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07 Apr 2008 12:26 pm

The Definition Of Torture

No one disputes the legal definition: the infliction of

"severe mental or physical pain or suffering"

to coerce prisoners to give information. The debate has at times bogged itself down in details about which specific form of coercion is defined by this. But it surely matters less what method is used than the degree of "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" expressed by the prisoner subjected to it. In the case of al-Qahtani, we have a rare example of a government-logged account of how one prisoner responded to a series of repeated and constant techniques. Here is Philippe Sands' collation of the responses of al-Qahtani to the "enhanced interrogation" techniques inflicted on him by interrogators authorized and monitored by the president of the United States. These are all separate responses to separate interventions:

Detainee began to cry. Visibly shaken. Very emotional. Detainee cried. Disturbed. Detainee began to cry. Detainee bit the IV tube completely in two. Started moaning. Uncomfortable. Moaning. Began crying hard spontaneously. Crying and praying. Very agitated. Yelled. Agitated and violent. Detainee spat. Detainee proclaimed his innocence. Whining. Dizzy. Forgetting things. Angry. Upset. Yelled for Jesus ...

Urinated on himself. Began to cry. Asked God for forgiveness. Cried. Cried. Became violent. Began to cry. Broke down and cried. Began to pray and openly cried. Cried out to Jesus several times. Trembled uncontrollably.

I have changed a couple of references to Allah to Jesus, the better to cut through any religious bias we may have. Now recall: this is the government's own account. Many other reports from sources such as the Red Cross or indeed FBI officials suggest much worse. And, of course, there is a subjective gray area here. But if you heard a prisoner in a neighboring cell making these sounds, and if they went on for days, weeks, months, would it be reasonable to conclude that such a prisoner was being subjected to "severe mental or physical pain or suffering" as a speaker of plain English would understand those words? At the end of this process of interrogation, according to testimony by an FBI officer, Qahtani

"was evidencing behavior consistent with extreme psychological trauma (talking to non existent people, reporting hearing voices, crouching in a cell covered with a sheet for hours on end)."

Has such a person in your judgment been subjected to "severe mental pain or suffering"? If he has, then he is the victim of a clear violation of the baseline protections afforded all prisoners by the Geneva Conventions, a violation that was not only authorized but monitored by the most powerful men in the Bush administration.

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