to admit to virtually anything. Stalin's secret police chief, Beria, once boasted, "give me a man for 24 hours and I'll have him confessing he is the King of England."
But as a useful tool for obtaining accurate, vital information, is torture truly efficacious? Dick Cheney, the man who obtained 5 draft deferments during the Vietnam War, is not, in my view, the most authentic judge on this matter. Let us look to the Third Reich, which made use of torture against those it deemed as "security threats" without the least restraint. In particular, we should recall the case of Noor Inayat Khan.
A young Muslim woman, Noor Khan was a descendant of Tipu Sultan, the last Mogul Emperor of Southern India. After her family relocated to France, she studied at the Sorbonne, and became a musician and author of children's books. A petite and fragile woman, she was brought up in the Sufi tradition of pacifism, and by all accounts was as gentle and kindly a soul as could be. When the Nazis invaded and occupied France in 1940, Ms. Khan and her family escaped to England.
Though a pacifist, Noor was deeply affected by the occupation of her adopted homeland, and the anti-Semitic bestiality of the Nazis. She became convinced that it was her duty to fight the Nazis, even at the cost of her own life. She volunteered for service with the Special Operations Executive of British intelligence, where she was trained as a radio operator. In 1943 she was flown into France, where for four months she was the principal radio liaison between the French Resistance and the SOE, until she was betrayed to the Nazis. In November 1943 she was transported to the notorious Pforzheim prison in Germany, where she endured ten months of sheer hell.
Physically and psychologically, Noor Khan was subjected to the ultimate form of Cheney's "enhanced interrogation techniques." The Gestapo was determined to break her, and compel her to reveal every piece of vital information she possessed. To begin with, Noor Khan was placed in solitary confinement on a starvation diet, chained hand and foot, and frequently denied even a scrap of clothing. She was subjected to barbaric beatings and water torture, and that was only the beginning. Survivors of Pforzheim recall often hearing her cries of agony, as Noor was subjected to all the refinements created by man's capacity for inventive inhumanity. The Nazis would subject their most recalcitrant security prisoners to having their bodies suspended until their joints were dislocated, piercing and burning their flesh, ripping out fingernails and crushing the digits of their hands. Female prisoners, in particular, were subjected to electric shocks being applied to the most sensitive regions of their bodies. What Noor endured during those ten months at Pforzheim can scarcely be imagined. It must have been beyond human endurance. Yet this cultured, delicate woman endured the unendurable. She never broke. Noor Khan would not even reveal to the Nazis her true identity. Finally, her captors admitted defeat and sent Noor to her final destination on earth, Dachau concentration camp.
On September 13, 1944, in front of other prisoners who witnessed her final hours, Noor Khan was stripped naked and then savagely beaten by SS guards at Dachau. A pistol was pointed at her head. Before the trigger was pulled, Noor's last word ever to be uttered was overheard: "Liberty."
The life of Noor Inayat Khan does not prove that torture does not work. What her martyrdom does demonstrate is that torture is only effective when all understanding of the concept of liberty is lost to a nation.
I'd just love to hear him get out of that one! Will he retract and claim that it wouldn't work on him? Or will he admit to being a security risk and a but-for-the-grace-of-God-traitor?
I find it hard to buy the claim that torture is ineffective. The problem, as you point out, is that a person will say anything (which is easy to believe) leaving the problem of sorting out what information is useful.
I prefer the question: Is the effectiveness of torture even relevant?
John McCain said "It's not what they do, it's what we do." Part of the growing up process is coming to realize that it's not what others do, it's what I do.
The FBI has very effective methods of interrogation that don't require repeatedly drowning someone to within an inch of their life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Moro#Kidnapped.2C_March_16.2C_1978
We must give them more time to work through the motions and investigations. Obama would never have authorized the release of the memo's if he wasn't intended to stoke that fire.
Obama is doing the right, if painfully slow, thing. Not just in the political context, but in the sense of due process. Something that has been on life support for the last 8 years, but is slowly starting to regain the use of it's vital functions.
We can scream and carry on in 2 years if the Congress still hasn't done anything, and Obama hasn't taken a harder stance. For now, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt (emphasis: for now)
(BTW: When Franken gets seated, it will make it that much harder for the GOP, and the Dems that are in CYA mode, to block things)
Yet, nothing is being done about them. Clinton committed adultery and they chased him from here to kingdom come. The Republicans think that sex is worse than all of this war, torture and economic collapse?
I just don't get it. And I guess I never will.
Cowardice to support the Vietnam War while being afraid to serve themselves.
Cowards that failed to protect the Constitution and the rule of Law and instead chose to pervert them to sell an unnecessary war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands.
Cowards to proclaim that 'the end justifies the means' (to paraphrase Cheney) though their and the Nation's soul is permanently tarnished by their misdeeds.
Cowards to torture for their own ends and then to hide behind "protecting America" as justification.
Cowards to hide behind the Flag and accuse those who would question them as being unpatriotic.
There is no "legacy" for Cowards Mr. Bush and Herr Cheney, just ignominy.
That is the very thin line that we broke under Bush and Cheney, that's why there should be a full accounting. We have seen the enemy and it is us.
It is if her book was preparation for her life