Testing Their Sincerity. The American Radical Right has been poohpoohing the idea that the U.S. has tortured "terror" suspects, all the evidence from Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and secret prisons to that effect notwithstanding. I have a challenge to these brave defenders of 'physical pressure' and the other euphemisms they employ for the abuse that the Bush Administration has subjected people to. Let's do a test.
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We will arrest all these Rightwingers and subject them to "rendition" to the secret prisons they think are just dandy, there to be subjected themselves to precisely the kinds of interrogations they defend, for the same lengths of time. The object? To see if we can wring from them a confession that they have committed or are about to commit an act of terrorism against the people of the United States. It doesn't matter what act that might be. We'll leave it up to the individual Rightwing prisoner — oops: "detainee" — to confess to whatever s/he wants, that is if s/he should be so weak-willed a sissy that s/he cannot stand the 'moderate physical pressure' or 'psychological manipulation' or anything else they currently call Bush Administration tactics. But surely they will be able easily to withstand all such gentle measures.
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Since they, unlike our foreign 'guests', have the advantage of knowing that the guidelines, such as they were, (ostensibly) forbade actually killing prison ... detainees, we will amend the rules for our Rightwing guests a tad, to say that interrogators can surprise us. After all, some detainees have indeed died in U.S. custody, as for instance being beaten to death by our brave "heroes" in Iraq. So let's take that risk with the Radical Rightwingers and literally unleash the dogs now and then, and send some current thru those electrical wires connected to their genitalia, to shake the certainty that the U.S. is so deeply concerned about the life of detainees that it would not really risk killing anyone. As things stand now, they assume that our interrogators wouldn't really drown them in "waterboarding", a technique our brave heroes have been proud to use:

The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt. According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaeda's toughest prisoner, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won the admiration of interrogators when he was able to last over two minutes before begging to confess. "The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law," said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch.

But what if we said it would be alrite to risk the death of an occasional detainee (for instance, Bill O'Reilly). What better way to put pressure on other detainees than to show that we are 'dead' serious? Oh, we could try not to kill them, but if we miscalculate, where's the harm?
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So, let us interrogate these Rightwingers in the very same "dark prisons" or "black sites" that the Bush Administration has shunted people off to in order to prevent American lawyers and courts from stepping in to protect their rights, for the same periods of time as "terror" suspects, then incarcerate them at Guantanamo for years at a time. After four years, we can then bring these Rightwingers home to tell us all that such treatment passes constitutional muster and does not violate civilized standards on human rights. Well, those who survive can tell us that. Don't worry. Almost all will survive their 'interrogations'. Almost.
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Human Rights Watch discusses some other American interrogation techniques, as used in one secret prison in Afghanistan.

The detainees said U.S. interrogators slapped or punched them during interrogations. They described being held in complete darkness for weeks on end, shackled to rings bolted into the walls of their cells, with loud music or other sounds played continuously. Some detainees said they were shackled in a manner that made it impossible to lie down or sleep, with restraints that caused their hands and wrists to swell up or bruise. The detainees said they were deprived of food for days at a time, and given only filthy water to drink.

I'm sure none of that would bother Bill O'Reilly, one of the most steadfast defenders of U.S. interrogation techniques, nor the brave woman talk-show host(ess) he had on tonite's program who was equally adamant that U.S. interrogations are not torture. Surely they won't mind testing that theory in the real world. After all, O'Reilly explicitly made fun of the fact that music by the band Red Hot Chili Peppers was among the noises blasted at prisoners day and nite at high volume. Let's see how much O'Reilly enjoys a little music from that band, Eminem, Dr. Dre, and the other artists used to influence people to cooperate. Perhaps O'Reilly won't be such a music lover on his return. If he returns.
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One of the key practical arguments against torture is that it wrings out false confessions and fraudulent information. But I'm sure that Bill O'Reilly and that blond bit... woman will not utter so much as a syllable that isn't God's honest truth, no matter what the CIA or its lackeys in foreign countries might do to them, no matter how long it goes on, and no matter how many years they are held in Guantanamo without access to lawyers or courts, due process, their families, their jobs, their homes, their kids — whatever. Nothing the U.S. has done is intolerable. All is permissible against enemies of the United States, right?
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Well, I regard Bill O'Reilly, that bitch, and every other defender of torture by the Bush Administration as enemies of the United States and everything this country stands for. I want them treated the way they want our other enemies treated. How can they object? Surely they subscribe to the Christian standard "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", which of course mandates the reverse: joyfully embrace having done to you what you do to others. So, by all means let the defenders of Bush Administration 'pressure' tactics experience them first-hand, as "investigative reports", in order that they might thereafter give us vivid accounts of how gentle and humane our treatment of our 'enemies' has been. Bill O'Reilly said today,

The truth is that America has been restrained in its response to the savagery of Al Qaeda and others.

Surely he and the other defenders of the Bush Administration's non-torturous interrogations will say precisely the same thing after they, themselves, personally experience many weeks of exactly that kind of interrogation and four years of detention without charges, thousands of miles from their homes.
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I look forward to hearing their first-hand reports. Gee, Bill, tell us, what was it like?
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Until I hear such first-hand reports from the likes of Bill O'Reilly, I will have to rely upon common sense and my own human ability to put myself in another person's place, an ability the Radical Right does not have, because they aren't fully human.
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Maybe a few weeks of sleep deprivation in a dark, cold room, being slapped around and told to confess, then held incommunicado for a few short years will give them the gift of humanity. I'm willing to take the chance — with their lives. Aren't you?




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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,672 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:44 PM