May 04, 2004
Blast From The Past V
• [Originally cited in "Another Day, Another Insipid Apologia".]
"Privately, the Americans admit that torture, or something very like it, is going on at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, where they are holding an unknown number of suspected terrorists."
[Originally cited in "Orwell A-Go-Go".]
• But unlike the Israelis, for whom moderate physical pressure was open public policy, the new tactics -- whatever they may be -- are being kept secret. The government, in fact, denies it is torturing anyone, insisting that all detainees are being held in a manner consistent with the principles of international law. But what, then, to make of anonymous comments from officials involved in the detentions? One is quoted in the story as saying, "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job"? Another says that "our guys may kick them around a little bit in the adrenaline of the immediate aftermath" of their capture. And while the government denies that its purpose in transferring prisoners to foreign custody is so that other intelligence services can torture them, still another official says, "We don't kick the [expletive] out of them, we send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them."
• Those who refuse to cooperate inside this secret CIA interrogation center are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, say intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogation methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights — subject to what are known as "stress-and-duress" techniques.
Those who cooperate are rewarded with creature comforts and interrogators whose methods include feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity and, in some cases, money. Some who do not cooperate are turned over — "rendered," in official parlance — to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human-rights organizations.
Posted by Eddie Tews at May 4, 2004 06:06 PM