- The madness of torture - perhaps the word itself should
be redefined by Webster's dictionary as "using force
to make people to tell LIES." Recall the witch hunt days of early
America? Men and women were often thrown into a deep pond attached to a
rock. If they were a witch they would sink (and drown - oops.) If they
were innocent, supposedly they would float to the surface. Centuries
later we've greatly improved on that old method. We want people to talk
now, and die later.
-
- The following excerpt from a MSNBC article gives a good
example:
-
- "Chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) was subjected
to harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. His interrogators
even threatened, à la Jack Bauer, to go after his family. (KSM reportedly
shrugged off the threat to his family - he would meet them in heaven, he
said.) KSM did reveal some names and plots. But they haven't panned out
as all that threatening: one such plot was a plan by an Al Qaeda operative
to cut down the Brooklyn Bridge - with a blow torch. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14924664/site/newsweek/)"
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- Cutting down a bridge with a blow torch? No one should
believe that one. I'll provide the following information for those
that don't know about torches and what they can and cannot do. A regular
"blow torch" is only hot enough to melt a thin sheet of aluminum
foil. It does not use an oxygen cylinder. A blow torch cannot melt
steel. If it did, the use of pots and pans on a gas or propane stove
would be impossible. To melt or cut steel requires more than 2,000 degrees and
the use of an oxygen-acetylene torch (or thermate.)
-
- To cut a big. heavy, thick I-beam like the size
of those used on any bridge with an oxygen-acetylene torch can take a half
hour for each one. And while the cutting is underway, the weight
of the bridge would press the two ends back together. One would
have to cut dozens of I-beams and overcome this problem before the
bridge *might* come down. The entire process would take DAYS with a small army
of cutters and could never be done in one night. In this day and age of
paranoia and security-mindedness, the intense, brilliant arc-like flame
from just one torch would be seen for a great distance and probably reported.
One can compare this absurd idea to trying to break an elephant's
leg with a hammer - a plastic one taken from a toddler's tool box.
-
- Soldiers are told that "no one stands up to torture
and everyone breaks sooner or later" (unlike the wishful thinking in
many movies.) One strategy taught is to hold out for as
long as possible, and endure enough pain to convince the interrogators
to believe you when you finally do talk. And when you finally talk, use
a propaganda technique - use some harmless truth mixed in with lies
to make the information believable but useless. The bottom line is that
whether you tell the truth or not, there's a good chance they will finally
kill you anyway when they think your information well has gone dry. Why?
Because you may know who and/or what they are, and the tactics they used
which they don't want you talking about it. Think about all those we've
heard about who were finally taken to Egypt and other countries under "rendering"
- yet later on we heard nothing about what happened to them. The theory
goes that if you love your country, you'll try to protect it to the bitter
end. Perhaps this is why KSM said someone would cut down the Brooklyn Bridge
with a blow torch. Now they will have to torture him further to find out
what brand of torch was going to be used - and where it would be
bought from. All valuable information of course...
-
- The interesting thing about intelligence information
is that it quickly becomes useless and outdated. Troops move all the
time - by the time a member is picked up, moved to an interrogation facility
(above ground equivalent of a dungeon) and tortured, those troops have
long since moved on to another unknown location. Passwords and codes are
changed all the time, too. As soon as an intelligence operative "disappears"
those are all changed as well. Codes are also changed on a regular basis
as standard military procedure worldwide. Many systems use "hidden
codes" or public keys that change electronically, so even the user
has no clue what the codes are. So-called "terrorist cells"
often work without knowing who any of the people in other cells, in the
event any of them are picked up and "interrogated."
-
- So what good is torture in the modern era? Technology
has made it obsolete. It's clearly more for creating a fear factor than
anything. One notices how intelligence agencies often provide pictures
to the press of those they are torturing. They are all dressed pretty much
the same way and have a certain look on all their faces. Even in the
press photos of KSM looked almost the same as Saddam. He was
once shown in his cell washing out his socks by hand - yet another modern
propaganda trick to humiliate a deposed dictator (which the US govt.
put in office.)
-
- For over a century, people repeated the expression (and
believed it) that "pictures don't lie." Even today, some
continue to believe it when they watch television or read newspapers. When
confronted with undeniable evidence of fabrications, people will
often utter the same old thing - "Why would they lie to us?"
They should be thinking, "why not!" Many of these people are
probably still mystified as to why an egg breaks when you drop it. Not
only do pictures lie but videotape can also do so quite well, too. Every
personal computer in use today has the capability in the hands of
a good artist to accomplish what the government does with pictures all
the time.
-
- All I know is that none of us can ever look at a
humble blow torch the same way again...
-
- Ted Twietmeyer
- www.data4science.net
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