[Peace-discuss] Re: Peace discuss Digest/Torture

[Neil Parthun]

Bambi et. al.
 
"Sleep depriving someone is different than cutting off their toes or raping
their wife." -- Yes, there is a difference between physical and
psychological torture.  The physical is looked down upon more because it
leaves obvious tell-tale markings for humanitarian aid people/whistleblowers
to find.

The CIA, back to the 1940s-1950s was very interested in using psychological
means to torture people.  Through numerous studies with psychotropic drugs
(i.e. LSD) and other studies, they developed what became formally known as
the KUBARK guide in 1963.  In the guide it said that "hooding", "sensory
deprivation", "sleep deprivation", messing with their internal clock (i.e.
don't serve dinner at a traditional dinner time...serve it at 3 am instead)
and self-imposed harm (i.e. stress positions like the one famously seen in
the Abu Ghraib photographs with the wires on the cardboard box) were the
effective means of creating psychological torture/trauma.
 
The torture techniques became more explicitly known during the 1980s, when
they released a manual in 1983 regarding psychological torture techniques
which were used widely in the Philippines and in Central/South America by
dictatorships.  Psychological torture leaves immense mental scars like
post-traumatic stress disorder.  So I'd argue that the only difference
between psychological torture and physical torture is that physical torture
leaves more obvious marks to find on the body.
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37340-2004Jun12.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0514-05.htm

You may also want to read Alfred McCoy's A Question of Torture: CIA
Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror.  It is an excellent
read in the discussion of torture, what constitutes torture and the history
of tactics used.  Plus, there is the whole argument even made by the FBI
that the psychological torture tactics/physical torture tactics via sending
suspects off to areas where they can be torture is quite ineffective at
soliciting accurate information.  In the book I cited above, he has lots of
information regarding FBI agents that were very upset at these tactics
because the FBI had much greater success with gaining a rapport with the
suspect and using the relationship of trust to get information.
 
Many of the people we have in custody now cannot be released (possible
intelligence to be mined, human rights violations that will leave a lot of
egg on peoples' faces etc.) yet we can't try them due to the illegalities of
the interrogation tactics used on them.
 
Data mining is different -- yet, I'm still a fan of privacy rights and a
bigger fan of the 4th Amendment.  When the FISA Courts have said that that
PATRIOT Act may not meet 4th Amendment standards but "almost certainly comes
close", that concerns me.  When there are warrantless wiretaps being used
with no oversight to prove that they're tracking terrorists, that concerns
me.  You know as well as I that most of the time government cannot be
trusted to tell us the Truth and needs the oversight to stay honest. (i.e.
COINTELPRO)
 
As for other detainment questions, the administration initally stated that
the Geneva Conventions and rules of war did apply to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The idea that Bush could suspend them, seen in a 2002 memo, was later
repudiated by the administration.  Plus, even some of the generals at Abu
Ghraib admitted that most of the people being detained were and are
innocent.  They've stated that since the vast majority of them are innocent,
these jails and preventative detainment merely goes to radicalize them while
there and turns them into a potential terrorist with a real ax to grind
against the U.S.

They can't bring them to a civilian court because they've tortured them.
They can't kill them because that would be bringing back the much maligned
Phoenix program.  Seems like the administration has gotten themselves in a
real pickle at the cost of America's prestige.
 
Better living through truth, logic and reason...
          Neil
 
You can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things.
[ken kesey]
 
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to
make this life a wonderful adventure!
[charlie chaplin, the great dictator (1940)]
 
 Life is not divided into genres.  It is a terrifying, romantic, tragic,
comical, science fiction cowboy detective novel.
[alan moore]
 
Weird heroes and mold-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who
need it that the tyranny of "the rat race" is not yet final. 
[dr. hunter stockton thompson]
 
Neil Parthun || lennybrucefan at gmail.com || my writing:
http://lennybrucefan.tripod.com <http://lennybrucefan.tripod.com/> 
 
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