George, the Movies, and
Terrorism
Emperor Marcus Aurelius in
Meditations:
"If you wish to know a
thing, look to its origins."
The term, "enhanced
techniques" or "enhanced interrogation techniques",
meaning torture, is actually a Gestapo term, "verschaerfte
Vernehmung." This term indicates Gestapo practices.
To explore the topic of
American use of torture, George F. Will uses two Hollywood
productions: Code Red and Zero Dark Thirty. It is
unclear whether he believes that the scriptwriters had unique
insights or unique access to information or whether he believed, and
wants us to believe, their stories. But a scriptwriters job, we must
remember, is not to explain or elucidate or illustrate, their job is
to sell movie tickets. Boring truth or ambiguous moralities have
little influence on them.
He tells us that Michael
Hayden, former CIA chief, claimed that half of our knowledge about
al-Qaeda came from the use of "enhanced techniques."
However, this is just a claim, not truth. Michael Hayden was head of
the CIA when it used waterboarding and other techniques on prisoners.
(1) That claim is just another example of CYA, or "cover your
ass", in case Congress looks into the matter. (2) The
"knowledge" so gained may have been useless, such as the
fact that Osama bin Laden was a disaffected Muslim, that he was in
hiding, that he had couriers bring him information, and the like. If
the information had been truly priceless and valuable, then the CIA
could have tracked him down earlier instead of ten years after his
triumph.
I have deep doubts about
Mr. Hayden's assertions.
Lastly, we have George's
glaring lack of historical knowledge. On July 20, 1944, a group of
Army officers and civilians tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a
bomb. The Gestapo rapidly arrested most of the conspirators. They
were interrogated using standard police methods, not torture, and the
Gestapo quickly learned the extent of the plot. Later, some were
tortured, but for the most important information, standard police
techniques of questioning and cross-referencing information was
sufficient. What does this tell us? That not even the Gestapo
thought that torture worked. IT DOESN'T WORK, George, maybe in the
movies, yes, but not in real life.
I must also note that the
plot of Code Red came from the Melville novel, Billy Budd,
which explores the moral ambiguity of our guardians, who must act for
good by less than moral means. The movie has a schmaltzy, idealistic
ending, quite in keeping with Hollywood. All this escapes George.
You know, if the Republican
Party, our incarnations of selfishness, ever came out against the
Cruxifixion, George would publish an article praising Pontius Pilate
and executioners.
