"Self Inflicted Pain and Sensory Deprevation." The New American Way!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

"Self Inflicted Pain and Sensory Deprevation." The New American Way!

That's the ticket!

Add sexual intimidation and dogs and you have the way America interrogates people today.

These are the avenues we used to circumvent the Geneva Convention?

To get around the Constitution? Do it all in foreign Countries.

Justification?

Read: Abu Ghraib: The Politics Of Torture

Barbara Ehrenreich (Contributor), Mark Danner (Contributor), and David Levi-Strauss (Contributor)
Edition: pb
ISBN: 1556435509
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Release Date: 2005-01-25

ITEM OVERVIEW
What does Abu Ghraib say about American prisons? About women during wartime? About an administration that chose to interpret the mandate of the Geneva Conventions Barring Torture as it saw fit? Nine essayists tackle what the prison abuse scandal means for America now and in the future and what it says about how we see ourselves and how we're perceived by others. Compelling social critiques acknowledge the ramifications of these and other atrocities as Americans are exposed, many for the first time, to the politics of torture. Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich, Mark Danner, John Gray, David Levi Strauss, Ha'aretz columnist Meron Benvenisti, Richard Grossinger, David Matlin, and more.

http://www.akpress.org/2005/items/abughraibthepoliticsoftorture

Edited to add:

Publications and Research
The Politics of Torture: Dispelling the Myths and Understanding the Survivors
by Joan Simalchik
Torture has been known throughout the ages and is indeed an ancient practice. However, it is a modern paradox that the systemic and widespread use of torture today is unprecedented, at the same time that it is so widely prohibited by international measures. The United Nations 1948 Declaration of Human Rights states clearly that no-one should be subjected to torture. It remains one of the few rights which may not be derogated: there can be no justification for torture nor mitigating circumstances for its practice. Subsequent United Nations instruments include the 1975 Declaration Against Torture and the 1984 Convention Against Torture. Yet Amnesty International describes torture as the twentieth century epidemic and reports that it is employed in more than a hundred countries. From 1982-1994, the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture has documented the histories of 8000 survivors from 75 countries.

Understanding the modem use of torture entails the dispelling of myths about its nature and purpose. There remains a perception that torture is practiced randomly, that it is punishment carried to an extreme, that it is performed by psychopaths or sadists, that it exists outside of governmental responsibility and is practiced by "less civilized" societies. Compounding the problem is a wall of sustained disbelief that prevents full comprehension of the enormity of this gross human rights violation. Most people simply try to avoid the topic entirely.

The Goals of Torture
Common misconceptions about torture do not hold up to evidence obtained from human rights organizations, international monitoring agencies, and documented testimonies of survivors, which suggest a more sinister scenario. While torture may be utilized for a variety of purposes (for example, to punish, to obtain information, or to coerce a third party), a primary reason for its use is as a means of social control. Governments employ torture as part of state policy in order to deter real or suspected dissidents. Regimes use torture as part of a continuum of repressive measures and suppression of democratic rights. Rarely, if ever, is torture practiced alone; it has become a constituent part of mechanisms for domination.

Torture is not intended to kill the body, but the soul. Doctors and medical personnel participate during torture sessions so as to ensure that the victim will live long enough for the strategy to be effective. Khmer Rouge documents compiled by David Hawk of the Cambodia Documentation Commission underscore this point. The Tuol Sleng Prison Interrogator's Manual states that torture is used

"...to break them and to make them lose their will. It's not something that's done out of individual anger, or for self-satisfaction. Thus we beat them to make them afraid but absolutely not to kill them. When torturing it is necessary to examine their state of health first and necessary to examine the whip."

These cold words betray a great deal. The practice of torture is shown to be a conscious effort, accompanied by methodological standards. While there is no doubt that there are torturers who are drawn to the trade because they are sadists, most perpetrators are not. They are part of a larger apparatus of terror that can act to shield them from the consequences of their actions. The state's involvement provides adequate authorization and even a measure of justification. The author of the Khmer Rouge's training manual is exposed as a technocratic functionary. A film co-produced by Amnesty International and which depicts how "ordinary" recruits were trained to become torturers during the Colonels' junta in Greece, is aptly entitled "Your Neighbor's Son".

At: http://www.ccvt.org/simalchik.html

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. Kicking for an addition of information.

[DaveJ]

2. My response...

Let me pivot on this point in the article: "Torture is not intended to kill the body, but the soul." My observation is that it is hard to kill the soul of someone in a non-physical manner if one does not understand their culture or even their language. That is why the military has resorted to physical torture whereas the government surely has every intention of training the Iraqi government to raise torture to the next level -- the level used in the U.S. against its own people.

[DaveJ]

3. Let me add this...

It's been a long time since I logged into the DU, because I think the Dems have been doing fine without me, and besides I have another project I'm pursuing... but anyway, I just wanted to mention something that is only slightly related to this topic....

There is no reason why the U.S. economy has to be a war based economy like it is today. The only reason it is, is because the people in charge are too damn stupid to know any better. Granted, there probably are more war mongering grunts in the world than people with intelligent goals. Normally the grunts are kept in check quite easily but when a grunt is the POTUS things are bound to get screwed up. The best I can hope for is that this is all just a nightmare, some game in a sophisticated alien VR that we will some day get out of... and laugh about later.

If not it's just an unpleasant reality that makes us less like civilized humans. I guess that's why the RW tends to be religious fundamentalists -- because they have no hope that the world can be a decent place and rely on their idea of an afterlife to relieve them of their distusting earthly ways. They twist Christianity into an excuse to kill and torture.

Either way it is clear that the RW has no idea how to accomplish anything without killing and torturing people... and even then nothing positive is accomplished.