http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/12/5794/
Are Americans Really ¡®Better Than That?¡¯ by Ray McGovern
A boyish, inquisitive face with an innocent look peered out from the
Washington Post¡¯s lead story yesterday on torture. It was well groomed,
pink-shirted John Kiriakou, a CIA interrogator who could just as easily pass
for the local youth minister.
The report by the Post¡¯s Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen, which describes
Kiriakou¡¯s experience in interrogating suspected terrorists, raises in an
unusually direct way an abiding question: Should the United States of America
be using forms of torture dating back to the Spanish Inquisition?
Nowhere is the mood of that infamous period better portrayed than in the
famous Grand Inquisitor chapter of Dostoyevsky¡¯s Brothers Karamazov .
Dostoevsky was unusually gifted at plumbing the human heart. While it has been
127 years since he wrote Brothers Karamazov , he nonetheless captures the trap
into which so many Americans have fallen in forfeiting freedom through fear.
His portrayal of Inquisition reality brings us to the brink of the moral
precipice on which our country teeters today. It is as though he knew what
would be in store for us as fear was artificially stoked after the attacks of
9/11.
In the story, Dostoevsky¡¯s Grand Inquisitor (the Cardinal of Seville)
ridicules Christ for imposing on humans the heavy burden of freedom of
conscience, and explains how it is far better, for all concerned, to dull that
conscience and to rule by deceit, violence, and fear:
¡°Didst thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of
choice in the knowledge of good and evil?¡We teach them that it¡¯s not the
free judgment of their hearts, but mystery which they must follow blindly, even
against their conscience¡. In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet
[and] become obedient¡We shall tell them that we are Thy servants and rule
them in Thy name¡. we shall be forced to lie¡. We shall tell them that every
sin will be expiated if it is done with our permission.¡±
The Grand Inquisitor, in Brothers Karamazov
Kiriakou was one of the first interrogators to interview suspected terrorist
Abu Zubayda in a Pakistani military hospital, where Zubayda was recovering from
wounds suffered during his capture in early 2002. When he refused to provide
information about al-Qaeda¡¯s infrastructure, he was flown to a secret CIA
prison where, according to Kiriakou, the interrogation team strapped Abu
Zubayda to a board, wrapped his nose and mouth in cellophane, and forced water
into his throat. In just 35 seconds, viola! Abu Zubayda starting talking. That
is called waterboarding.
The 15 & 16 Century Spanish inquisitors were not squeamish, and had little
need for circumlocutions or euphemisms like ¡°alternative set of procedures¡±
that are part of President George W. Bush¡¯s lexicon. The Spanish called this
procedure, quite plainly, ¡°tortura del agua.¡± Lacking cellophane, they
inserted a cloth into the victim¡¯s mouth, forcing the victim to ingest water
spilled from a jar starting the drowning process. Four centuries later, the
Gestapo put out several technically improved releases of this operating system
of torture, so to speak.
Quick; someone please tell newly confirmed Attorney General Michael Mukasey,
who told reporters yesterday he still cannot decide whether waterboarding is
torture.
Abu Zubayda: Poster Child
The information from John Kiriakou confirms what has long been a no-brainer
but not definitively established before; namely, that President George W.
Bush¡¯s ¡°alternative set of procedures¡± for interrogation by C.I.A. includes
waterboarding. Zubayda was given pride of place in George W. Bush¡¯s remarkable
speech of Sept. 6, 2006, in which he bragged about the effectiveness of such
procedures and appealed successfully for passage of the Military Commissions
Act. That law allows a president to define what set of interrogation procedures
can be used by the C.I.A. This is Bush on Sept. 6, 2006:
We believe that Zubayda was a senior terrorist leader and a trusted associate
of Osama bin Laden¡[and that] he had run a terrorist camp in Afghanistan where
some of the 9/11 hijackers trained¡We knew that Zubayda had more information
that could save innocent lives, but he stopped talking¡And so the CIA used an
alternative set of procedures¡The Department of Justice reviewed the
authorized methods extensively and determined them to be lawful¡. But I can
say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary.
