June 14, 2004

CIA Torture Book Curious about those super cool torture techniques that the CIA used in Vietnam. Learn more from this Washington Post article. Believe it or not, the methods are very similiar to what were used on Iraqi prisoners. (via Talk Left)
posted by Sullivan 20 years ago
  • Prisoner Abuse: patterns from the past cites PDFs of the original manuals. Alternately, here's an online copy of the KUBARK manual.
  • Good find, Goetter.
  • I'm shocked! Shocked!!! my outrage fatigue set in twenty years ago
  • I'm shocked too, Wendell. Who would ever think that the CIA would condone torture doing the Vietnam war?
  • It's heartbreaking this has been going on for so long -- it seems the USA has now become a horrible parody of its own oft-voiced principles.
  • Ce n'est pas un pays. The whole country has gone post-modern. Eventually we'll go post-post-modern and go back to upholding our principles. As an added bonus, pet rocks that are actually alive.
  • And sea monkeys you can torture.
  • "-- it seems the USA has now become a horrible parody of its own oft-voiced principles." Beeswacky, if you can show me a single war or 'police action' in which the US didn't use torture, I'll give you a solid gold monkey. It isn't that we've become a parody of our oft-voiced principles--more that the nature of war brings out the worst in some men* and other men exploit that to WIN. Suppose you knew the only way to stop a thousand soldiers from being killed or maimed was to humiliate, torture, annhilate the personality of one man (or ten)? And face it, wars aren't fought by humanitarians. They make lousy soldiers. It would be like herding cats. Yeah, we talk the talk. Show me a country that doesn't? "The Land Of the Media Dupes and the Home Of the Sheep" just doesn't have the same ring to it. *I am, of course, including women. Lynndie English, for one. Also, beeswacky, if you were being ironic, I apologize.
  • America has to stop talking about loving and spreading human rights, freedom, and democracy, and just stick to the facts. "Yeah, we sort of want to overthrow this guy, secure some energy, the usual." Then at least I can't whine about them being a dishonest megasuperpower.
  • Hey, we only torture foreigners. And foreigners don't feel pain the same way that we do. So it's okay.
  • Hey, we only torture foreigners. And foreigners don't feel pain the same way that we do. So it's okay. Goetter is correct. We only do torture foreigners.
  • *whimper*
  • Hey, leave Foreigner alone! You're just jealous because they're the best band ever!
  • Homuns: I really liked the links to the NSF Archives, in spite of the fact that the "Human Resource Exploitation..." was in the EVIL PDF format. Jeeze, 1993 for um...interrogation techniques...that the US got from the French, (yeah, right. goddam French)...that include rules for torture that frowns on 'physical injury that leads to organ failure or death.' Not that I believe the US is the ONLY country that tortures...in fact, I'd be hard pressed to find a country that DIDN'T do it.