Poisoning The Better Angels Of Our Nature
What is torture? According to the dictionary it is defined as:
“The action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something. Great physical or mental suffering or anxiety.”
With regards to torture, the 17th Article of the Geneva Conventions states:
“No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.”
Thanks to the likes of John Yoo, in the aftermath of 9/11 the United States went about systematically attacking what it labeled legal ambiguities regarding what constitutes a prisoner of war. It was argued by Yoo, and others, that those captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere were not prisoners of war but rather enemy combatants, and were therefore not assured the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions. This precedent led to the current detention system employed by the United States, how detainees may be interrogated, and the ability of the United States to hold individuals indefinitely without any legal recourse. It also set a precedent with regards to the ability of the United States, a signatory of the Geneva Conventions, to both usurp its authority and redefine those aspects of it that challenge US detention and interrogation methods.
In short, the United States took the position of being able to adhere to the Geneva Conventions when it chose to, or disregard or redefine it when it presented obstacles.
By September 11th, 2006, the number of those detained in the War On Terror exceeded 83,000, none of whom, at that time, were charged with definable crimes under International or US law, nor brought to trial. It was during this immense detention roundup that entirely under qualified US military personnel were following wholly ambiguous rules of interrogation, the majority of whom had no training in interrogation techniques whatsoever and were commonly placed in the position of interrogating detainees after periods of instruction that were, in some cases, as short as six hours. Likewise, soldiers stationed at detention facilities were urged by a variety of individuals, from intelligence personnel to military contractors, to help ‘soften up’ prisoners, again despite the fact they had no experience working in such facilities, let alone dealing with prisoners. These were the individuals that were thrown to the wolves following the Abu Ghraib and Bagram scandals while no high level officer or member of the intelligence community, nor any member of the administration itself, was ever held responsible despite the fact that the interrogation directives themselves emanated from the highest offices in US government.
That said; let’s return to the primary question – what is torture?
While there are those that believe that torture is a wholly physical phenomenon, the truth is that since the 1950’s the Central Intelligence Agency has worked diligently on constructing an interrogation platform almost entirely based on psychological manipulation, including the development of LSD and other drugs as part of its chemical interrogation program known as MK-ULTRA (directed by the CIA’s Technical Services Staff, thus the digraph ‘MK’), which was later renamed MK-SEARCH in 1964. During that period, the following routinely occurred under the umbrella of the program:
- Experiments were conducted without the knowledge or consent of test subjects.
- Academic researchers were unaware in numerous cases that their work was being used to help provide the CIA with data.
- US soldiers were dosed with LSD to study its side affects with regards to mind control (Operation Teapot - Subproject 54, Perfect Concussion).
- Pregnant women were exposed to radiation and other substances and the testicles of inmates at an Oregon prison were irradiated without their knowledge (Operation Teapot – Subproject 54).
It is believed that over 150 different subprojects were carried out under the umbrella of MK-ULTRA. Unfortunately, as ‘luck’ would have it, the majority of the records regarding MK-ULTRA were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by order of Richard Helms, the director of the CIA between 1966 and 1973. As an aside, Helms remains the only CIA director to have ever been convicted of lying to Congress.
So how is this applicable to what is currently transpiring with regards to detainees? The answer is rather straight forward – the CIA’s extensive research into the use of detrimental psychological methods was transformed into the official American handbook on torture. The irony, of course, is that many people do not equate psychological mistreatment with the term ‘torture’, which is, in truth, the genius of its guise. Also of note is that much of the sensory deprivation techniques used by the United States military and CIA were initially researched by Dr. Donald Hebb, a Canadian psychologist, who, at his own admission, has claimed that the prolonged affects of sensory deprivation can easily result in a permanent state of psychosis after a minimum of six to eight days.
For example, take these images that hundreds of millions of people have seen since the detention facility at Guantanamo was opened…
In this photograph, and dozens of others like it, we see detainees at Guantanamo wearing hoods, blackened goggles, ear guards, and mittens. To your average observer this image doesn’t seem all that bad. In fact, it seems rather benign given what the individuals in the photographs have been accused of.
Now take a look at this photograph…
This photograph shows a subject undergoing one of Dr. Hebb’s sensory deprivation experiments. In it the subject is blindfolded, their hands are encased, and their auditory capability has been removed. They are also covered by a blanket, which can be removed and then replaced to control their body temperature and further disorient them (which is also the reason why their hands and feet are covered).
That said; the application of sensory deprivation represents only the beginning of the process of psychological torture. Once desensitized and physically overwhelmed, the implementation of fear and degradation are then introduced. While not all prisoners are immediately subjected to sensory deprivation, they are subjected to fear and degradation, which is then commonly followed by the application of sensory deprivation, usually represented by being held in small rooms, cages, or cells in stress positions that make it impossible to sleep. This state is then capitalized on by the introduction of fear, degradation, and the implementation of further sensory deprivation techniques, such as the use of strobe lights and loud music in a dark room while enduring painful stress positions - or other techniques such as waterboarding (though it should be noted that waterboarding is a technique that can be employed outright in an attempt to break an individual).