Zubayda was questioned using these procedures, and soon he began to provide
information on key al-Qaeda operatives, including information that helped us
find and capture more of those responsible for the attacks on September the
11th. For example, Zubayda identified one of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed¡¯s
accomplices in the 9/11 attacks ¡ª a terrorist named Ramzi bin al Shibh. The
information Zubayda provided helped lead to the capture of bin al Shibh. And
together these two terrorists provided information that helped in the planning
and execution of the operation that captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Bush claimed that his interrogation program had saved lives, and Kiriakou
says the use of waterboarding ¡°probably saved lives.¡± We cannot know for sure
if this is true. Off-the-record interviews with intelligence officials strongly
suggest that there is much prevarication and exaggeration in president¡¯s
claims about lives saved and operations disrupted, and that the his assertions
merit no more credulity than other claims-for example, that Iran¡¯s nuclear
weapons program poses a threat to the U.S., even though it has been stopped for
four years.
Other U.S. intelligence officials take issue with the C.I.A.¡¯s version of
the questioning of Zubayda. Some say that initially he was cooperating with
F.B.I. interrogators using a nonconfrontational approach, when C.I.A . assumed
control and opted for more aggressive tactics. After that experience, the
F.B.I. reportedly warned its agents to avoid interrogation sessions at which
harsh methods were used.
As for credibility, never has a U.S. president¡¯s word been so cheapened as
it is today. In late July 2007, we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity joined with Justin Frank, MD, psychiatrist, professor at George
Washington University Hospital, and author of ¡°Bush on the Couch,¡± to search
for insight on how President Bush thinks. See ¡°Dangers of a Cornered
Bush,¡±from which we excerpt the following:
His pathology is a patchwork of false beliefs and incomplete information
woven into what he asserts is the whole truth¡He lies-not just to us, but to
himself as well¡What makes lying so easy for Bush is his contempt-for
language, for law, and for anybody who dares question him¡. So his words mean
nothing. That is very important for people to understand.
This Is Oversight?
The past few weeks have witnessed an unseemly square dance in Congress,
highlighting conflicting claims about what those who are supposed to be
overseeing the intelligence community knew and when they knew it-about torture,
about Iran, about many things. It is nothing short of an insult to the Founders
that members of the House and Senate can find nothing more useful to do than
wring their hands over their largely self-inflicted powerlessness.
Lawmakers have been so thoroughly intimidated by the White House that I get
physically ill watching the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Bob Graham, and
Jay Rockefeller moan about how secretive and nasty the Bush administration has
been. Harman complained recently that when she was ranking Democrat on the
House Intelligence Committee some of the material (on interrogations) was so
highly classified that she had to take a ¡°second oath¡± to protect it.
What about the solemn oath they all take to support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?
Should not that oath transcend and govern others that an administration might
require for access to secret materials?
Senator Dick Durbin of the Senate Intelligence Committee has complained that
he was aware that classified information did not justify the conclusion in 2002
that Iraq had unconventional weapons, but he could not say anything because it
was classified! Durbin explained:
¡We¡¯re duty-bound once we enter that room to respect classified
information. Everything you hear is supposed to stay in the room¡I certainly
had enough to know that the statements that were made about mushroom clouds
were not the conclusions of someone in the administration who was really being
honest about the full debate. But you really know, walking in the room, what
the rules of the game will be.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has admitted knowing for several years about the
Bush administration¡¯s eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant. She
was briefed on it when she was ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence
Committee when Bush and Cheney took office. One key unanswered question is
this: Was she told that within days of their taking office-that is, seven
months before 9/11, the National Security Agency¡¯s electronic vacuum cleaner
had already begun to suck up information on Americans-the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, not to mention the Constitution, be damned?
