Today, two unique stories appeared in the outer edges of what the Beltway would consider "respectable" media. This one from McClatchy Newspapers and this one from Salon bring to our "torture debate" an element that has been conspicuously absent.
For these stories actually call into question the motives for the torture. The main gist of these stories is that, for the first time, it is being suggested that the Bush administration's torture policies were carried out for reasons other than to "protect us" from the terrorists. These articles suggest that torture was used to manufacture fictitious links between Iraq and Al Qaeda thus giving Bush a solid justification for his invasion of Iraq.
This, if true, is huge. But it is only one step down a road that should have been traveled well a long time ago.
I have seen many a commentator on the “torture issue” lament the fact that we are a country that is even having a debate about torture. But why? What allows a debate about the practicality of acts long considered repugnant to every civilized person on Earth to take place in this country to begin with? The reason why we are actually debating the pros and cons of torture is because we never, ever, question that the torture was at least conducted under a good faith belief that the torturers were trying to “protect America” from another terrorist attack and save American lives.
That underlying assumption, that the “techniques” were used by men operating under the good faith belief that they were just trying to “protect” Americans from other deadly 9/11 type attacks, marks the outer edge of the “anti torture” side that is allowed to appear in our mainstream media or be held by a federal politician.
Thus when the limit of your debate is that good guys were torturing bad guys to protect us from murderous mass terrorist attacks the “debate” is inevitably going to end up to be one about nitpicking what constitutes torture and the pain level of this tactic over that tactic and morally obscene debates on how torture isn’t very effective. Wow. How ennobling. Torture isn’t effective! Let’s rally the troops with that slogan! Basically we have all been corralled into a debate that accepts at face value that white knights from the US Federal Government were getting a little rough with dirtball Mooslim terrorists to “defend us” from their evil plots.
Just today Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe captures the essence of our national debate on torture:
None of this is meant as a defense of torture, which I oppose as adamantly as ever. But even those of us who were against the Bush interrogation policy should be able to acknowledge the good faith of those who disagreed and the exigency in which they found themselves. To say nothing of the lives their decisions may have saved.
Well that is amazing isn’t it? No matter what you personally believe about this “issue” we all must accept the “good faith” and good intentions of the torturers. Of course we should! Men who torture people should always be given the benefit of the doubt as to their motives! Well, if they are Americans that is. And we should also accept the claims of torturers as to the “plots” they saved us from because of their torture without question either.
You see, after 9/11 our CIA torturers were frantic to prevent another terrorist attack from occurring so they had to torture these guys (reluctantly of course, just like Jack Bauer)! It wasn’t a fear of losing their jobs that motivated them. After no one was fired or demoted or in any way reprimanded for the myriad failures on 9/11 to defend the country from attack- our CIA guys knew that they had job security. Nope, what motivated them was their love for America and Americans and their desire to not see anther terrorist attack on us- the people- whom they love so much.
Now, if this true. If it is true that the US government was using “harsh techniques” on these men for the publicaly stated reasons that they were trying to “defend us” then this would mark the first time in history that a government used systematic torture for honest reasons. And given our whoppingly delusional self image this would make sense because we think we are such a “special” nation- so special that our government uses torture for the reasons they say they do! Unlike every other government on Earth now and that has existed in history, which have always used torture to justify their criminal acts and policies, the US government uses torture judiciously and only in good faith.
That is what you are supposed to believe without question when it comes to this “issue”.
But the truth is that torture tactics have never been used by governments to get truth. Torture is never conducted in good faith. Torture is used by corrupt governments and brutal leaders to justify the unjustifiable. It has always been so. Governments use torture not to extract truth but to generate lies they then use to justify their own power or a particular policy or plan they wish to undertake. Torture is used by governments to terrorize. In fact- governments find it preferable to torture innocent people as that only adds to the torture's effectiveness as a terror tactic.
Torture is used by governments to get people to admit to things they didn’t do. That is why torture is used. Stalin used torture for this reason. Hitler used torture for this reason. The North Vietnamese used torture for this reason. Saddam Hussein used torture for this reason. The inquisition used torture for this reason. Every government on Earth that has ever used torture as a matter of systematic policy has done so in bad faith- has done so precisely for the express reason to get people to admit to things they didn’t do so a particular evil or nefarious course of action by the government could then be justified.
But not the US. Nope. We are the only country on Earth to ever use torture in a "good way". We have the most moralist and goodest torturers on the planet! Isn’t that obvious? Men who hang other men from ceilings by their shackled arms and leave them so for a week dressed in diapers are men whose “good faith” we should automatically believe in according to people like Jeff Jacoby.
So now we have information that maybe the torture wasn’t conducted to “keep us safe” as is automatically and universally assumed in virtually all mainstream Beltway “debate” on this issue.