This photograph (to the left) is, perhaps, one of the most familiar images produced during the Abu Ghraib scandal. In it a prisoner is standing on a small box, their head covered, with wires attached to each hand.
The point of this position is to place the prisoner in a state of fear having told them that they will be electrocuted if they attempt to get off of the box or lower their arms. In actuality the wires aren’t attached to anything, but the prisoner is unaware of that because they have been placed on the box while hooded. Thus, they believe that they will be electrocuted if they move.
In truth, it is far worse than having a gun put to your head and the trigger pulled. At least in that scenario you have no control, and the fear is minimized by the fact that it only lasts a few seconds before you’re killed. In this instance the prisoner is placed in the position of fearing death, or extreme pain, based on their own actions. The catch is that if they’re left in that position long enough exhaustion begins to play a significant role, only heightening their fear despite the fact that they’ve become so fatigued that they begin to lose the ability to remain in the position that they have been told will ensure their well being. The psychological impact of this procedure, while obviously perceived to produce results, would most likely end in the prisoner immediately stepping off of the box if it is repeated enough times that they are driven to the point where death is viewed as a release, even given the stringent view of suicide in the Islamic faith.
When cultural and religious elements are introduced into the equation, humiliation also becomes part of the process. In the case of Muslim men, sexual assault or overt sexual behaviour by female interrogators, forced nudity and masturbation, sexual humiliation, and the forced imposition of homosexual acts are all examples of techniques that have been employed because of the offense and trauma they cause. Coupled with the affects of sensory deprivation and fear, the impact of such techniques works to further degrade the mental state of prisoners.
It is in such a state that, according to the tenets of the doctrine, individuals are more likely to divulge information. But, in truth, they are simply more apt to say whatever it is that their captors want to hear because of extreme disorientation – and that is not the production of reliable intelligence.
If you believe that psychological mistreatment does not constitute torture try a simple experiment at home (and no, I am not actually saying that you should do this, I am just demonstrating a point).
First, get a knife, place the blade over your forearm, and cut yourself. If you are too afraid to do it, remember that feeling.
Second, get a friend to blindfold you, place a hood over your head, wrap towels around your feet and hands, bind them together with something, and then have them place you in a small closet with your arms raised over your head. After they do that, have them turn the thermostat up to full.
After that, every hour have them turn the heat off and wait 30 minutes. Then have them place ice cubes or icepacks inside your clothing, leaving them there for 30 minutes. After that have them return, remove the icepacks, place a winter coat on you, turn the thermostat back up to full, bind your hands back together and resume holding them over your head. Repeat this process for 12 hours.
Chances are that you will not last 30 minutes in that closet. If you last four hours, I will bet you that you would rather willfully cut yourself rather than spend another four hours in it.
Ultimately, what is more torturous? Killing an individual outright, physically torturing them to the point that they could die, or driving them psychologically to the point that they want to? It is one thing to be executed by another. It is altogether another matter to be brought to that black precipice at which you would gladly execute yourself.
And yet they deem it legal.
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October 5th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I believe pushing someone to the point where they would rather be dead, is worse then actually killing them. This could easily go both ways however. If you are being hurt and someone else is physically destroying you intentionally, when you die there WILL be relief. But if someone pushes you to the point where you start thinking that you would rather be dead, but death never comes unless you bring it to yourself, then i believe that would be worse.
If there’s any parts in that that doesn’t make sense, my apologize.
October 5th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
:(
October 5th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
All supporters of the Iraq War should read this piece. Torture and lying to the world have made it necessary for America to change it ways. If I could cause America to fear one thing, it would be WAR. From a position of hate, America made it’s decisions about how to fight hate. The war supporters are on that slippery slope to creating so much hate that both sides will do anything. The Western World has to stop marketing hate as it’s way to defeat terrorism. For this reason alone, Obama must win. Even though McCain would try to conduct a war without torture, he still lives with hate as the core reason to justify war. They hate us so we have to hate them. My desire,
“Give peace a chance” - Beatles
Easy to write, very hard to do since you must show respect for your enemy, something McCain and most of the ultra right conservative Republicans can not do today.
October 5th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
What incited you to write this entry? Sleep deprivation? Your description is very cold and detached…maybe on purpose…
This kind of inhuman behavior makes me want to move on to a better place – far away from human kind – a feeling I’ve always had to repress.
