A Salute to the Heroes of Interrogation
Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post:
When about two dozen veterans got together yesterday for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.
Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners’ cells with listening devices. They felt bad about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to soften them up. They played games with them.
“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Across the river, President Bush defended his administration’s methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects during an Oval Office appearance.
Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques. And when the time came for them to accept honors from the Army’s Freedom Team Salute, one veteran refused, citing his opposition to the war in Iraq and procedures that have been used at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
To them, I apologize for this President, for this Vice President, and for the Secretary of Defense through last November. I apologize for the intelligence agents and generals, down to the GIs involved for the way they’ve dishonored each of you and your fine service. I apologize for Rush Limbaigh’s defense of the torture and all the legislators who held their tongue when the torture was exposed.
You deserved better, from all those you set the example for. I apologize for every American who has chosen by their actions or inactions to surrender their humanity.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:46 am
(arrived via Newhoggers).
Libby Spencer noted this is your 5th anniversary–many congratulations!
Quite apart from the moral issue is the matter of practicality, as these former interrogators point out and this has been known for years and years. The context is vitally important too. There’s no “where’s the ticking bomb!”-crap involved. that just doesn’t happen. There’s no single finite source of intelligence that provides the key to the winning strategy, the singular advantage that guarantees success.
On a lighter note.
I had aa language teach at school who interrogated German POWs in WWII. The extraodinary thing was that whether he was speaking English, French or German his accent never strayed from his native Glaswegian Scottish. i can only imagine if he was at all effective it would have been because the poor Germans couldn’t take the torture–not of them physically, but of their language!.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:50 am
[…] Others: INTEL DUMP, Jules Crittenden, Outside The Beltway, The American Street and Sister Toldjah […]
October 6th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Bush says US ‘does not torture’
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President Bush defended his administration’s methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects…
October 7th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Good points 5th, using torture is always about punishment and sadism. It has never been about ethics or effectiveness. And the only ticking bomb scenario that’s ever been thwarted - the race to beat the Nazis to the A-bomb - was accomplished via science and good intelligence, not by the rack.