[Peace-discuss] "Whatever It Takes -- The Politics of the Man Behind '24'" -- Jane Mayer article from New Yorker

[Stuart Levy]

In light of Barbara's report at the AWARE meeting last night
of Abu Ghraib interrogators who studied non-Geneva-Convention-limited
interrogation techniques by watching Fox TV's program "24",
this article may be interesting.  Or horrifying.  How many people
are being re-educated by this program?

>From Jane Mayer in the New Yorker's 19 Feb 2007 issue:

    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022607H.shtml


Here's a bit of this well-done article:


	Throughout the series, secondary characters raise moral objections to
    abusive interrogation tactics. Yet the show never engages in a serious dialogue
    on the subject. Nobody argues that torture doesn't work, or that it undermines
    America's foreign-policy strategy. Instead, the doubters tend to be softhearted
    dupes. A tremulous liberal, who defends a Middle Eastern neighbor from
    vigilantism, is killed when the neighbor turns out to be a terrorist. When a
    civil-liberties-minded lawyer makes a high-toned argument to a Presidential
    aide against unwarranted detentions-"You continue to arrest innocent people,
    you're giving the terrorists exactly what they want," she says-the aide
    sarcastically responds, "Well! You've got the makings of a splendid law-review
    article here. I'll pass it on to the President."

	In another episode, a human-rights lawyer from a fictional organization
    called Amnesty Global tells Bauer, who wants to rough up an uncharged terror
    suspect, that he will violate the Constitution. Bauer responds, "I don't wanna
    bypass the Constitution, but these are extraordinary circumstances." He appeals
    to the President, arguing that any interrogation permitted by the law won't be
    sufficiently harsh. "If we want to procure any information from this suspect,
    we're going to have to do it behind closed doors," he says.

	"You're talking about torturing this man?" the President says.

	"I'm talking about doing what's necessary to stop this warhead from being
    used against us," Bauer answers.

	When the President wavers, Bauer temporarily quits his job so that he can
    avoid defying the chain of command, and breaks the suspect's fingers. The
    suspect still won't talk, so Bauer puts a knife to his throat; this elicits the
    desired information. He then knocks the suspect out with a punch, telling him,
    "This will help you with the pain."


...
There's also a para from the series' lead writer.  Although they have
several copies of the 1963 "Kubark" CIA torture manual on hand,
he explains that most of their torture techniques are improvised
from their own imaginations.

And, the article's closing paragraph, a quote from the show's executive producer Joel Surnow:

       In a more sober tone, he said, "We've had all of these torture experts come
    by recently, and they say, 'You don't realize how many people are affected by
    this. Be careful.' They say torture doesn't work. But I don't believe that. I
    don't think it's honest to say that if someone you love was being held, and you
    had five minutes to save them, you wouldn't do it. Tell me, what would you do?
    If someone had one of my children, or my wife, I would hope I'd do it. There is
    nothing - nothing - I wouldn't do." He went on, "Young interrogators don't need
    our show. What the human mind can imagine is so much greater than what we show
    on TV. No one needs us to tell them what to do. It's not like somebody goes,
    'Oh, look what they're doing, I'll do that.' Is it?"