Agorism
10-11-2011, 06:12 PM
Torture Regime Is What We Got For 10 Years of War (http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2011/10/11/torture-regime-is-what-we-got-for-10-years-of-war/)
Last week was the 10 year anniversary of the start of the ongoing U.S. war in Afghanistan. It’s the longest war in American history, and many people are wondering what the purpose of the war is. Year after year, American soldiers have fought, killed, and died in Afghanistan, and year after year, the Taliban have grown stronger.
There’s an Afghan national government installed by the United States, and though it doesn’t really control the entire nation, the Obama Administration tells us that it’s in the vital interest of the United States to see this new Afghan government survive and thrive. Why this government in particular? What makes it superior to what another Afghan government might be?
Well, for one thing, the government of Afghanistan led by Hamid Karzai is exceptionally good at torture.
Yesterday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report concluding that the current national government of Afghanistan is engaged in the systematic torture of its citizens. The report is based on inquiries into 47 different prisons in Afghanistan, so this isn’t just a case of a few “bad apples” in an otherwise noble system.
The investigators didn’t ask prisoners whether they were tortured. All reports of torture were volunteered by prisoners, without specific prompting questions. The methodology of inquiry ensured that prisoners had not had the opportunity to speak with each other, to share fabricated stories.
The experiences that prisoners told of were exceptionally brutal, not mildly coercive. One prisoner, who had been interrogated by the Afghan government in May of this year, said, “I did not confess. After two days he tied my hands on my back and start beating me with an electric wire. He also used his hands to beat me. He used his hands to beat me on my back and used electric wire to beat me on my hands and legs. I did not confess even though he was beating me very hard. During the night on the same day, another official came and interrogated me. He said, ‘Confess or be ready to die. I will kill you.’ I asked him to bring evidence against me instead of threatening to kill me. He again brought the electric wire and beat me hard on my hands. The interrogation and beating lasted for three to four hours in the night. The NDS officials abused me two more times. The asked me if I knew any Taliban commander in Kandahar. I said I did not know. During the last interrogation, they forced me to sign a paper. I did not know what they had written. They did not allow me to read it.”
Other prisoners reported that their genitals were twisted and wrenched, that they had received electric shocks, that their toenails were pulled out, that they were threatened with rape. A man imprisoned in April of this year reported, “When I insisted that those phone numbers were not mine and that I did not know about them, they called for another two Afghans and both of those interrogators started beating me with hard plastic water pipes on my legs and the soles of my feet… They took off my clothes, and one of them held my penis in his hand and twisted it severely until I passed out. After I woke up, I had to confess because I could not stand the pain, and I did not want that to happen to me again and suffer the same severe and unbearable pain.”
There weren’t just assertions of torture. Injuries consistent with torture were observed by investigators as well. “UNAMA interviewers observed injuries, marks and scars that appeared to be consistent with torture and ill-treatment,” the report states. Several of the people interviewed were under the age of 18 at the time that they were imprisoned and tortured.
So, let’s suppose that something changes in the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and that the American military is able to successfully keep the current government of Afghanistan in power. Even if this happens, the “success” of the decade-long war will be to have installed and preserved a regime that engages in widespread torture of its citizens.
Why are we spending our nation’s fortunes to achieve such sadistic ends?
Last week was the 10 year anniversary of the start of the ongoing U.S. war in Afghanistan. It’s the longest war in American history, and many people are wondering what the purpose of the war is. Year after year, American soldiers have fought, killed, and died in Afghanistan, and year after year, the Taliban have grown stronger.
There’s an Afghan national government installed by the United States, and though it doesn’t really control the entire nation, the Obama Administration tells us that it’s in the vital interest of the United States to see this new Afghan government survive and thrive. Why this government in particular? What makes it superior to what another Afghan government might be?
Well, for one thing, the government of Afghanistan led by Hamid Karzai is exceptionally good at torture.
Yesterday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report concluding that the current national government of Afghanistan is engaged in the systematic torture of its citizens. The report is based on inquiries into 47 different prisons in Afghanistan, so this isn’t just a case of a few “bad apples” in an otherwise noble system.
The investigators didn’t ask prisoners whether they were tortured. All reports of torture were volunteered by prisoners, without specific prompting questions. The methodology of inquiry ensured that prisoners had not had the opportunity to speak with each other, to share fabricated stories.
The experiences that prisoners told of were exceptionally brutal, not mildly coercive. One prisoner, who had been interrogated by the Afghan government in May of this year, said, “I did not confess. After two days he tied my hands on my back and start beating me with an electric wire. He also used his hands to beat me. He used his hands to beat me on my back and used electric wire to beat me on my hands and legs. I did not confess even though he was beating me very hard. During the night on the same day, another official came and interrogated me. He said, ‘Confess or be ready to die. I will kill you.’ I asked him to bring evidence against me instead of threatening to kill me. He again brought the electric wire and beat me hard on my hands. The interrogation and beating lasted for three to four hours in the night. The NDS officials abused me two more times. The asked me if I knew any Taliban commander in Kandahar. I said I did not know. During the last interrogation, they forced me to sign a paper. I did not know what they had written. They did not allow me to read it.”
Other prisoners reported that their genitals were twisted and wrenched, that they had received electric shocks, that their toenails were pulled out, that they were threatened with rape. A man imprisoned in April of this year reported, “When I insisted that those phone numbers were not mine and that I did not know about them, they called for another two Afghans and both of those interrogators started beating me with hard plastic water pipes on my legs and the soles of my feet… They took off my clothes, and one of them held my penis in his hand and twisted it severely until I passed out. After I woke up, I had to confess because I could not stand the pain, and I did not want that to happen to me again and suffer the same severe and unbearable pain.”
There weren’t just assertions of torture. Injuries consistent with torture were observed by investigators as well. “UNAMA interviewers observed injuries, marks and scars that appeared to be consistent with torture and ill-treatment,” the report states. Several of the people interviewed were under the age of 18 at the time that they were imprisoned and tortured.
So, let’s suppose that something changes in the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and that the American military is able to successfully keep the current government of Afghanistan in power. Even if this happens, the “success” of the decade-long war will be to have installed and preserved a regime that engages in widespread torture of its citizens.
Why are we spending our nation’s fortunes to achieve such sadistic ends?