{"id":53140,"date":"2015-02-02T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=53140"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:26:10","slug":"rejecting-the-obama-cheney-alliance-against-torture-prosecutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/02\/rejecting-the-obama-cheney-alliance-against-torture-prosecutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Rejecting the Obama-Cheney Alliance against Torture Prosecutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

27 Jan 2015 – <\/em>A decade ago, amid early reports of detainee abuse at CIA black sites and Guantanamo Bay, defenders of U.S. detention and interrogation operations promoted a flawed distinction between torture and\u00a0\u201ctorture-lite.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0They argued that, to our nation\u2019s credit, rather than resorting to brutal and violent maiming and mutilation, we employed less cruel techniques \u2013 techniques like sleep deprivation, extended isolation, stress positions, sensory bombardment, forced nudity, freezing temperatures, sexual and cultural humiliation, confinement in coffin-like boxes, and threats of harm to family members. This favorable assessment, however, does not withstand\u00a0scientific scrutiny<\/a>; these hands-off psychological methods are at least as devastating and debilitating in their long-term and often permanent effects. Yet the notion of \u201ctorture-lite\u201d helped to encourage the public to accept the inhuman treatment of detainees.<\/p>\n

Now, following last month\u2019s release of the\u00a0Senate report<\/a>\u00a0on the CIA\u2019s \u201cenhanced interrogation program,\u201d we are drawn to another deceptive distinction: the difference between \u201ctorture tolerance\u201d on the one hand and what might be called \u201ctorture tolerance-lite\u201d on the other. To nobody\u2019s surprise, torture tolerance found its go-to spokesperson years ago in Dick Cheney. The former vice-president predictably returned to center stage to defend the CIA\u2019s methods. His strident\u00a0message<\/a>\u00a0has ranged from \u201cI would do it again in a minute\u201d to \u201cIt absolutely did work\u201d to \u201cI have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.\u201d Indeed, Cheney and other Bush Administration officials who instituted the program apparently believe our torturers deserve to be decorated, not indicted.<\/p>\n

Torture tolerance-lite has its own equally high-profile advocate: Barack Obama. As he began his first term in January 2009, the President\u00a0stated<\/a>, \u201cWe need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards\u201d when asked about possible consequences for our war-on-terror purveyors of torture. His opposition to accountability has not softened over the six years since. This past summer, anticipating the Senate report findings, Obama dismissively\u00a0acknowledged<\/a>, \u201cWe tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values\u201d \u2013 and then he cautioned us against being \u201ctoo sanctimonious\u201d about it. And in December, when some of the gruesome details of CIA torture \u2013 including the significant involvement of psychologists as designers and implementers \u2013 finally became public, Obama\u00a0recommended<\/a>\u00a0that we not \u201crefight old arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheney and Obama are unlikely allies but they have regrettably linked arms here. In their joint discounting of government-sponsored brutality, Cheney\u2019s torture tolerance and Obama\u2019s torture tolerance-lite represent a formidable front against calls for criminal prosecutions and justice. With such unity, perhaps it is unsurprising that national polls throughout the past decade \u2013 from one administration to the next \u2013 have consistently shown that many Americans\u00a0support<\/a>\u00a0the use of torture.<\/p>\n

To a troubling degree, it seems we have grown comfortable with a worldview that defends and excuses the barbaric treatment of other human beings: we torture because our country is in grave danger; those we torture are monstrous wrongdoers; we torture for the greater good; only torture can keep us safe; and those who criticize our stance on torture cannot be trusted. This perspective flourishes despite compelling evidence that \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d have been\u00a0ineffective<\/a>\u00a0in producing actionable intelligence and that our use of torture has badly\u00a0damaged<\/a>\u00a0the moral authority of the United States around the world.<\/p>\n

Torture, regardless of whether it relies on physical pain or psychological torment, is cruel, immoral, misguided, and illegal. As a profound affront and threat to both human dignity and the rule of law, torture degrades and diminishes not only its direct victims but also the society that tolerates it without accountability. That is why, in the long run, the adverse effects of torture tolerance-lite may be nearly indistinguishable from torture tolerance itself. In a different context, shortly after the attacks of 9\/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft\u00a0warned <\/a>that certain choices \u201cgive ammunition to America’s enemies, and pause to America’s friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.\u201d Tragically, by forgoing criminal prosecutions, that\u2019s exactly what the embrace of torture tolerance-lite does today.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, associate director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the release of the Senate report on the CIA\u2019s \u201cenhanced interrogation program,\u201d we are drawn to another deceptive distinction: the difference between \u201ctorture tolerance\u201d and what might be called \u201ctorture tolerance-lite. Torture, regardless of whether it relies on physical pain or psychological torment, is cruel, immoral, misguided, and illegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}