Torture

Friday

Alex Massie

Is Sleep Deprivation Really Torture?

It’s disappointing to see my old and good chum and all-round good egg Iain Martin ask this question. But of course many people doubt, even though both the State Department and the FCO consider sleep deprivation a torture technique, that it really can be so vicious a tactic as to merit that label.. It sounds quite harmless, doesn’t it? A bit like working the night-shift and then having to look after a couple of young kids while your wife goes out to work. Sleep Deprivation? That just means feeling tired, doesn’t it? Same with shackling, eh? That just means being hand-cuffed. And the constant playing of loud music? Hell, my

Thursday

Alex Massie

Con Coughlin & His Critics

David has already highlighted some of the more dubious arguments Con Coughlin deploys in response to his critics but a couple of other points may still be made. Con writes: If I understand correctly Alex Deane’s high-minded rant about the rights of innocent people receiving a fair trial (which, just to put the record straight, I fully support), he is prepared to accept at face value former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed’s claim that he was brutally tortured during his interrogation with the full complicity of British security officials. David Davies, the former shadow Home Secretary, made a similar argument on the Today programme this morning, preferring to believe the word of

David Blackburn

The White House is bluffing

The Atlantic reports that the White House is considering altering intelligence sharing agreements with Britain in the light of the Binyam Mohamed case. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt briefed: “The United States government made its strongly held views known throughout this process. We appreciate that the UK Government stood by the principle of protecting foreign government intelligence in its court filings. We’re deeply disappointed with the court’s judgment today, because we shared this information in confidence and with certain expectations.” I detect a bluff. Britain and the US share information on an hourly basis, providing an essential understanding in the combined operation against al Qaeda. The US would never compromise

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Will British judges be “responsible” for the next terrorist attack?

Con Coughlin has an awful piece up at the Telegraph arguing that, in the light of today’s decision in the case of Binyam Mohamed, “if another al-Qaeda bomb goes off in London, the judges will be as much to blame as Osama bin Laden.” Seriously. That’s what he wrote. It’s as preposterous as it is repellent. Happily, over at Conservative Home, Alex Deane does an excellent job dismantling this and the rest of Coughlin’s diatribe here. The crux of Coughlin’s argument – in as much as there is one beyond the notion that the judiciary is inviting al-Qaeda to attack the United Kingdom – lies in the idea that the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Binyam Mohamed & the Missing Seven Paragraphs

So, the government has lost its case and the FCO has now published the famous missing seven paragraphs: v)  It was reported that at some stage during that further interview process by the United States authorities, BM had been intentionally subjected to continuous sleep deprivation.  The effects of the sleep deprivation were carefully observed.  vi) It was reported that combined with the sleep deprivation, threats and inducements were made to him.  His fears of being removed from United States custody and “disappearing” were played upon. vii) It was reported that the stress brought about by these deliberate tactics was increased by him being shackled in his interviews  viii) It was

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Because nothing enhances security like torture…

The worst column I’ve read* today was written by the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen who, I think, likes to style himself some kind of liberal. Note: this doesn’t mean he’s my kind of liberal. Anyway, here’s how his execrable piece begins: There is almost nothing the Obama administration does regarding terrorism that makes me feel safer. Whether it is guaranteeing captured terrorists that they will not be waterboarded, reciting terrorists their rights, or the legally meandering and confusing rule that some terrorists will be tried in military tribunals and some in civilian courts, what is missing is a firm recognition that what comes first is not the message sent to

Saturday

David Blackburn

Shaming allegations that reveal the full horror of the Iraq war

The Independent’s front page splash about British troops torturing and sexually abusing Iraqis in 2003 has, to put it mildly, put me right off my cornflakes. The allegations are horrific. Acts of live pornography designed to humiliate sexually conservative Muslim sensibilities, the electrocution of detainees, beatings, rapes and widespread detention without charge – the echoes of Abu Ghraib resound. Phil Shiner, the lawyer representing all the Iraqis, wrote to the MoD saying: ‘Due to the wider access of information and disclosure in the US, we do know that sexual humiliation was authorised as an aid to interrogation at the highest levels of the US administration. Given the history of the

Friday

David Blackburn

Evidence relating to the incarceration of Binyam Mohamed will be published

The High Court has ruled that a summary of US intelligence, relating to Binyam Mohamed’s allegations that he was tortured, will be made public. David Miliband expressed his “deep disappointment” at the ruling and issued the following statement: ‘The Government is deeply disappointed by the judgment handed down today by the High Court which concludes that a summary of US intelligence material should be put into the public domain against their wishes. We will be appealing in the strongest possible terms. The issues at stake are simple, but profound. They go to the heart of the efforts made to defend the security of the citizens of this country. At a

Monday

Alex Massie

President Cheney

Dick Cheney, surely now confirmed as the worst Vice-President in American history, produced a cracker, even by his miserable standards, during his interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace on Sunday. The subject was “harsh interrogation techniques”: WALLACE: So even these cases where they went beyond the specific legal authorization, you’re OK with it. CHENEY: I am. Well, you can’t get much clearer than that, can you? The contempt with which Cheney views the rule of law is quite breathtaking. Not that, given everything we know about the Vice-Presidents’ term in office, it should really come as any great surprise. But still… Now that George W Bush has retreated to Crawford to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Torture: You Know It When You See It

I watched Tunes of Glory again last night. It’s one of my favourite films*. During it, Basil Barrow, the newly-arrived Colonel of the battalion, played by John Mills, mentions his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War: Oh they gave me time, all right. Again and again. When I was in the prison camp, they nearly drowned me, then they brought me round. Then they put a wet cloth over my mouth and kept it wet until I nearly drowned again. And the only thing that pulled me through was the thought that one day I’d come back and sit in the middle of

Saturday

Alex Massie

Who Cares if Torture Works or Not?

