An article in today’s Washington Post written by a contract interrogator at a detention facility in Fallujah. [quote=“Washington Post: Eric Fair”]The lead interrogator at the DIF had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned. It is rare that I sleep through the night without a visit from this man. His memory harasses me as I once harassed him.
Despite my best efforts, I cannot ignore the mistakes I made at the interrogation facility in Fallujah. I failed to disobey a meritless order, I failed to protect a prisoner in my custody, and I failed to uphold the standards of human decency. Instead, I intimidated, degraded and humiliated a man who could not defend himself. I compromised my values. I will never forgive myself.
American authorities continue to insist that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident in an otherwise well-run detention system. That insistence, however, stands in sharp contrast to my own experiences as an interrogator in Iraq. I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking. Aggressive, and in many ways abusive, techniques were used daily in Iraq, all in the name of acquiring the intelligence necessary to bring an end to the insurgency. The violence raging there today is evidence that those tactics never worked. My memories are evidence that those tactics were terribly wrong.[/quote]
Of course, we shouldn’t allow feelings to interfere in matters of policy.
Clearly such things just get in the way:
[quote=“BBC: CIA worker is jailed over beating”]A former CIA contractor convicted of mistreating a detainee in Afghanistan who later died has been jailed for eight years and four months.
David Passaro, 40, the first US civilian to be charged with abusing a prisoner since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began, was convicted last August.
Afghan prisoner Abdul Wali was beaten in June 2003 and died two days later.
Mr Wali, an Afghan farmer, had gone to the US authorities voluntarily to clear his name over a rocket attack.
US District Court Judge Terrence Boyle, sitting in Raleigh, North Carolina, said that a lack of an autopsy kept Mr Passaro from being charged with murder.
Said Akbar, the local Afghan governor who encouraged Mr Wali to go to the authorities to clear his name, wrote to the judge to say the incident had helped to recruit more terrorists.
Mr Passaro, who was convicted of felony assault, said: “He is a human being. I failed him. If I could go back and change things, it would have never happened. I wish I had never gone in to talk to him.” [/quote] “I wish I had never gone in to talk to him… with a metal flashlight… with which I beat him to death.” Jesus wept.
One of the several reasons I mentioned in stating my opposition to the use of torture was the effect it has on those who apply it.
I guess these posts are evidence of this.
Torture sounds like fun. Anyone who disagrees with me who likes to make mincemeat out of people’s arguments on internet forums or in pubs, or who relishes telling stories of the brawls they’ve won, is a hypocrite.
Are you serious? An argument of words is comparable to physically torturing someone? Fisticuffs are comparable to physically torturing someone? :loco:
Anyone who disagrees with the idea in your post is not a complete and utter loon would be much closer to the mark.
How so? Any fight I’ve ever been in has been with a free man, not someone under my control. At the end of it all, we both go home. One of us may be bloodier than the other but we both go home. We also have the option of taking the matter to court and getting compensated if the fight was unfair in some way.
I know a lot of people who like to humiliate others, who really, really get a lot out of being able to dominate other people, who like to pick fights and win them, who like to gang up on others with their friends and pick apart other people who are outnumbered. And I can see a lot of those people torturing people. I never said it was the same thing, but I think it’s on the same continuum. If you like to humilate and abuse, then you like to humiliate and abuse. Torturers are just those who have unbridled power.
Can you imagine what would happen if we did a Stanford Prison exxperiment with Forumosans?
How about this: if there was a Stanford Prison experiment done here, and only forumosans could sign up, would you volunteer? Why or why not? If you really think some people who post here wouldn’t turn sadistic, then hell, let’s do it!
I’ve never envisioned a cheerful interrogator. The best you can be is the “good guy” who is friendly to the interrogated prisoner to provide a dramatic switch from the “bad guy” who gets the prisoner feeling psychotic enough to spill the beans. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable playing either of these roles. Wouldn’t it be better to just forget about interrogating, to put hidden microphones in the cells and eavesdrop on the conversations? I’d feel much better about myself to do it that way.
[quote=“treetop”]I know a lot of people who like to humiliate others, who really, really get a lot out of being able to dominate other people, who like to pick fights and win them, who like to gang up on others with their friends and pick apart other people who are outnumbered. And I can see a lot of those people torturing people. I never said it was the same thing, but I think it’s on the same continuum. If you like to humilate and abuse, then you like to humiliate and abuse. Torturers are just those who have unbridled power.
