Subject: Torture
Object: As an example of change in socio-politics
Predicate: Since 9/11, my government has instituted a policy that allows for torture in defense of the Republic against terrorism. The Bush Administration continues to argue for torture as a necessary tool in “The War Against Terror”, in spite of the passage of new legislation meant to re-establish protocols preventing the practice of torture for any reason by agents of the United States. Article seven of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) states: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” According to Noah Leavitt, in a CNN column, “Currently, the Administration defines torture one way (and far too narrowly), wanting to protect its soldiers from being accused of it. Yet it defines torture another way when it wants to deport someone who seeks asylum on the ground that he reasonably fears being tortured if he is returned to his home country.” Photos of prisoner abuse circulated in a variety of media over the past several years, and the international criticism of the practices they revealed, have failed to force the President to alter his advocacy of torture as an interrogation tool. In fact, it can be argued that his torture policy has served as an important facet in the Bush’s movement to consolidate power in the Executive Branch of the government. Bush has, by making public the Administration’s views on the acceptable parameters for interrogation methods, (perhaps inadvertently) “outed” forty years of secret American state-sanctioned torture practice.
Anecdote: When I was a young man, growing up in West Virginia, I heard a story from a friend, a preacher’s son. A man abducted a little girl and hid her away in a mountain cabin, where he abused her horribly. It took months for the State Police to discover the kidnapper and girl’s whereabouts – but they did. After subduing the kidnapper, the State Police handcuffed the man to a chair, took the girl outside and sent a car for the girl’s father. When he arrived, the father embraced his daughter, and after awhile, left her with the troopers and walked up the path to the cabin. He beat the kidnapper to death with his bare hands over the next few hours. When he was done, he walked back down the path to his daughter. Together, they climbed the path to the cabin, and the father took his daughter inside. He showed her the kidnapper’s horrible corpse, and told her, “He’ll never bother you again.” The State Troopers drove them home. I don’t know if this story is true or not.
Supporting Data: (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Manadel al-Jamadi was an Iraqi who was tortured to death during interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison. His name became known in 2004 when the Abu Ghraib scandal made news; his corpse, packed in ice, was the background for widely-reprinted pictures of grinning Specialists Sabrina Harman and Charles Graner, each offering a “thumbs-up” gesture. But the cause of his death was not generally known until February 17, 2005, when it was revealed that he died after a fruitless half-hour interrogation, during which he was suspended from a barred window by his wrists, which were bound behind his back. News reports introduced the term Palestinian Hanging, a coinage attributed to the alleged frequent use of this technique by Israeli troops on Palestinian prisoners. (See attached image 1)
Confusing data: On the same website (Wikipedia), the history of the torture technique, described in the narrative of the homicide of Manadel al-Jamadi as “Palestinian Hanging”, is chronicled further under the moniker “strappado”. During the time of the Inquisition, strappado was a commonly practiced torture method, most famously utilized in the case of Machiavelli’s torture at the behest of the Medicis. Also colorfully illustrated on the Wikipedia site is strappado-as-a-modern-BDSM-technique. (See attached image 2)
Comments: After much eye-blistering, brain-frying and soul-dirtying research online, I am convinced the practice of torture is common throughout documented history. It is a phenomenon that crosses cultural and technological barriers. Though contemporary practitioners of torture often draw on the expertise, methodologies, tools and techniques of modern medicine and social science (psychology, anthropology and sociology), today’s torturers are just as likely to recycle ancient ways of inflicting suffering on their victims. Torture, some posit, is a function of State and Law enforcement. However, the torturer’s gratification in the act must be acknowledged. Torture seems to be a realm where the “primitive” and “civilized” intersect. Only relatively recently have proclamations against torture been furthered on the international stage. The Enlightenment is often credited for this trend, which appears to be in jeopardy, after a century of vigorous resurgence in state-sanctioned torture.
Conclusion: Torture is emblematic of humanity. In the absence of social conventions encouraging public torture, people may pursue a personal practice that involves sexual or psychological gratification.
Personal View: In some things, like torture, it’s better to be something other than typically human.
Attachments:
Images [NOT SHOWN]
Notes for Discussion:
1. “We are dealing with extrordinary (sic) people and that calls for extrordinary (sic) tactics if we want to protect our citizens.” – Jason Nelms, Libertarian Blogger (3/11/03)
2. “On Friday, Germany’s Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble set off a firestorm across party lines after saying in a newspaper interview that he wants information which may have been extracted from suspected terrorists through torture by a third party to be admissible in court.” – Deutsche Welle (12/20/05)
3. From Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes (no. 27; cf. VS 80): Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself…, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as… torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; …all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator. (Extracted from website “Catholics for President George W. Bush” 01/13/06
4: As reported by Wonkette.com, Limbaugh’s comments can be found on his website. From the May 4 Rush Limbaugh Show, titled “It’s Not About Us; This Is War!”
CALLER: It was like a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked men —
LIMBAUGH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I’m talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?
LIMBAUGH: And these American prisoners of war — have you people noticed who the torturers are? Women! The babes! The babes are meting out the torture.
LIMBAUGH: You know, if you look at — if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it looks just like anything you’d see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe I’m — yeah. And get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean, this is something that you can see on stage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City — the movie. I mean, I don’t — it’s just me.
