Torture Club

Many neo-conservatives both in the Bush White House and Congress have argued that in a post-9/11 world torture is a necessary and viable method of obtaining information from detained enemy combatants. Others have argued that torture discredits the U.S. abroad, breeds anti-American sentiment, places our soldiers at risk, and contradicts most of mankind’s reasonable standards as to what is and is not moral. Here’s an overview of the United States’ recent relationship with torture:

This week President Bush is expected to veto anti-torture legislation approved by the Senate. In the years and months following the Sept. 11th, 2001 attacks, Mr. Bush made the case to Congress that torture is a viable and necessary method of obtaining information from enemy combatants. In 2006, Congress revolted, outlawing the use of torture by the U.S. military, but not by intelligence agencies. The current bill requires that foreign intelligence agencies abide by the rules set forth in the Army Field Manual. A broad coalition of religious leaders, retired Army generals, and former congressmen and women has urged the President not to veto the anti-torture legislation.

Among the actions banned in the Army Field Manual are forcing prisoners to be naked or to perform sexual acts, placing hoods or sacks over prisoner’s heads, applying beatings or shocks, waterboarding, and inducing hypothermia.

Progressive magazine Mother Jones released last month a soundtrack composed of songs used during interrogation and torture sessions. The magazine obtained the songs in part from testimonies of both soldiers and detainees. Among the songs included on the torture soundtrack are Eminem’s “White America,” the Barney theme song, the Meow Mix theme song, the Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive,” and Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

Speaking of waterboarding, among those historically associated with that horrid act are the German secret police during WWII, the Spanish Inquisition, fascist Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet and genocidal Cambodian Prime Minister of the 1970s Pol Pot. Welcome to the club, post-9/11 United States!

Image Credit: Flickr user phauly