Ann Althouse argues that Critics of “harsh interrogation techniques” — they, of course, call it torture — bolster their moral arguments with the pragmatic argument that it doesn’t even work. How unusual it is for the media to disillusion us about that and force the moralists to get by on moral ideals alone! Responding to this, Publius reminds her that these “non-torture” techniques have killed people and Lindsay Beyerstein picks apart the Washington Post story that Althouse claims vindicates Dick Cheney.  All of which is all very well and good. I don’t doubt that torture – or whatever euphemism you want to give it – can work. But so what?

Friday

Alex Massie

Is Using a Minotaur to Gore Detainees a Form of Torture?

Well is it? This is one of the great moral issues of our time. Happily, (after the jump) there’s a panel of experts available to debate the matter. The awful thing is that this is horribly close to being a verbatim report from some ghastly cable TV “news” shoutfest. Thank god for the Onion, proving once again that the “fake” news is often better than the so-called “real” news. At least it’s entertaining, not enraging. Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

Tuesday

Alex Massie

America’s Worst Congressman

The loathsome Peter King is at it again. Speaking to Politico, he’s up in arms that some people think torturing prisoners is wrong. King, channeling both the sense of outrage and of political opportunity felt in parts of the GOP, defended in detail the interrogation practices — threats to kill a detainee’s family, and or to kill a detainee with a power drill — detailed in a CIA inspector general report released yesterday. “You’re talking about threatening to kill a guy, threatening to attack his family, threatening to use an electric drill on him — but never doing it,” King said.  “You have that on the one hand — and on the other you

Thursday

Alex Massie

George W Bush: Terrorist Appeaser?

Well, according to Dick Cheney, George W Bush was just as almost as bad as your average America-hating euro-weenie or member of the Democratic Congressional caucus. Barton Gellman – whose sourcing is pretty good – reports that: Cheney’s disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues. By habit, he listens more than he talks, but Cheney broke form when asked about his regrets. “In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him,” said a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney’s reply. “He said Bush was shackled

Monday

David Blackburn

To restore confidence, there must be an inquiry into alleged British involvement in torture. 

Following Alan Johnson’s and David Miliband’s denial of British collusion in torture, Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, has inadvertently added a further denial. In a Radio 4 interview, recorded prior to the publication of Johnson’s and Miliband’s joint article, and which will be broadcast this morning, Sir John asserted that there has been “no torture and there is no complicity with torture.” Asked if Britain was ever compromised by its allies’, and particularly the Americans’, “different moral standards”, Scarlett replied: “Our American allies know that we are our own service, that we are here to work for the British interests and the United Kingdom. We’re an independent service

Martin Bright

The Torture Debate

There isn’t one. That was a trick headline. The line between a state that tortures and the state that does everything in its power to avoid the physical abuse of individuals in its name is what defined the late twentieth century drive against barbarism. When the French were exposed using specially adapted field radios to pass electric shocks through suspected rebels in Algeria it rightly caused outrage in a world still recovering from the reality of the Holocaust.  We are a little less easy to horrify now. But the revelation that our own intelligence services have been prepared to use the fruits of torture, however unwittingly, still has the ability to digust. The response this

Tuesday

John Stokes

Damaging revelations make the CIA more risk averse

The latest revelations about the CIA’s prospective covert assassination program is yet another nail in the coffin of US intelligence and its willingness to take risks. Immediately after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney called a meeting of intelligence chiefs to ask them what new powers they would like to fight terrorism. A whole laundry list was presented, including increased eavesdropping on Americans, the seizing of terrorists overseas and a torture program that evolved to include a number of foreign countries. Since those early days in the war on terrorism, the intelligence community has been rocked by a series of revelations that began with the

Thursday

Alex Massie

Department of Denial

Responding to today’s Telegraph story which quotes Major-General Antonio Taguba as saying that the unreleased interrogation photos show “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had this to say: “I want to speak generally about some reports I’ve witnessed over the past few years in the British media. And in some ways, I’m surprised it filtered down,” Gibbs began. “Let’s just say if I wanted to look up – if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion’s League cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful

Friday

Alex Massie

Diet Guantanamo!

Watch this one run and run. First up is Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings: “If we have transparency and accountability, than you can leave Gitmo just like it is,” he said. “The physical plant of Guantanamo is built to hold people. And therefore I argue and will pursue the administration to give a look at legislation that I am developing that will give transparency and accountability and may satisfy our allies as well,” Hastings said, noting that he would enable groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Red Cross to have better access to monitor the facility. Hastings has yet to seriously discuss the proposal with the White House

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The GOP’s in a Hole; Only a Terrorist Attack Can Save It…

In the course of defending Dick Cheney’s assault on the Obama administration, Bill Kristol has this to say: But of course an intelligent and knowledgeable advocate–even if he’s personally not so popular–can do a lot to get an issue front and center. And the debate of that issue can do political damage to the existing administration and its congressional allies. The real question any Republican strategist should ask himself is this: What will Republican chances be in 2012 if voters don’t remember the Bush administration–however problematic in other areas–as successful in defending the country after 9/11? To give this issue away would be to accept a post-Herbert-Hoover-like-fate for today’s GOP.