alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

September 29, 2006

Water Boarding in the Ministry of Love

by @ 3:20 pm. Filed under propaganda

In retrospect, I don’t know why I’ve assumed that water boarding was another of a series of “agressive” tactics used to obtain information. Information which can then be used to apprehend more terrorists. Information that could be used in scenarios where time is of the essence, and where lives are at stake. That’s what it’s for, right?

This David Corn post argues no, at least as far as water boarding is concerned:

The similarity between practices used by the Khymer Rouge and those currently being debated by Congress isn’t a coincidence. As has been amply documented (”The New Yorker” had an excellent piece, and there have been others), many of the “enhanced techniques” came to the CIA and military interrogators via the SERE [Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape] schools, where US military personnel are trained to resist torture if they are captured by the enemy. The specific types of abuse they’re taught to withstand are those that were used by our Cold War adversaries. Why is this relevant to the current debate? Because the torture techniques of North Korea, North Vietnam, the Soviet Union and its proxies–the states where US military personnel might have faced torture–were NOT designed to elicit truthful information. These techniques were designed to elicit CONFESSIONS. That’s what the Khymer Rouge et al were after with their waterboarding, not truthful information.

Why would confessions be the point, and not information? You can dress it up, but what it comes down to is propaganda. As a result of the Bush-McCain-Spector partnership, evidence obtained through torture can be used to obtain a conviction. If someone is convicted of a crime, he’s presumed to be guilty. Which brings us to today’s tautology: we don’t torture innocent people. We torture people who are guilty, but haven’t yet confessed. And when they confess, they’ll be guilty.

I think it’s also important to reflect on how torture was used in 1984, the first draft for Orwell’s greatest work, Bush 43. The purpose of torturing Winston Smith wasn’t to obtain information. It was to get him to betray Julia. It was to get him to betray himself. It was to beat that spark of rebelliousness out of him that made him yearn for the underground Brotherhood.

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One Response to “Water Boarding in the Ministry of Love”

  1. Comrade O'Brien Says:

    Attention Comrades,
    Please visit ministryoflove.wordpress.com to learn about our creative protest of the Military Commissions Act.
    We are sending a copy of 1984 to each congressperson who voted for it.
    Regards,
    O’Brien

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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

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