December 21, 2004
Torture: Shock,
Awe and the Human Body by William
Pfaff A HISTORIAN in the future, or a
moralist, is likely to deem the Bush
administration's
enthusiasm
for torture the most
striking aspect of its war against
terrorism. This started early. Proposals to authorize
torture were circulating even before there was
anyone to torture. Days after the Sept. 11 attacks,
the administration made
it known that the United States was no longer
bound by international treaties, or by American law
and established U.S. military standards, concerning
torture and the treatment of prisoners. By the end
of 2001, the Justice Department had drafted memos
on how to protect military and intelligence
officers from eventual prosecution under existing
U.S. law for their treatment of Afghan and other
prisoners. In January 2002, the White House counsel,
Alberto Gonzales (who is soon to become
attorney general), advised George W. Bush
that it could be done by fiat. If the president
simply declared "detainees" in Afghanistan outside
the protection of the Geneva conventions, the 1996
U.S. War Crimes Act - which carries a possible
death penalty for Geneva violations - would not
apply. Those who protested were ignored, though the
administration declared it would abide by the
"spirit" of the conventions. Shortly afterward, the
CIA asked for formal assurance that this pledge did
not apply to its agents. In March 2003, a Defense Department legal task
force concluded that the president was not bound by
any international or federal law on torture. It
said that as commander in chief, he had the
authority "to approve any technique needed to
protect the nation's security." Subsequent legal memos
to civilian officials in the White House and
Pentagon dwelt in morbid detail on permitted
torture techniques, for practical purposes
concluding that anything was permitted that did
not (deliberately) kill the victim. What is this all about? The FBI, the armed
forces' own legal officers, bar associations and
other civil law groups have protested, as have
retired intelligence officers and civilian law
enforcement officials. The United States has never before officially
practiced torture. It was not deemed necessary in
order to defeat Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. Its
indirect costs are enormous: in their effect on the
national reputation, their alienation of
international opinion, and their corruption of the
morale and morality of the American military and
intelligence services. Torture doesn't even work that well. An
indignant FBI witness of what has gone on at the
Guantánamo prison camp says that "simple
investigative techniques" could produce much
information the army is trying to obtain through
torture. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Bush
administration is not torturing prisoners because
it is useful but because of its symbolism. It
originally was intended to be a form of what later,
in the attack on Iraq, came to be called "shock and
awe." It was meant as intimidation. We will do
these terrible things to demonstrate that nothing
will stop us from conquering our enemies. We are
indifferent to world opinion. We will stop at
nothing. In that respect, it is like the attack on
Falluja last month, which - destructive as it was -
was fundamentally a symbolic operation. Any
insurgent who wanted to escape could do so long
before the much-advertised attack actually
began. Its real purpose was
exemplary destruction: to deliver a message to
all of Iraq that this is what the United States
can do to you if you continue the resistance. It
was collective punishment of the city's
occupants for having tolerated terrorist
operations based there. The administration's obsession with shock and
awe is a result of its misunderstanding of the war
it is fighting, which is political and not
military. America's dilemma is a very old one. It is dealing with politically motivated
revolutionaries, in the case of Al Qaeda, and
nationalist and sectarian insurgents in the case of
Iraq. It has a conventional army, good for crushing
cities. But the enemy is not interested in
occupying cities or defeating American armies. Its
war is for the minds of Muslims. Destroying cities and torturing prisoners are
things you do when you are losing the real war, the
war your enemies are fighting. They are signals of
moral bankruptcy. They destroy the confidence and
respect of your friends, and reinforce the
credibility of the enemy. © 2004
International Herald Tribune 
CURRENT
DEATHTOLL IN IRAQ and COST 
The
Face of war, mass murder and genocide
- Civilian casualties - families murdered in
their own homes - during the US assault on
Fallujah (Warning: graphic images)-
Ban on torture
overruled in Pentagon
-
Bush Claimed Right
to Waive Torture Laws
-
Lawyer
for one guard claims picture shows his client
taking orders from others - will generals take
the stand?
-
Harvard
Law Professor Alan Dershowitz says U.S. Needs
Improved Torture Tactics
-
Okay for some "Bundeswehrprofessor
[Michael Wolffsohn, jüdisch,
Israeli-Bürger] räsoniert
über Vorzüge der Folter": German
professor Michael Wolffsohn calls for use of
torture | Summoned
before his minister
-
Expanding the Taguba report: Israel's
role in training US army in torture
techniques
-
Danish government accuses British troops
Danish
medics witnessed Iraqi prisoner die after
interrogation
-
Reuters
agency released shocking details of US torture
of three of its journalists
-
Israel's
involvement in Iraq: has torture experts at Abu
Ghraib Jail
-
Israeli
medical association: OK to break fingers of
Palestinian prisoners during
interrogation
- Amnesty International reports,
Israel Supreme Court to Rule on Torture and
Holding of Lebanese Hostages as Pawns
-
Human rights lawyers argue that Israel's
torture
of Palestinians is illegal (but sometimes
necessary)
-
Lipstadt's Witness Bernie Farber is Revealed
as Torture Apologist
-
 Israeli
torture of Palestinian prisoners seized in
the notorious Khiam prison in southern
Lebanon-
Sydney
Morning Herald reports: US creating torture
centers in non-US locations
"It allows us to get information from terrorists
in a way we can't do on US soil."
-
Robert Fisk reports: Inside
an Israeli torturers' den, manacles lie
abandoned
- Danish
opposition to the appointment of Israeli torture
chief, Ambassador Carmi Gillon (right)
-
Torture
of children by USA's closest allies
-
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