A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War
to the War on Terror
This excellent
book by Alfred W. McCoy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
demonstrates conclusively that the United States not only tortures people, but
has had a half century long policy of teaching its allies abroad how to
torture. Frighteningly, he demonstrates
how cutting edge psychological research was used to systematically develop the
disorienting techniques that have become all too familiar: hooding, stress
positions, sleep and food deprivation, mock executions, real executions, and
physical assault including waterboarding.
McCoy,
furthermore, asks the tough questions: does torture work? His conclusions are remarkable and
subtle. He says torture does not work if
only a few high value targets are tortured.
In order for torture to work, everyone needs to be tortured. The problem with this approach is that when
everyone is tortured, then innocents along with the guilty will be caught in
the net. Torturing innocents then undermines
the political legitimacy of the torturing regime and creates opponents when
previously there was only fear inspired neutrality.
Furthermore,
McCoy contends, the people who do the torturing become laws unto
themselves. He illustrates how the
countries that tortured the most, are the ones most subject to military coups
when they try to move toward democracy in the wake of the torture supported
authoritarian government.
My own personal conclusion based on the book is
that the administration of George W. Bush is a textbook example of how torture
undermines democracy. George’s father,
George H. W. Bush, was director of the CIA when it was assisting dictators
around the world to stay in power by using torture and using psychological
techniques to undermine the legitimacy of disfavored regimes, Chile’s Pinochet
and Iran’s Shah, to name just two prominent examples. That is why the Bushes thought it was OK and
were able to take the presidency even though Bush lost to Gore
in the polls. The Bushes, like all
torturers, think of themselves as above the law. Law is for wimps. They are tough guys.
Their
only miscalculation was that people like Osama Bin Laden, who have lived in
American sponsored torture regimes like Saudi Arabia, could recognize a coup d’etat when they saw one.
Bush ran on a war platform in 2000, lost the election, but took the
White House anyway. Do you think the
Arabs in the Middle East were fooled? If
you think this analysis is off the mark, check out this little video clip of
interviews with Palestinians who were imprisoned by Israel. There is no way to have a Jewish democratic
state, it’s an oxymoron. So, Jewish states
can only be based on torture, force and aggression. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=Oe2_1182459094