In a Washington Post op-ed of Jan. 15, 2006, Pelosi proudly advertised her
uniquely long tenure on the Intelligence Committee and acknowledged that she
was one of the privileged handful of lawmakers who were briefed. ¡°This is how
I came to be informed of President Bush¡¯s authorization for the NSA to conduct
certain types of surveillance.¡± She then proceeded to demonstrate the bowing
and scraping characteristic of her subservient attitude toward the Executive
Branch:
¡°But when the administration notifies Congress in this manner, it is not
seeking approval. There is a clear expectation that the information will be
shared by no one, including other members of the intelligence committees. As a
result, only a few members of Congress were aware of the president¡¯s
surveillance program, and they were constrained from discussing it more
widely.¡±
And so too, may we assume, with respect to torture? This is oversight?
Neutered Watchdogs: Rockefeller and Reyes
What can we expect from the current Senate and House oversight chairmen
regarding the recently disclosed, deliberate destruction of two tapes of harsh
interrogations of Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri? (Al-Nashiri is
thought to have played a role in the attack on the USS Cole.) On the Senate
side, expect nothing of Mr. Milquetoast Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, who, it is said, is so afraid of his own shadow that he
only ventures outdoors at night or in bad weather.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes has a different kind of
problem, and should recuse himself. He has been fawning all over Jos¨¦
Rodriguez, the former CIA Deputy Director of Operations who ordered the tapes
destroyed.
On August 16, 2007 Congressman Reyes told a conference in El Paso he
considered Rodriguez ¡°an American hero,¡± proudly adding that, ¡°with a few
liberties that Hollywood takes, the exploits of Jos¨¦ Rodriguez are documented
in the FOX TV series ¡°24.¡± I am told that almost every episode of ¡°24¡å
includes at least one scene glorifying torture, usually with lead man Jack
Bauer playing a main role. Reyes made it clear he is a big fan of Bauer and
¡°24.¡±
Were that not enough, after Rodriguez¡¯ role in destroying the interrogation
tapes became public, Reyes immediately cautioned against allowing
investigations to find just one ¡°scapegoat¡± (no secret to whom he was
referring). And so, unless Reyes does recuse himself, look for a ¡°complete and
thorough¡± investigation of the kind favored by the Nixon White House. (Just
when you may have thought it could not get any worse!)
Torture as Technique: Stark Differences in View
On Sept. 6, 2006, the very day Bush bragged about his ¡°alternative set of
procedures for interrogation¡± and appealed for legislation allowing the C.I.A.
to continue using them, the head of Army intelligence, Lt. Gen. John Kimmons,
took a very different tack. Conducting a Pentagon briefing shortly before the
president gave his own speech, Kimmons underscored the fact that the revised
Army manual for interrogation is in sync with the Geneva treaties. Then,
conceding past ¡°transgressions and mistakes,¡± Kimmons updated something I
learned 45 years ago as a second lieutenant in Army intelligence:
¡°No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think
history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years,
hard years, tells us that.¡±
Grabbing the headlines the following day, was Bush¡¯s admission that the CIA
has taken ¡°high-value¡± captives to prisons abroad for interrogation using
¡°tough¡± techniques prohibited by the revised Army field manual-and by Geneva,
for that matter. Gen. Kimmons displayed uncommon courage in facing into that
wind.
How About- Stop Torture Because It¡¯s Wrong?
Have you noticed the shameful silence of our institutional churches,
synagogues, and mosques? True, on occasion a professor of moral theology will
speak out. Professor William Schweiker of the Chicago Divinity School, for
example, has heaped scorn on the scenario of the lone knower of the facts whose
torture is thought to be able to save millions of lives. He notes that such is
¡°the stuff of bad spy movies and bad exam questions in ethics courses.¡±
Schweiker warns Christians, in particular:
¡°Not to fall prey to fear and questionable reasoning and this continue to
support an unjust and vile practice that demeans the nation¡¯s highest
political and moral ideals, even as it desecrates one of the most important
practices and symbols (Baptism) of the Christian faith.¡±
http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2007/1129.shtml
And, to its credit, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, a
coalition of 130 religious organizations from left to right on the political
spectrum, yesterday issued a strong call for the appointment of a special
counsel to investigate the C.I.A.¡¯s destruction of the videotapes of harsh
interrogation techniques. NRCAT¡¯s founder, Princeton Theological Seminary
professor George Hunsinger told the press that ¡°to acknowledge that
waterboarding is torture is like conceding that the sun rises in the east,¡±
adding:
¡°All the dissembling in high places that makes these shocking abuses
possible must be brought to an end. But they will undoubtedly continue unless
those responsible for them are held accountable. Clearly a joint probe by the
Justice Department and the CIA ¡ª agencies that are both seriously compromised
¡ª is not enough. A special counsel is an essential first step.¡±
But where are the official voices of the institutional churches, synagogues,
and mosques in this country. In effect, they are ordaining Jack Bauer with
their silence.