You don’t have to look to Guantanamo or prisoners of war situations to understand how psychological mistreatment can damage someone. My older sister lived for a while [one can hardly call it that really] under the threat of being killed by her jealous ex-boyfriend… until she left him to stay in a woman’s shelter. As we breathe, many women around the world live in a constant state of fear – beaten down, denigrated constantly, having been told that they will be killed if they step out of line.
Whether psychological torture is worse than physical torture is a moot point. Both are abhorrent and must be stopped. I truly believe the “better angels of our nature” will prevail.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
[quote comment="67728"] For this reason alone, Obama must win. Even though McCain would try to conduct a war without torture, he still lives with hate as the core reason to justify war. They hate us so we have to hate them. .[/quote]
While I agree with you that respect is fundamental to peace, I’m not sure Obama will do any better than McCain at ending the gangrene that is spreading in these prisons. It’s easy to turn a blind eye to the inhuman actions that are carried out in the name of defending one’s country and values. Out of sight, out of mind…
October 5th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Matt, I have to say this is one of the most graphic but best entries that you have ever writen.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Propagating someone to cause violence against themselves or others is just as bad, if not worse, than committing the act yourself. A propagation threshold is often presented in (legal) cases dealing with violence to assess the factors leading to the (violent) act itself. That is, to determine who claims the onus of the outcome and to what degree. So I wonder, how these parameters could be upheld in a court of law and applied to someone (such as myself), where as military personnel, etc. never appear to be subject to these same applications of law?
It simply blows my mind how the government and its personnel are able to skip in and around legalities in order to get away with what most would deem to be, clearly torturous acts. Above the law, where are the morals and ethics of these people??
Obviously, some sort of loop hole was found, as demonstrated by Matthew’s mention of “legal ambiguities” as studied by Yoo:
Quoting Matthew Good:
…”It was argued by Yoo, and others, that those captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere were not prisoners of war but rather enemy combatants, and were therefore not assured the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions..”
So let’s not change the definition of torture, but rather- to whom we apply that definition. That makes everything all better. It’s sick really. Dancing within the shadows of “grey areas” is what the government does best. It is within those confines where things that could be clearly defined, safely slip thorough the cracks.
BTW, I like when you write about these things. Graphic seems to be the only way to grab anyone’s attention these days, unfortunately. Sadly, some people are bombarded with that sort of thing on a daily bases anyway- I guess you can become numb to anything if exposed long enough.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
The point of this position is to place the prisoner in a state of fear having told them that they will be electrocuted if they attempt to get off of the box or lower their arms. In actuality the wires aren’t attached to anything, but the prisoner is unaware of that because they have been placed on the box while hooded. Thus, they believe that they will be electrocuted if they move.
Thats horrible. Reminds me of the movie SAW. And that movie is unbelievably sick and horrible. And it makes me sick to know something real reminded me of that movie. Definetly intense..
October 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
While reading I actually started to feel disheartened and almost ill. I just don’t understand the mentality behind torture. Within the article, when you described the “experiment at home” it was a scary but helpful smack of reality for readers to imagine. Although disturbing, this was striking and well written. Definitely an article that I will never forget.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
It seems since the Civil War we have have been repeating this during war.
Civil War -Both North and South had some horrid prisons that were horrible even back then.
In world War II we had the Japanese Internment Camps. I don’t know how bad they were but the thought that a bunch of people lost all of their rights because of actions of their former countrymen, or soon to be, in that regard. ALthough it was doubtful that they were going to do anything as some fought with us in the war.
I don’t recall what else besides tha already mentioned but we have also supported countries that were known for their torturous actions. Pol Pot being one example of that.
Also, isn’t torture a form of terrorism?
October 6th, 2008 at 2:23 am
After reading this entry, my first thoughts were how my brother’s military training and experiences in Afghanistan have skewed his view of what is considerable “acceptable” treatment of others. We often get into lengthy discussions about the war and events that occur while he is deployed overseas and it’s rarely ever the actual details of what transpires that disturbs me but rather the attitude with which these stories are told.
The knowledge that people can be taught or conditioned to not only condone such treatment of others but to actually revel in it and promote it as necessary, is as horrifying as the fact that these actions occur in the first place.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:57 am
If mental illness is as legitimate as any purely physical ailment– with the potential to be just as debilitating, distressing, and even life-threatening– then psychological torture should be considered no different from physical torture. They can play games with ambiguities all they want, but there is absolutely no justification for it, ever.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Dear Mr. Good,
Monday morning images do horrify. I suspect these pics are known to everyone, but I don’t watch tv as a general rule, and try to avoid visual media. Still, I am of two minds:
One - wants to note something the character Frederick said in Woody Allen’s movie “Hannah and Her Sisters”:
You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips, and more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question “How could it possibly happen?” is that it’s the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is “Why doesn’t it happen more often?”
