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29 May 2007 12:36 pm
"Verschärfte Vernehmung"
, Torture"> , War On Terror">
The phrase "Verschärfte Vernehmung" is German for "enhanced interrogation". Other translations include "intensified interrogation" or "sharpened interrogation". It's a phrase that appears to have been concocted in 1937, to describe a form of torture that would leave no marks, and hence save the embarrassment pre-war Nazi officials were experiencing as their wounded torture victims ended up in court. The methods, as you can see above, are indistinguishable from those described as "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the president. As you can see from the Gestapo memo, moreover, the Nazis were adamant that their "enhanced interrogation techniques" would be carefully restricted and controlled, monitored by an elite professional staff, of the kind recommended by Charles Krauthammer, and strictly reserved for certain categories of prisoner. At least, that was the original plan.
Also: the use of hypothermia, authorized by Bush and Rumsfeld, was initially forbidden. 'Waterboarding" was forbidden too, unlike that authorized by Bush. As time went on, historians have found that all the bureaucratic restrictions were eventually broken or abridged. Once you start torturing, it has a life of its own. The "cold bath" technique - the same as that used by Bush against al-Qahtani in Guantanamo - was, according to professor Darius Rejali of Reed College,
pioneered by a member of the French Gestapo by the pseudonym Masuy about 1943. The Belgian resistance referred to it as the Paris method, and the Gestapo authorized its extension from France to at least two places late in the war, Norway and Czechoslovakia. That is where people report experiencing it.
In Norway, we actually have a 1948 court case that weighs whether "enhanced interrogation" using the methods approved by president Bush amounted to torture. The proceedings are fascinating, with specific reference to the hypothermia used in Gitmo, and throughout interrogation centers across the field of conflict. The Nazi defense of the techniques is almost verbatim that of the Bush administration...
Here's a document
from Norway's 1948 war-crimes trials detailing the prosecution of Nazis
convicted of "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the Second World
War. Money quote from the cases of three Germans convicted of war
crimes for "enhanced interrogation":
Between 1942 and 1945, Bruns used the method of "verschärfte Vernehmung"
on 11 Norwegian citizens. This method involved the use of various
implements of torture, cold baths and blows and kicks in the face and
all over the body. Most of the prisoners suffered for a considerable
time from the injuries received during those interrogations.
Between 1942 and 1945, Schubert gave 14 Norwegian prisoners "verschärfte Vernehmung,"
using various instruments of torture and hitting them in the face and
over the body. Many of the prisoners suffered for a considerable time
from the effects of injuries they received.
On 1st February, 1945, Clemens shot a second Norwegian prisoner from
a distance of 1.5 metres while he was trying to escape. Between 1943
and 1945, Clemens employed the method of " verschäfte Vernehmung " on
23 Norwegian prisoners. He used various instruments of torture and cold
baths. Some of the prisoners continued for a considerable time to
suffer from injuries received at his hands.
Freezing
prisoners to near-death, repeated beatings, long forced-standing,
waterboarding, cold showers in air-conditioned rooms, stress positions [Arrest mit Verschaerfung],
withholding of medicine and leaving wounded or sick prisoners alone in
cells for days on end - all these have occurred at US detention camps
under the command of president George W. Bush. Over a hundred documented deaths have occurred in these interrogation sessions. The Pentagon itself has conceded homocide by torture in multiple cases. Notice the classic, universal and simple criterion
used to define torture in 1948 (my italics):
In deciding the degree of punishment, the Court found it decisive that the defendants had inflicted serious physical and mental suffering
on their victims, and did not find sufficient reason for a mitigation
of the punishment in accordance with the provisions laid down in Art. 5
of the Provisional Decree of 4th May, 1945. The Court came to the
conclusion that such acts, even though they were committed with the
connivance of superiors in rank or even on their orders, must be
regarded and punished as serious war crimes.
The victims, by the way, were not in uniform.
And the Nazis tried to argue, just as John Yoo did, that this made torturing them legit. The
victims were paramilitary Norwegians, operating as an insurgency,
against an occupying force. And the torturers had also interrogated
some prisoners humanely. But the argument, deployed by Dick
Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the Nazis before them, didn't wash with the court. Money
quote:
As extenuating circumstances, Bruns had
pleaded various incidents in which he had helped Norwegians, Schubert
had pleaded difficulties at home, and Clemens had pointed to several
hundred interrogations during which he had treated prisoners humanely.
The Court did not regard any of the above-mentioned circumstances as
a sufficient reason for mitigating the punishment and found it
necessary to act with the utmost severity. Each of the defendants was
responsible for a series of incidents of torture, every one of which
could, according to Art. 3 (a), (c) and (d) of the Provisional Decree
of 4th May, 1945, be punished by the death sentence.
So
using "enhanced interrogation techniques" against insurgent prisoners
out of uniform was punishable by death. Here's the Nazi defense
argument:
(c) That the acts of torture in no case
resulted in death. Most of the injuries inflicted were slight and did
not result in permanent disablement.
This is the Yoo position. It's what
Glenn Reynolds calls the "sensible" position on torture.
It was the camp slogan at Camp Nama in Iraq: "No Blood, No Foul." Now take the issue of "stress
positions", photographed at Abu Ghraib and used at Bagram to murder an
innocent detainee. Here's a good description of how stress positions
operate:
The hands were tied together closely with a
cord on the back of the prisoner, raised then the body and hung the
cord to a hook, which was attached into two meters height in a tree, so
that the feet in air hung. The whole body weight rested thus at the
joints bent to the rear. The minimum period of hanging up was a half
hour. To remain there three hours hung up, was pretty often. This
punishment was carried out at least twice weekly.
This
is how one detainee at Abu Ghraib died (combined with beating) as in the photograph above. The
experience of enduring these stress positions has been described by
Rush Limbaugh as no worse than frat-house hazings. Those who have gone
through them disagree. They describe:
Dreadful pain
in the shoulders and wrists were the results of this treatment. Only
laboriously the lung could be supplied with the necessary oxygen. The
heart worked in a racing speed. From all pores the sweat penetrated.
Yes, this is an account of someone who went through the "enhanced interrogation techniques" at Dachau. (Google translation here.)
Critics will no doubt say I am accusing the Bush administration of being Hitler. I'm not. There is no comparison between the political system in Germany in 1937 and the U.S. in 2007. What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death.
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