Memos like these prove again (like previous memos have) that the Bush Administration asked and paid lawyers to create the legal justification for torture or techniques that are tantamount to torture.
The Bush Administration used the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) training program to justify anything it did to detainees.
The memos go through statistics from those who in the military have endured the SERE training to suggest “a small minority students have had temporary adverse psychological reactions during training. Of the 26,829 students trained from 1992 through 2001 in the Air Force SERE training, 4.3 percent, only 3.2 percent were pulled from the program for psychological reasons. Thus, out of the students trained overall, only 0.14 percent were pulled from the program for psychological reasons.”
Most would read that and think that if our bravest and most finest men and women can handle the "CIA torture tactics", why would it be a problem to use interrogation techniques or SERE training methods on detainees?
But, think about this: What’s the likelihood that those in the military actually think to risk their status in the military and in the country by saying they think they may have been mentally or physically harmed? And, how do they know? For all they know, the mental or physical pain is part of the training.
In addition to memos on Zubaydah and the explanation of how SERE training makes the CIA torture tactics permissible, there is a part which talks about using multiple techniques (like stress positions and sleep deprivation or walling and then facial holds, etc).
A section of the memo on multiple techniques says it is “possible that the application of certain techniques might render the detainee unusually susceptible to physical or mental pain or suffering.”
You know, I’m no sadomasochist so if I was confined in a tight space, deprived of sleep for hours, and then made to do some wall standing a half a day later after being violated by a caterpillar, I think I would be physically and mentally in pain. I think there would be more than just a possibility that this chain of experiences physically or mentally harms me.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
3
3
