WAKE UP AMERICA WEDNESDAY!!!!!

My good friend Judy, asked my brilliant brother Joe a question about 'waterboarding'. I know very little about 'waterboarding', I'd rather bury my head in the sand. This is Joe's response to Judys question. I found it very fascinating. And very, very disturbing. Its not the normal subject matter that you're accustomed to finding on my silly little blog....but...I think I should share it for all those who might be interested.

July 2009

The United States Policy of Harsh Interrogation – Is it the ‘Right Thing?’

In 1519 Magellan set sail from Spain seeking the Spice Islands and to circumnavigate the world. After arriving in South American some officers in the small fleet of five ships mutinied against Magellan – they wanted to go home. Magellan was able to crush the mutineers…then began the long process of punishment:

“…Magellan’s display of barbarism did not end there; he was only beginning to exact revenge for the mutineers’ insult to his authority and the honor of King Charles. More than execution, torture was his ultimate weapon at sea. That he resorted to torture was not unusual; this was after all, the era of the Spanish Inquisition, which had formally begun in 1478 and continued under the leadership of Tomas de Torquemanda, the first Grand Inquisitor. To many Europeans, the mere mention of Spain summoned images of the Inquisition and of diabolical methods of torture, although Spain was hardly the only offender. Nor was torture confined to special cases of heresy; as Magellan’s behavior demonstrated, it was also applied to other criminal behavior such as usury, sodomy, polygamy, and especially treason, considered the most serious crime against the state.”

The policies implemented by U.S. leadership after 9-11 in respect to interrogation practices were inappropriate. Events that have occurred, and continue to occur, prove the inappropriateness of the interrogation policies.

It is easy for those not “in the fight” to criticize decisions made by people while in the heat of battle…and that is also inappropriate. After 9-11 there was no comprehensive policy on how to interrogate the enemy – as a matter of fact, there was (and still is) significant confusion on what to even call the enemy. Like every major war ever fought – our current fight is unlike all previous wars. For example, there was little or no guidance on how to handle the ‘terrorist’ caught in the Philippines, the Taliban fighter caught in Afghanistan or the radical Islamic ‘terrorist’ plotting destruction while living in the U.S. or Spain. The limited guidance that did exist was different between the military and the CIA – and even different between the various military services.

As the nation’s leadership became aware of the confused and inadequate interrogation guidance, they began to debate, draft and implement policy. Generally, they choose an aggressive interpretation of the law (and existing guidance) – authorizing ‘harsh’ interrogation methods. It should be noted that as late as 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq, the interrogation guidance still was not standardized. For example, the investigation into Abu’Grab showed that the Army in Iraq was using different guidance than the CIA in Afghanistan.

The information available to our nation’s leadership at the time and the recommendations from war fighters, the CIA and lawyers (plus their own world view of the threats and proper actions to take) resulted in the decision to be as aggressive as possible with detained prisoners. Preventing another ‘9-11’ attack, preventing an attack worse than 9-11 by the use of weapons of mass destruction, and empowering the war fighter at the tactical level with the best possible information were the driving reasons for the policies put in place.

“An inquisition was not a trial in the modern sense. The accused were presumed guilty; their reluctance to confess their crimes only added to the sum of their crimes. Torture was designed to elicit withheld confessions, and the sooner the accused confessed, the sooner the agony ended. Indeed, confessions elicited by torture were considered the best evidence of all.”

“One eyewitness account of a typical Spanish inquisition evokes the fear and despondency Magellan’s victims likely experienced. ‘The place of torture in the Spanish Inquisition is generally an underground and very dark room, to which one enters through several doors...”

As stated, it now appears that aggressive interrogation policies were inappropriate. The tactical benefits of harsh interrogation are mixed and probably not significant. It is also debatable whether harsh interrogation has provided information that has prevented other 9-11 or WMD attacks. It is unquestionable, however, that the harsh interrogation policies implemented impacted the ‘standing’ of the U.S. as a model of liberty, human rights and the moral ‘right.’ War is a conflict of ideals and values between people who believe strongly enough in their point of view to fight and possibly die. Populations not directly in the fight, including citizens of the nation fighting or in the geographic area of the fight, will watch and evaluate the ideals and values of the opposing sides. Populations, even uneducated and oppressed people, choose the ideals and values that provide them security, peace, liberty and a bright future.

