In this case there is no schadenfreude, there is no gloating that I was right. God how I wish I was wrong. I just stumbled upon this article from Salon: Torture teachers (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/29/torture/).
“An Army document proves that Guantánamo interrogators were taught by instructors from a military school that trains U.S. soldiers how to resist torture.”
If you’d like to see pictures of what we go through (not gruesome or anything) here is the SERE website: http://www.training.sfahq.com/survival_training.htm
You’ll recognize the hoods, wore one myself.
Yes, I knew this:
“”This is the missing link,” declared Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights. “It is proof that the SERE training was in fact used, for a time at least, as a basis for interrogations at Guantánamo.” “That is what I inferred had happened,” agreed retired Brig. Gen. Stephen Xenakis, former commanding general of the Southeast Regional Army Medical Command, “but I have never seen this documented anywhere.” The sworn statement suggests that Fort Bragg was the incubator of the abuse that later migrated from Guantánamo to Abu Ghraib, and is further evidence of the systematic nature of torture in the war on terror.”
How did I know it, in December I wrote this:
SERE training and torture (http://www.boomantribune.com/user/Jeffersonian%20Democrat/diary)
“I haven’t written a lot of diaries, mostly because people here have much more insight, expertise, and perception than I. Nevertheless, I think I’ll write this one up because it something I have personal experience with and the subject came up on another thread. I’m a SERE grad, and although the program, especially the Resistance Training Laboratory (RTL, or mock POW camp) is classified, I think that I can comment on what’s been going on in the news about the program and correct a lot of misperceptions on the objective of torture…”
“…See, the point of this diary is not that torture is used to get information (forget 24 folks) but rather it is used to turn a person, exploit them and indoctrinate them. There is no such thing as brain-washing, you can’t wash someone’s brain of their thoughts, but you can indoctrinate, just watch “Outfoxed” again. The torturers of today know that, they don’t expect the “ticking bomb” scenario, they want to drive a wedge between the victim and the other detainees; to exploit, indoctrinate, and turn them.
See, I learned that physical pain is NOTHING (but I confess to not have a branding iron applied to my genitals but that attitude sure adds spice to the sex life). No, the PSYCHOLOGICAL pain is much worse. Not knowing if you are ever going home to friends and family is much worse than the physical pain because at a point, the brain shuts off the pain receivers, but the psychological rollercoaster remains. These people at GITMO are not trying to commit suicide because of the physical pain, it’s the psychological pain that’s driving them; and consider that suicide is a mortal sin in Islam as it is in Judeo/Christianity and you have the extent of this psychological pain.
It’s a damn shame, to put it mildly, that these techniques were developed by our Communist “enemies” and now we’re the ones using them. I recognized the techniques immediately when Abu Graib first broke. I wanted to blog about it but I signed a sensitive information disclosure agreement and I wouldn’t get the same kid gloves treatment as Uncle Karl…”
I really hate this “I told you so moment” but we’ve seen the enemy, and it is us. We’ve become exactly what we stood against.