Thursday, February 10, 2005
Sex and Torture
No, this isn't the porno post it seems, but it is disturbing nonetheless. Word comes from today's Washington Post that a new investigation has revealed sexual humiliation and even threats of rape were commonplace tactics for trying to 'break' prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
While official statements from the Pentagon insisted that "[Female interrogators] are trying to find the key that will get someone to talk to them. Using things that are culturally repulsive is okay as long as it doesn't extend to something prohibited by the Geneva Conventions."
Meanwhile, lawyers for the detainees as well as human rights officials in general were not so sure.
"Detainee lawyers likened the tactics to Nazis shaving the beards of orthodox Jews or artists dunking a crucifix in urine to shock Christians. "They're exploiting religious beliefs to break them down, to destroy them," said Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents several dozen detainees. "What they're doing, it reminds me of a pornographic Web site -- it's like the fantasy of all these S&M clubs.""
One thing is for certain, they better be getting some damn good info out of these people, because every one of them that was culturally and sexually humiliated in such a way will most likely never forget nor forgive the experience. Which points out the failed logic of torture in the first place and how its use so easily spirals downward into inhumanity cast broadly over an entire population.
I think it's pretty clear that any of these folks who had scantily clad ladies touching them suggestively or pretending to smear them with menstrual blood (which, according to them may make them unclean and unable to pray and find strength from their God), if they ever leave Gitmo, are going straight to the Mosque followed by a short trip to the "I want to kill any and all Americans" recruiting office.
Blowback indeed.
No, this isn't the porno post it seems, but it is disturbing nonetheless. Word comes from today's Washington Post that a new investigation has revealed sexual humiliation and even threats of rape were commonplace tactics for trying to 'break' prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
While official statements from the Pentagon insisted that "[Female interrogators] are trying to find the key that will get someone to talk to them. Using things that are culturally repulsive is okay as long as it doesn't extend to something prohibited by the Geneva Conventions."
Meanwhile, lawyers for the detainees as well as human rights officials in general were not so sure.
"Detainee lawyers likened the tactics to Nazis shaving the beards of orthodox Jews or artists dunking a crucifix in urine to shock Christians. "They're exploiting religious beliefs to break them down, to destroy them," said Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents several dozen detainees. "What they're doing, it reminds me of a pornographic Web site -- it's like the fantasy of all these S&M clubs.""
One thing is for certain, they better be getting some damn good info out of these people, because every one of them that was culturally and sexually humiliated in such a way will most likely never forget nor forgive the experience. Which points out the failed logic of torture in the first place and how its use so easily spirals downward into inhumanity cast broadly over an entire population.
I think it's pretty clear that any of these folks who had scantily clad ladies touching them suggestively or pretending to smear them with menstrual blood (which, according to them may make them unclean and unable to pray and find strength from their God), if they ever leave Gitmo, are going straight to the Mosque followed by a short trip to the "I want to kill any and all Americans" recruiting office.
Blowback indeed.
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