This Happened Before
With very few exceptions, the institutional churches in Nazi Germany kept a
shameful silence, denying believers the moral authority and leadership so
needed to stand up to Gestapo torturers. Indeed, many of the bishops-like
military leaders, and jurists-swore a personal oath to Hitler. For his part,
the Nazi leader moved quite quickly to ensure that there was a pastor-whether
Evangelical or Catholic-in every parish in Germany. He saw this as a source of
support and stability for his regime. And, sadly, it was.
While the Nazis were systematically torturing and even murdering defenseless
victims, they kept repeating assurances that not a single hair of anyone¡¯s
head would be harmed. (Shades of the familiar refrain ¡°we do not torture.¡±)
And the propaganda machine under Joseph Goebbels made a fine art of what
President Bush calls the need to ¡°catapult the propaganda.¡±
Sebastian Haffner, a young German lawyer in Berlin during the thirties kept a
journal that his children subsequently published in book form as ¡°Defying
Hitler.¡± His fascinating account of Germany in the thirties provides many
thoughtful insights into prevailing attitudes and the lack of moral leadership.
Haffner¡¯s journal depicted the kind of ambiance in which the approach of the
Grand Inquisitor would, and did, flourish -¡±in the end they will lay their
freedom at our feet [and] become obedient:¡±
¡°The weather in March 1933 was glorious. Was it not wonderful to¡merge with
festive crowds and listen to speeches about freedom and homeland? (It was
certainly better than having one¡¯s belly pumped up with a water hose in some
hidden secret police cellar.)¡±
Breeding and Breakdown
Haffner closes his chapter on 1933 with observations that, in my view, apply
much too aptly to America today:
¡°The sequence of events is, as you see, not so unnatural. It is wholly
within the normal range of psychology, and it helps to explain the almost
inexplicable. The only thing that is missing is what in animals is called
¡®breeding.¡¯ This is a solid inner kernel that cannot be shaken by external
pressures and forces, something noble and steely, a reserve of pride,
principle, and dignity to be drawn on in the hour of trial. It is missing in
Germans. As a nation we are soft, unreliable, and without backbone. That was
shown in March 1933. At the moment of truth, when other nations rise
spontaneously to the occasion, the Germans collectively and limply collapsed.
They yielded and capitulated, and suffered a nervous breakdown.¡±
C.I.A.¡¯s John Kiriakou says he is now convinced that waterboarding is
torture and he is against it. He adds, ¡°Americans are better than that.¡±
But Are We Better Than That?
Sadly, that remains to be seen. With virtually all religious institutions,
politicians, and educators all squandering what moral authority they have left,
the Jack Bauer culture threatens to win out in the end. We cannot let that
happen.
The upcoming duel on the missing interrogation tapes will again bring the
issue of torture front and center. And, strangely, waterboarding and other Jack
Bauer tradecraft tools still enjoy a strong constituency.
Here¡¯s where we come in; for we are the ones we¡¯ve been waiting for. As one
of my intelligence alumni colleagues noted recently, this is about our country
losing its soul. Let¡¯s rise to the occasion and stop unconscionable policies
like torture. True patriotism goes well beyond a flag-on-the-lapel. As Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. noted, ¡°Sometimes you have to put your body into it.¡±
Besides, we need to keep the water hose from pumping up our bellies and those
of our loved ones. I only wish that were as remote a possibility as it was
before President Bush and his associates came up with their ¡°alternative set
of procedures.¡±
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical
Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He was an Army officer and then a
C.I.A. analyst for 27 years, and now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
This article appeared first on Consortiumnews.com.
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