American Torture from the Philippines to Iraq by d'Ambruoso William L.;

American Torture from the Philippines to Iraq by d'Ambruoso William L.;

Author:d'Ambruoso, William L.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA - OSO
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00


While Snepp was protesting physically brutal methods, he was also directing Tai’s sensory deprivation and solitary confinement, which shows his willingness to give the CIA’s methods a pass as compared to those of the South Vietnamese. The quote also shows that Snepp’s colleague had ways of downplaying their Vietnamese counterparts’ behavior, minimizing the acts as just “boys . . . having a little fun.”

Years later, after journalists and leaked documents exposed prisoner abuse by the Bush administration, Snepp (2009) had a different take on the methods he used:

Tai asserts that his American interrogators never mistreated him. Indeed, I never laid a hand on him, never humiliated him, and when he asked for medical care, extra rations or clothing, I accommodated him. I even tried to establish rapport by discussing French poetry with him.

But I did become complicit in the psychological manipulation and torment of a prisoner. Never mind that the North Vietnamese inflicted far more brutal treatment on the American inmates of the “Hanoi Hilton.” My “success” in promoting a “dialogue” with Tai was based on his lingering fear that, without dialogue, he would be tossed back to the brutal South Vietnamese—an impression I encouraged. The isolation, the chilled air, the disorienting new routine were all things I imposed.

My CIA colleagues and I used to rationalize our tactics, and some still insist that psychological intimidation, verbal threats and tight handcuffs are perfectly acceptable in terms of both morality and expediency. But I believe there is an organic connection between the tactics I applied against Tai and those approved by the Bush Justice Department. Controlled brutality is a slippery slope, and once you pass through the moral membrane that should contain our worst impulses, it becomes so very easy to rationalize another step, and yet another, in the wrong direction.



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