Could it be that the United States government has used torture, gasp, like other governments have used torture? To justify lies? Ooops. Now I’ve done it! Not believing in the inherent goodness of the US government or that its motives and actions are always pure and “well intentioned” is to be “Anti American”.
Stalin’s NKVD “techniqued” hundreds of thousands of people into admitting that they belonged to vast “Anti Soviet” plots and organizations, almost all of which were entirely fictional. He did so to justify his purges and to consolidate his power. No serious person in the West thought Stalin’s purges were being conducted because of the “threat” of counterrevolution.
Did the US government torture people to justify certain policies? To create sustainable myths and broad narratives like the existence of “Al Qaeda” itself? As part of a campaign designed to justify a police state at home and wars of blatant aggression abroad?
Oh no! We can’t even ask that! What we would assume to be the case if done by any other country that used torture is beyond the pale to even suggest about the US Federal Government. Those questions can’t be allowed to appear at all! That is to “hate America” to dare question the intentions and motives of the US government. No, instead, let’s assume, like Jeff Jacoby, that our government is staffed by saintly warrior poet paladins who used torture, only after wrestling with their super heightened sense of morality, to “defend” the good people of America from the heinous barbarism of radical Islam- just like our favorite TV characters would do.
Yeah- and the Inquisition was about getting them “witches”.
Comments
If it's provable beyond a doubt that the invasion of Iraq was a predetermined imperialist policy of the Bush-Cheney administration, and that they were seeking a casus belli, even to the extent of using torture to force confessions of an Al Quaeda-Iraq connection that didn't exist then...
...then the beltway would still defend torture and unprovoked war.
As Glenn Greenwald pointed out recently, “ Establishments believe in propping up the existing order...the ruling class has a vested interest in ...safeguarding the status quo” and the beltway media is part of the establishment.
Candidate Obama said, “Washington is a place where ideas go to die.” Nice bromide but the reality is that Government is where ideals, truth, justice, and morality die.
Not to downplay the physical and mental damage done to those tortured, but the real crime is the beltway response. Opinions range from proud embrace to twisted but defiant justification to grudging acceptance to faux outrage (partisan posturing) to callus indifference and down to evil dismissal like Peggy “sometimes you just have to look the other way” Noonan. The morality of the future is predicated upon what we teach our children and the example set by our “leaders” today bodes very ill indeed for the future.
Montag:
The establishment media has already tipped their hats. I've read editorials in the New York Times that indirectly admit, while administering advice on how to run them, that the wars in the ME are imperialist wars . . . and they are fine with this.
I would be very surprised if the motive for the torture enters into the Beltway parameter on this issue. It won't.
When the CIA destroyed tapes of interrogations in which they administered these "approved techniques"- what they feared from their release- was not the images of them waterboarding people- though that would be bad. No- what they really feared was audio track on those tapes- audio in which they are demanding their subjects make stuff up- agree to storylines they have created- admit to being a party to invented plots. That is what they fear the most.
But our mainstream media won't ever touch that with a ten foot pole. They will just stick to the script on this issue - which pits good guys using sorta bad methods on bad evil people who wanted to kill us.
As you know, 5 years ago I was purged from a conservative forum because I so vocally denounced the torture at Abu Ghraib and those who denied the crime was a crime or defended the practice. Since then I've watched and pondered the events as they unfolded and how the various actors played their roles.
What fascinates me most is the current firestorm over this torture business and more to the point, what is the motive for the current unveiling of the dark side. Why the document releases, the investigations and criminal probes rather than sweeping it all under the rug?
We know that the media can make any issue disappear if the establishment wants it to go away. I'm too much of a cynic (realist?) to believe that genuine moral outrage and the desire for truth and justice is THE driving factor behind this. Sure, there certainly is genuine feelings amongst civil libertarians at the grassroots level, but they could easily be ignored because the media can block all mainstream coverage. So why isn't this torture business going down the Memory Hole? There is policy and political motives here above mere electoral advantage. I have some thoughts, how about you?
BTW, did you think there was any merit in my opinions about the kook Right being pushed over the edge?
People who condone torture, make excuses for it it, justify it and practice it, have my undying contempt. Moreover, torture is against the law, violates every civilized precept and those involved should be prosecuted to the full extent possible.
President Obama is constitutionally obligated to ensure all those responsible for torture are prosecuted. His current refusal to do so is illegal and morally reprehensible.
The subtext for all this focus on torture is what happened on 911. Yet the evidence that 911 was a carefully orchestrated inside job is overwhelming. Hence, as in the case of the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, there has never been any necessity for torture.
Conditioning plays a large part in having abhorrent actions become acceptable . Fear and anger can transform large groups into semi-delusional and obedient government servants .This change seems planned for us , for it is reinforced continually with Goebbels-esq news reporting and Bernaysian style entertainment - as a Bush/Cheney aid remarked , "we make our own reality " .
