Identity: torturer

Richard Carver writes:

Look at this picture. Does it depict torture? Of course, it does. It is a representation of water torture in early modern Europe. This is the same in all essentials as so-called waterboarding,* one of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used by the Central Intelligence Agency under the George W Bush administration and extensively documented by a subsequent Senate investigation. Waterboarding is torture.

This is not the blog post I originally intended to write today. (That one is on a much happier theme and I will post it tomorrow.) It is not directly about our work at CENDEP, but since Lisa Handley and I spent four years researching how to prevent torture, we could hardly not react to a major piece of news this week. One of our findings was that investigation and prosecution of torturers was a highly effective way of preventing torture. (We can reasonably infer the converse – that failure to investigate and prosecute will make the recurrence of torture more likely.)

Now consider this:

One declassified cable, among scores obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the architects of the “enhanced interrogation” techniques, says that chief of base and another senior counterterrorism official on scene had the sole authority power to halt the questioning.

She never did so, records show, watching as Zubaydah vomited, passed out and urinated on himself while shackled. During one waterboarding session, Zubaydah lost consciousness and bubbles began gurgling from his mouth. Medical personnel on the scene had to revive him.

(You can read the whole story here.)

The chief of base mentioned in this account was Gina Haspel, nominated this week by President Donald Trump to be the next director of the CIA. Some of her defenders purport to be shocked that “liberals” and feminists are not more excited that she is the first woman nominated to the post. Even without attending CENDEP’s workshop on intersectionality this week, we know that a woman who intersects with being a torturer is still a torturer.

Gina Haspel is by all accounts a criminal who has violated one of the strongest prohibitions of international law. She is a torturer (who compounded her crime by destroying evidence). She should be behind bars, not preparing for Senate confirmation hearings.

* So-called because waterboarding makes it sound like a fun holiday activity. The use of a board is not an essential part of the torture; near-drowning is.