But interrogators for countries that pride themselves on adhering to the rule of law, such as Britain, the United States and Israel, operate in a moral war zone. They are on the front lines in fighting terrorism, crucial for intelligence-gathering. Yet they use methods that conflict with their societies' values.
Hanns-Joachim Schraff was the greatest German interrogator in world war 2. He worked primarily on captured US airmen and he was so respected for ability to extract secrets that he was dubbed "The Master" by his peers. What vicious tactics did he use to get this information? What horrific torment did he inflict on US airmen? Kindness and a respect for human dignity. Schraff correctly realized that only a bare fraction of captured enemies would have information of immediate tactical use. And it is highly unlikely that one could extract that information in time to use it. So torturing an enemy to get the "whole story" would be a waste of time. Additionally it would run the risk of getting false information from the prisoner. Instead, he did everything in his power to help the captives feel relaxed and safe. He would have long talks with the captives and discuss philosophy or some other seemingly safe topic for a prisoner to discuss. All the while, he was collecting bits and pieces of information that he would assemble and use to support the German war effort. Their best interrogator, and he never had to raise his voice.
Schraff correctly realized that only a bare fraction of captured enemies would have information of immediate tactical use. And it is highly unlikely that one could extract that information in time to use it. So torturing an enemy to get the "whole story" would be a waste of time. Additionally it would run the risk of getting false information from the prisoner.
Instead, he did everything in his power to help the captives feel relaxed and safe. He would have long talks with the captives and discuss philosophy or some other seemingly safe topic for a prisoner to discuss. All the while, he was collecting bits and pieces of information that he would assemble and use to support the German war effort. Their best interrogator, and he never had to raise his voice.
excuse my vehemence, but what BS... and it gives me the cold creeps also, SP. <shudder>
they use methods that conflict with their societies' ostensible, "civilised," visible values, but wholly in line with their societies' historic, vernacular and pragmatic values and the tactics by which their societies enforce colonial power (resource and land theft, etc).
Michael Corleone stands demurely at the baptismal font, while his operatives deniably commit the murders and tortures that ensure his family's fortune and dominance in his world -- as if a brain-blood barrier separated all the sordid violence and thuggery from the sentimental propriety of public/family life. but like the literal brain-blood barrier, the figurative one is more permeable than we think, and systemic violence and lies are like prions... they soak through everywhere, no respecters of our neat little taxonomies and hypocrisies.
the culture expresses its vernacular or realpolitikisch values below the line, in its vernacular media: the very nearly open, unframed celebration of torture, domination, bullydom, rape and murder in popular media -- film, porn, tv shows. and increasingly above the line, in the highly gendered, violent and thuggish, swaggering discourse of its most powerful politicians. these professional torturers with their "tortured consciences" are stuck, (just like some soldiers) on the sharp demarc line of a deep cognitive dissonance between the cruelty and wickedness and brutal force necessary for 4 pct of the world pop to go on hogging more than a planet's worth of resources per annum, and the popular pretence that this hoggery is normative and virtuous and cost-free.
Mama Corleone doesn't want to know how Papa Corleone makes his money. these are men trying to work for Papa while justifying themselves to Mama... can't be done. The difference between theory and practise in practise ...
And well...
Then a soldier's aunt sent over several copies of Viktor E. Frankel's Holocaust memoir, "Man's Search for Meaning." Lagouranis found himself trying to pick up tips from the Nazis.
What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death.
The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility: (a) CRIMES AGAINST PEACE: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing; (b) WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; (c)CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated. Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.
(a) CRIMES AGAINST PEACE: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing;
(b) WAR CRIMES: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;
(c)CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.
Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.
"b) ... military necessity;"
When will this become commonly unacceptable as the factoid, contradiction, oxymoron... it is? The necessity only exists in sociopaths´ minds and snowballs with their ilk.
How about a "peace necessity"? Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.
best peice of reading is probably here
The whole book is a good grounding in ethics and morality in Military situations as it exists in international law. Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
