Nell, this is really useful -- thanks for tying this all together. In particular I had no idea about the McClatchy stuff.

I read 1984 at the age of seven

How did THAT happen? In second grade??

...although thinking back on it, I believe I read a slew of dystopian fiction in fourth grade. 1984, Brave New World, On The Beach, and We.

Our house had walls of books, and my parents didn't pay close attention to what I picked up. In general, that worked out pretty well.

The comments at Emptywheel are often like the comments at Billmon in its heyday -- full of great links and gossip from all over, much of it on-topic. But like all active comment sections, it's a time sink, so I usually don't dip in; this was a lucky find.

I joined the Marines. I was hooked when the recruiter showed me the vid of the marine tossing a puppy off a cliff...I was sold. I knew the Marines was the life for me.

How much of 1984 did you understand? Did you talk about it with your parents?

Almost all; I already knew about the holocaust (from another book, the Life Magazine Picture History of WWII), and had talked with my parents about that. We'd lived in Germany for a year when I was four to five.

I didn't talk with my parents about 1984. Some combination of the two things did lead to a sort of waking nightmare one afternoon, standing near the side of our house, in which for a few minutes I had a conviction that trucks of soldiers were headed toward our house, coming for me among others. It passed.

But it made me sensitive to situations where men in trucks come for people, with the funding, blessing or even just averted eyes of my government. Like Honduras and El Salvador.

Great information, Nell. If you haven't read it already, I'd recommend Torture and Democracy by Darius Rejali:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8490.html

I haven't finished it, but so far it is impressive -- I think it contains a more detailed understanding of the history of the subject than any of the post-Abu Ghraib books out there now. For example, he describes in depth the three main situations in which democracies have tortured -- as part of colonial or war situations; to keep marginalized populations down; or when confessions become too important in the criminal justice system -- and the implications of each.

Thanks Nell for this informative post.

As though torture wasn't bad enough, there's also its legitimation, not just from Bush associates like Woo but also from "liberal authorities" like Dershowitz.

Alfred McCoy's work puts the lie to the CIA's exuse, put out via a Jane Mayer article in 2007, that the post-September 11 torture developed because they didn't have any trained interrogators, and cast about for models of "tough" treatment to extract information. The distinct implication is that, lacking any institutional history of their own, they took examples from the Egyptians and Syrians, and reverse-engineered the SERE training.

I admire Mayer greatly; few reporters have done as much to uncover the torture policy. But that piece was fatally tainted by its sources, clearly CIA people trying to cover their asses. And, as sometimes happens in these journalistic situations, Mayer seemed unwilling to irritate her source(s) by raising the history documented by McCoy.

Yow. Even I'm a little startled to see how that reads like something from June 5, 2008.

Fucking hell. Ever heard of El Salvador? Chile? The School of the Americas? The KUBARK interrogation manual?

The KUBARK manual section on coercive interrogation is hilarious, in a very black way, if you get the annotated copy showing the pre-sanitised and post-sanitised versions. They basically went through and replaced the word "do" with the word "don't".

Remember, it was the CIA that developed wire strong enough to carry a hefty current, and yet fine enough be slipped between a prisoner's teeth. That shit doesn't happen by accident. There are accounts by Chilean torture survivors (not the real politicals, they're all dead - just the poor homeless bums they picked up off the street to practice on) detailing the involvement of CIA trainers in some of the most horrific acts of torture you can imagine. And then stepping outside for a smoke break, discussing where they're going to take the kids this weekend, just like you would 'round the watercooler...

The reason they eventually went for "no-touch torture" is also made explicit in the manuals, and it wasn't any concern for decency and human rights - it's simply that it's more effective. Mere physical pain frequently just re-enforces the "subject's" will to resist. These "no-touch" techniques can completely destroy someone's very identity, their sense of self, in a surprisingly short time - which is always the object of torture anyway.

So. What are you doing for Torture Awareness Month?

Sent some money to Amnesty International, like I do every year. Got a little car window sticker. Checked the box on my resume for social awareness.

You know, I wonder if this political kvetching has something to do with early exposure to overly serious books(tm).

Myself, read 1984 when 12, read The Gulag Archipelago when ~14, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee at about 16, then again later.

Yech. I shoulda been sneaking porn instead.

Nell, thanks for the great post and the links. But who ARE these McClatchy people I keep hearing about? Lefti on the News mentions them often. Do they own any major dailies, or other MSM's?

Thanks again. Catherine

Catherine,

McClatchy is a media company that owns a chain of newspapers (and probably some other media outlets as well). In 2006(? going from memory), they bought the Knight-Ridder chain of newspapers. K-R's Washington Bureau have done some of the most responsible and accurate coverage of a whole range of issues, but especially highly regarded for their skeptical reporting of the propaganda buildup to the Iraq invasion and the subsequent occupation. Some of those reporters are Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay, Hannah Allam, and Nancy Youssef. Their Baghdad bureau has a blog to which many of their Iraqi stringers post. Real reporters, who probably wouldn't stand out so heroically if they weren't surrounded by whorish midgets.

what I am doing for torture awareness month: I bought a banner that is 3 by 8 feet from Half Priced Banners. It says:

Honor the image of God:

Stop Torture Now

It is now hanging on the front of my church, but not that visible from the street, unfortunately. I am talking to other churches in the area, and hopeful that they will hang it up for a few weeks. I plan to keep this circulating well into fall.

It cost me $45 for the banner.

When the Military Commissions Act passed, I put a sign in my car window that said: WE ARE ALL TORTURERS NOW.

I wish I was rich - I would put up billboards everywhere. I do some freeway blogging, but that gets taken down pretty quickly, unfortunately.

If I had a house on a busy road, I would have signs up in my yard, and maybe even paint the house with signs.

I live in a sorta progressive city in the middle of a vast field of Carolina and Tennessee idiots.

My NC plates say IMPEACH but I am getting new plates soon and don't want to have IMPEACH on there for the new president Obama. Not that I like Obama much, but I am willing to give him a chance.