and Two: wanting to atone for the sins of others and being mostly powerless to do so.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I hope everyone gets me right, but sometimes I am so tired of all the talking about how evil this world is and how malicious and false mankind is. We all know but simply won’t realize that the preconditions to all that evil and cruelty can be found in every single one of us. That constant striving for wealth, personal advantage and status. I know very very few people that I would absolve from in one way or the other being of such nature. These few have realized these fatal predispositions of man - that being basal for even developping the ability of making some change to patterns that have consolidated over hundreds of thousends of years.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:09 am
When a human does something terrible to another human we call them an animal which strikes me as incredibly ridiculous. Humans do this kind of shit to each other without blinking an eye. Animals do not. It really is amazing to think of the things that we will do to one another.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Sorry, I just wanted to add something crucial that I so dumbly forgot to include in my entry above:
When I was speaking about propagation of violence, I was referring to how that is done through provocation. To provoke someone into hurting themselves or others to a point where they feel there is no other choice but to do so (because they feel like they will be freed, or feel relief of pain or stress), is just as bad as committing the act yourself. Whether violence (torture) is propagated through physical or phsychological means is irrelevant, because both are inhumane, hainus acts.
October 6th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
The human condition
The movie “Das Experiment” closely follows the Stanford prison experiment. If you do some research on the experiment, you will find photos of naked “prisoners” with paper bags over their heads. Participants were chosen at random and separated into guards and prisoners at random as well. It was supposed to last 2 weeks, but everything turned violent and sadistic on the second day. The experiment was stopped after 6 days.
It is in such a state that, according to the tenets of the doctrine, individuals are more likely to divulge information. But, in truth, they are simply more apt to say whatever it is that their captors want to hear because of extreme disorientation – and that is not the production of reliable intelligence
I don’t think they want reliable intelligence or are out for justice. They want to get the “proof” that they are right and that is what they will get using these methods. I guess narcotics that make you tell the truth are too expensive and less fun :(
October 6th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
The Heart of Darkness isn’t in the Congo or some river in Vietnam right now, it’s at 1600 Pennsylvannia Ave. more specifically the office of the Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff David Addington.
October 6th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I totally forgot, Philip Zimbardo (creator of Stanford Experiment) was on the defense team of Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick (the Abu Ghraib scandal). His interview with Amy Goodman
Very interesting interview. It has a link to his website based on his book “The Lucifer Effect” with a voting booth:
Chapter 16 of The Lucifer Effect describes how the Abu Ghraib abuses were shaped by systemic forces as well as situational conditions. Although the U.S. legal system isn’t equipped to convict systems and situations, you can use this Virtual Voting Booth to judge four leaders who approved of the policies on which the abuse and torture were based: George Tenet, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush. The charges for each leader are taken from public documents and analyses by Human Rights Watch (for a fuller treatment, see Chapter 16).
October 6th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Ironically, I was just forwarded one of those garbage viral e-mails (from my very conservative aunt) that purports to be a letter to the editor (but is really just racist, xenophobic propaganda) and includes the line: “And I’m supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured by a justice system of the nation they come from and are fighting against in a brutal insurgency. In the meantime, when I hear a story about a CANADIAN soldier roughing up an Insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.”
There you go. That’s why this is allowed to go on.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Well written. Horrific content.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
considering the psychological torture that must happen before a human being is willing to commit that kind of torture against another human being…
when i see pictures of torture, i always wonder… how can a person with any sense of a soul do that kind of thing to another human being? prisoner of war, enemy combatant…those are mere labels…words…but when you are there with another human being, how can you do that? i don’t think it’s possible unless you, yourself have been psychologically tortured in a way.
people always argue me and say, “But they are soldiers. they do what they are told.” I don’t care who tells me to do something like that, I won’t do it. UNLESS… unless, I suppose, I am afraid for some reason.
I don’t think that these people are BAD people, per say. actually, i feel badly for them… i can’t imagine what it does to one’s soul to treat another human being like that. but at the end of the day, too, you have to take some personal responsibility… don’t you?
ugh. i feel sick to my stomach. when did the world get this way? :( how did we lose the fundamental ability to look another human being in the eyes and recognize them as human? forget religion, colour, gender… just two human eyes staring back at you.
blech. hopeless.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
How can a kid tear wings off butterflies and say - fly!?
UNLESS:
1. You are told that you will hold no accountability
2. You are under pressure from your comrades, not knowing that they are under just as much pressure from you
3. You make up what is expected of you and are afraid of the consequences of not achieving the “goal”
4. You are too following the leader, whoever it may be
5. You know there is no turning back
October 25th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
[...] picture is a very old form of torture which removes all of ones senses for a period of time. Good mentions that “sensory deprivation can easily result in a permanent state of psychosis after a minimum [...]