For fabrications to be accepted as facts and unquestioning allegiance to supplant wariness , there has to be complicity by the major media and others to repeat government lies and paint those that question the official story as not American enough . In effect there was and continues to be a psychological battle waged against true American principles like truth and decency - only it is convoluted into fighting supposed enemies and "protecting" others .
It's not torture ,it's enhanced interrogation . It's not framing someone , it's meliorated evidence . It's not really mass murder , it's just collateral damage ...
While I understand the desire to hurt others that have hurt "us" , I am mature and experienced enough to know that those in power are often incorrect and have manipulated and even orchestrated events in the past to achieve their agenda . Consider the central and south American death squads and fascist military regimes "we" installed during the 70's and 80's . Under the quise of anti-communism , similar totalitarian states were erected - thanks to GHW Bush , his cocaine cowboy oliver North , rev Moon and other financiers , sycophants and spooks .
Those that seek power will lie thru their teeth while smiling for the press corps as their henchmen rape and kill . I refuse to be enamoured by powerful men , for I believe that behind most of them exists the saddness and suffering of innocence . If anything becomes of the fight to denounce the practice of torture and hold those responsible accountable , I hope that it is genuine and not just some semblence of outrage . If torture or the threat of government sponsored pain on anyone is allowed to continue, there will be NO reason to respect government or anything it says .
"So why isn't this torture business going down the Memory Hole?"
Damage control.
To just flush the issue away would leave too many questions and allow others to enter the debate.
Instead we now have 24/7 news coverage about how the "New" faces in DC are correcting the mistakes of the "Old" faces so that anyone who dares question the torture issue or points out how it still goes on in a new form can be shut up with the phrase "They're trying to fix it! Give them time! Quit being in such a hurry"
I imagine this weapon will also be turned towards anti-war tax protesters. "Hey, we don't torture anymore. Your money isn't being used to hurt people. Pay up you criminal!"
To take that idea a step farther, look at the hysterics the tea parties created on the "left." Them Hellfire missiles and 3rd world torture experts don't pay for themselves they became livid at the idea of Obama unable to afford to lob rockets into Pakistan at will. After all, he's using those bombs and missiles "nicer" than Dubya was so any moral worries about what your tax dollars are being spent on have melted away like snow flakes in July.
With torture now (again) being done far away from prying eyes in the US, the average sheep can now sleep easy knowing that their nation does not torture anymore. Sure, we just outsourced it, but so long as the guy force feeding some poor sot salt water doesn't have an American flag on his uniform it's all good.
That was Dubya's and neocons failure. They took the US empire and the evil acts that support it and rammed it in the world's face. Hell, they were proud of it.
Now the press and new leadership in DC is desperatly trying to put a happy face on all that and get those acts back into the shadows where most people will forget about them and the few that do try to bring it up are labeled kooks and conspiricy nuts.
Get ready, everyone, because a picture worth a 1,000 words. The Pentagon has been ordered to release by May 28th previously classified photos of tortured detainees (as the result of a FOIA lawsuit won by the ACLU). On that day, there will be Anti-Torture Rallys across the country, including one planned in "The Pit" at the Harvard Square T stop. It's going to be Abu Ghraib all over again. Now the fear-mongers out there will tell you the release of the photos itself (not the photos or the acts of torture, mind you) is endangering America because it will mobilize the terrorist. That argument falls apart when you examine a few facts: that they already know about it. It's the American public that sleeps in innocent ignorance and convoluted denial. Just as they denied Abu Ghraib's abuses until they saw the pictures. It is entirely likely that if the pictures of Abu Ghraib were not published, the abuses would be on-going today. Torture, Enhanced interrogation, whatever you want to call it, not only does not work, it has the opposite effect. Information gained under duress is unreliable and derails intelligence. Remember that most of the detainees in US custody were not the "worst-of-the-worst, but actually innocent men and children swept up for bounty by war lords, as verified by Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell's Chief of Staff. Finally, we've backed ourselves into a corner, so we can't even try many of the worst terrorists in our custody, because using illegal means against prisoners harms any legal case against them. Acting as a rogue nation by sidestepping the Rule of Law has done great damage to our security. We must punish those who orchestrated the means for torture. Come to Harvard Sq. Thursday May 28th and demand the prosecution of War Criminals.
SIGN THE PETITION
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These are very well known Federal Capital Crimes - SEE THE LAW www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_113C.html
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Hey Einstein I got two things for you:
1. Goodest is NOT a word. haha i got a laugh when i read that
2. The Inquisition was the ridding of heretics from the Roman Catholic Church (not having anything to do with witches). Also gave me a laugh.
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