“…Mesquita ordered San Martin to undergo the most common punishment of the Inquisition, the ghastly ‘strappado.’ The strappado was administered in five stages of increasing agony. In the first degree, the victim was stripped, his wrists were bound behind his back, and he was threatened until he confessed. If he refused, he was subjected to the second degree. In it, the victim’s arms were raised behind his back by a rope attached to a pulley secured overhead, and he was lifted off his feet for a brief period of time, and given another chance to confess. If he still refused, he faced the third degree of the strappado, in which he was suspended for a longer period of time, which dislocated his shoulders and broke his arms. Once again, he was given another chance to confess. If he still failed to make a satisfactory confession, he was subjected to the fourth degree: The victim was suspended and violently jerked, which inflicted excruciating pain. Few victims of a methodically administered strappado lasted beyond this point without confessing. In certain cases, there was the fifth degree, as well. In the final phase of the strappado, weights were attached to the victim’s feet, and they were often heavy enough o tear the limbs from his tormented body.”

“Andres de San Martin suffered the full five stages to the strappado.”

“In the last, most horrific stage of Magellan’s inquisition, several cannonballs were attached to San Martin’s feet, and the additional weight inflicted excruciating pain when he was suspended. Another early account of this inquisition describes the final stages of strappado, as it might have been experienced by San Martin: ‘The prisoner hath his hands bound behind his back, and weights tied to his feet, and then he is drawn up on high, till his head reaches the very pulley. He is kept hanging in this manner for some time, that by the greatness of the weight hanging at his feet, all his joints and limbs may be dreadfully stretched, and of a sudden he is let down with a jerk, by slacking the rope, but kept from coming quite to the ground.”

When the U.S. choose to use harsh interrogation methods – some populations of the world actually came to feel that our enemy (the terrorists) may actually provide better security, peace, liberty and a brighter future! That is astounding – and proof that the U.S. interrogation policy was flawed.

The risk analysis done by U.S. leadership during the formulation of the harsh interrogation policies surly included an evaluation of the likely adverse ‘public opinion’ that the policy would generate. Maybe the leadership didn’t fully understand the magnitude of the adverse impact, or maybe the perceived threats seemed so great as to overwhelm concerns about the adverse public opinion. In any case it is evident that the risk analysis failed to realize that adverse public opinion would result in a longer war, less support for the U.S. and decreased respect for the ideals and values of the United States.

Leadership is the art of doing the ‘right thing.’ Knowing the ‘right thing’ is often very difficult in that it may not initially appear right and may even not be right for individuals or for those not in the organization being led. For example, if the mission of a company is to make a profit, there may come a time for the company’s leadership to fire employees – that will not feel ‘right’ for those that are fired.

“…The punishment Mesqutia and Magellan inflicted on Hernando Morales was even more severe than San Martin’s. Accounts of the proceedings say only that Morales’s limbs were ‘disjointed,’ but the procedure for which he was subjected was so severe that the poor pilot later died from the wounds he received; the agonies he suffered at the hands of Mesquita and Magellan can only be imagined. He might have undergone a variation of another common torture of the Inquisition era, the fiendish Wooden Horse, in which the victim was secured with metal bars to a hollowed-out bench, his feet higher than his head. ‘As he is lying in this posture,’ runs an early account, ‘his arms, thighs, and shins are tied round with small cords or strings, which being drawn with screws at proper distances from each other, cut into his very bones, so as to no longer be discerned. Besides this, the torturer throws over his mouth and nostrils a thin cloth, so that he is scarce able to breathe through them, and in this meanwhile a small stream of water like a thread, not drop by drop, falls from on high upon the mouth of the person lying in this miserable condition, and so easily sinks down the thin cloth to the bottom of his throat so that there is no possibility of breathing, his mouth being stopped with water, and his nostrils with cloth, so that the poor wretch is in the same agony as persons ready to die, and breathing their last…”

---Over the Edge of the World, by Laurence Bergreen

Generally the ‘right thing’ is ultimately moral and appropriate from the perspective of the organization being led. It does the greatest good for that organization – and the least harm for all involved. However leadership decisions are subject to review and evaluation by future generations and diverse populations. Good leadership stands up to those reviews. When water-boarding interrogation methods were selected as approved policy – the ‘right thing’ was not done.

It is not too late. Before people cast stones at the decisions made in 2001-2003, they should take a close look at current decisions and policies being implemented. The tragedy today is that even with the benefit of hindsight, debate and review – the policy of harsh interrogation has not fundamentally changed.

Magellan never made it home. While in the Philippines he started a little war against a native tribe. He and his most loyal followers were wading ashore when attacked by a vastly superior number of natives. His ship lay just off the coast, in full sight of this battle. The crew on his ship, with many survivors of his ‘punishment’ doled out in South America, watched…and did not come to his aid…