This is an intriguing, growing story and one that apparently “has legs” and is not going to be going away soon. I think the bigger question—whether we tear the prison down is “Will this bring down the Bush presidency?” I also wonder how it may affect future/current prisoner interrogations. Many stories seem to be pointing a finger at the CIA or to private “mercenary types” that used to be Special Forces or Navy Seals. Since most of what those former Special Forces soldiers did was secret, I doubt we will learn much from their being interviewed. I am looking forward to Ken Hechtman’s take on this issue.

There may be something to the Guardian’s theory. The rest of the left press has been rounding up the usual suspects in the search for root causes — The School of the Americas, the American prison system, Israel, etc.

The American version of R2I (Resistance to Interrogation) is called SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape). About ten years ago, the Air Force’s SERE school had a scandal of its own when ABC’s tabloid news show broke the story of “rape-scenario” training.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Unlisted.db&command=viewone&id=10

The rape scene in “G.I Jane” is loosely based on one of the Air Force incidents.

Ironically enough, the Air Force only began using sexual abuse and threats of sexual abuse in training after Gulf War I, in which two women aircrew were shot down over a country that routinely used rape as an interrogation technique.

There was a phrase in the SERE Code of Conduct document I didn’t understand. Maybe someone here knows what it means. “Defeatist treaties, writings and materials will not be used in training programs.” I thought that was a reference to 4th Geneva, but 4th Geneva is mentioned explicitly elsewhere in the document. Anybody know what treaty they mean?

As far as the future of interrogation, I’ll predict two things. One is the increased use of civilian mercenaries. Like Guantanamo Bay, they’re a black hole in the legal system. Neither civilian nor military law applies to them. The other is the adoption of Israeli methods. Conventional torture only in time-critical “ticking bomb cases”, more subtle techniques like shaking, crouching and sense-deprivation otherwise.

I have read reports for years that the Army has engaged in training that is intended to desensitize its male soldiers. By showing videos (computer-generated, I believe) of females being shot, blown up, etc., they are supposed to be able to overcome the “problem” of being too protective of their female fellow soldiers, the “problem” of being too sensitive to the sight of women being shot up on the battlefield, etc.

This is what has come of “feminism” : training young men to be insensitive to violence against women.

Here’s the account of how the photos of Abu Ghraib came out. The father and uncle of one of the soldiers facing punishment wanted government and military higher-ups to be made accountable, not just the young people immediately involved in the abuse. When they got no response from the government, they contacted CBS via David Hackworth.

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/006410.html

I knew Mr. Hechtman would be there to shed light on an otherwise dark and secret subject! I thank him and Mr. Coleman for their insight—and Mr. Auster for bringing up the subject.

Can Mr. Hechtman describe for those of us outside of intel and the military what “the Israeli methods” are? I had no idea that the Mossad and other Western countries used torture or near torture techniques in interrogations.

The Israeli methods fall under the general heading of “moderate physical pressure”, which phrase comes from a landmark Israeli Supreme Court decision limiting but not abolishing the practices.

Specifically, “hooding” and sleep deprivation mean just what they sound like. Those two aren’t unique to Israel, just about everyone uses those. “Shaking” means grabbing the prisoner by the shirt collar and roughly shaking his head back and forth for hours at a time. “Crouching” means forcing the prisoner to sit in an uncomfortable position, again for hours at a time. Sensory deprivation is a hood, plus earplugs and oven mitts.

The effect of any or all of these over a long enough time is to disorient the prisoner so much that he forgets where he is, who he’s talking to and why he wants to hold back information. If time isn’t a factor, these methods are more effective than anything that does permanent damage.

Here’s a backgrounder from the lead Israeli lefty organization on the issue:

http://www.stoptorture.org.il/eng/background.asp?menu=3&submenu=2

Somehow, I knew Mr. Hechtman would come thru! I very much appreciate the link and his insight, and hope to learn more.

David Hackworth has a commentary on the prisoner abuse, with some interesting anecdotes from the Korean War and the Vietnam War: http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=65&rnd=615.6386659457202

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