China inspired interrogations at Guantánamo
Christopher Hitchens, in his essay for the August issue of Vanity Fair, describes how torture used to be “inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape)” — and how it is now used by Americans to torture others. This article presents a stunning example: military trainers who came to Guantánamo in 2002 presented an interrogation class on “coercive management techniques” based on a chart that, it turns out, was written for SERE in 1957, originally entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War”, based on interviews with American prisoners returned from North Korea. Whoa.
What used to be “Here’s how the evil Commies will elicit false confessions from American prisoners” became “Here’s how you Americans should interrogate ‘enemy combatants’” — the only thing changed in the chart was the title. (Hat tip Moonbase.)
Edit: Squashed writes: “I’m less interested in the origins than I am in why we would permit this sort of practice.” I agree. The origins are only interesting insofar as they illustrate this: before, in a more (in some ways) sane political environment, these practices were regarded as evil and used only in training to resist them; now, in a more insane political climate, they’re regarded as necessary and actively used. Even when they are known not to produce accurate testimonies, and were developed specifically for procuring false confessions.
