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The U.S. torture policy equals Communist Russia's & Nazi Germany's
June 9, 2007 2:45 PM

Since Abu Ghraib came to light, it's been pretty obvious that the policy of the United States has become one that allows torturing suspected terrorists if it wants to. Do the The Geneva Conventions apply? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called them "quaint" and "obsolete" in a famous January 25, 2002, memo (see page 2 of the memo) and argued that dropping Geneva would allow the president to "preserve his flexibility" in the war on terror. His reasoning?

That U.S. officials might otherwise be subject to war-crimes prosecutions under the Geneva Conventions. Gonzales said he feared "prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges" based on a 1996 U.S. law that bars "war crimes," which were defined to include "any grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions.

So, that's the set-up to the "re-characterization" by the Bush administration of torture as "enhanced interrogation techniques." In a chilling post by Andrew Sullivan, he has uncovered that exact same phrase used by Nazi Germany in order to avoid uttering the word "torture":

The phrase "Verschärfte Vernehmung" is German for "enhanced interrogation". Other translations include "intensified interrogation" or "sharpened interrogation". It's a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their "enhanced interrogation techniques" would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. At least, that was the original plan.

The use of water-boarding, used by our government, was initially forbidden by Nazi Germany. As time went on, though, historians have shown that "all the bureaucratic restrictions were eventually broken or abridged." Andrew Sullivan digs up a 1948 court case from Norway where the court was trying to determine whether the methods used by the Nazis amounted to torture. The Nazi defense of the techniques is almost verbatim that of the Bush administration:


That the acts of torture in no case resulted in death. Most of the injuries inflicted were slight and did not result in permanent disablement.

The Norwegian court case is documented here, with the following quotes (about the three Nazis on trial - Bruns, Schubert, & Clemens) chilling in their similarity to today's Bush policy:

Between 1942 and 1945, Bruns used the method of "verschärfte Vernehmung" on 11 Norwegian citizens. This method involved the use of various implements of torture, cold baths and blows and kicks in the face and all over the body. Most of the prisoners suffered for a considerable time from the injuries received during those interrogations.

Between 1942 and 1945, Schubert gave 14 Norwegian prisoners "verschärfte Vernehmung," using various instruments of torture and hitting them in the face and over the body. Many of the prisoners suffered for a considerable time from the effects of injuries they received.

On 1st February, 1945, Clemens shot a second Norwegian prisoner from a distance of 1.5 metres while he was trying to escape. Between 1943 and 1945, Clemens employed the method of "verschäfte Vernehmung" on 23 Norwegian prisoners. He used various instruments of torture and cold baths. Some of the prisoners continued for a considerable time to suffer from injuries received at his hands.

Sullivan goes on to detail the findings of the court, placing into historical context what's going on in America in 2007.

Additionally, we have a recent article in the NY Times detailing the similarities between interrogation practices of the old Soviet Union and those used today by our government. The article (used as a reference in this book on CIA interrogation) describes basic Soviet N.K.V.D. (later K.G.B.) methods: isolation in a small cell; constant light; sleep deprivation; cold or heat; reduced food rations. Soviets denied such treatment was torture, just as American officials have in recent years:


The effects of isolation, anxiety, fatigue, lack of sleep, uncomfortable temperatures, and chronic hunger produce disturbances of mood, attitudes and behavior in nearly all prisoners. The living organism cannot entirely withstand such assaults. The Communists do not look upon these assaults as "torture." But all of them produce great discomfort, and lead to serious disturbances of many bodily processes; there is no reason to differentiate them from any other form of torture.

The Bush administration concluded that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to Qaeda detainees. Similarly, the Soviets argued that international rules did not apply to foreign detainees:

In typical Communist legalistic fashion, the N.K.V.D. rationalized its use of torture and pressure in the interrogation of prisoners of war. When it desired to use such methods against a prisoner or to obtain from him a propaganda statement or "confession," it simply declared the prisoner a "war-crimes suspect" and informed him that, therefore, he was not subject to international rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war.

Lastly, we now have the European Union's Council of Europe making it official that Poland and Romania hosted secret CIA detention facilities, where they would carry out their "enhanced interrogation techniques."

TPM has more on this, with the complete document outlining these CIA torture centers here.

It can't be any more clear that since 2001, the Bush administration has completely discarded the moral high ground that the U.S. used to carry througout the rest of the world. Instead, it has turned us into one of the countries with "the most negative influence on the world."


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This isgoing on in the United States. Playing with the heat and making people starve.
Paying people to torture and harrasse individuals.
And the politicians are going along with it.
It is like a game of evil

- Posted by kelley mckernan - October 29, 2008 3:00 PM

After I posted back in October, I realized there is some truth in this story in all countries. Isolation,
and keeping families apart, The lack of sleep. and now the food probelms people are having to feed their families.
I am a political science major Law and government
minor. And the probelms are countries are facing and the tensions are getting worst by the miinute.
This is a serious probelm.. That I feel is just starting to surface not in our country the United States.
But have been in other countries for years. And the legal system needs to do a investigation on this type of torture that is happening. life is to short.
And the precious lives that our being abused and
being undetected is a in humane behavior.

- Posted by kelley Mckernan - December 20, 2008 9:26 PM


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