The products of torture? Degradation, lousy evidence

COLEEN ROWLEY & TOM MAERTENS
St. Paul Pioneer Press

No matter how many angles columnist Mark Bowden uses to try to justify torture ("On waterboarding Zubaydah" Jan. 6), his arguments amount to nothing more than the worn-out "ticking time bomb" hypothetical - which makes for good TV fiction but bad policy. Bowden's construction is actually a version of right-wing radio's "torture saves lives" talking point that, through pure repetition, has deluded so much of the public.

Waterboarding dates back to the Spanish Inquisition, and it was used extensively by the Gestapo during WWII. They termed it "Verschärfte Vernehmung" - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - a term the Bush administration adopted with no sense of irony whatever.

Following the war, the U.S. charged German and Japanese intelligence officers with war crimes for using the same waterboarding, hypothermia, beatings, excruciating stress positions and sleep deprivation the U.S. has used against detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But if torture really did allow the government to stop "dozens" of terrorist plots, as it claims, and might prevent the fictional scenario from "24" where Jack Bauer tortures exactly the right guy to find the hidden nuke, aren't a few Gestapo tactics warranted?

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, about 1,000 mostly Muslim immigrants were rounded up and tossed into jail without charges, where they were brutalized for six to nine months because the FBI and police believed that a ticking time bomb, "a second wave of terror," existed.

So the authorities were understandably frustrated when these post-Sept. 11 detainees wouldn't talk, despite the mistreatment. But as the DOJ Inspector General later found, none of those rounded up knew anything of value because they were not terrorists.

We've seen the terrible photos and heard the reports of the inhumane and degrading treatment and tortures that occurred in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and in the CIA's "secret black sites." News reports sourced to released prisoners and humanitarian organizations suggest a high percentage of those tortured were innocent, like the Canadian, Maher Arar, and the German, Kahlid el-Masri. Do Americans really want their government to employ Gestapo tactics on prisoners in this fashion?

A true ticking-time-bomb scenario that requires urgently identifying the unique guy with the crucial information is so rare as to be almost nonexistent. It's the stuff of movies, not of real life. Bowden used the slightly different example of catching a kidnapper who's hidden the victim who may otherwise die or never be found. Such rare public safety emergencies have been considered and effectively accommodated under the law of interrogation. The Supreme Court carved out a "public safety exception" years ago, in the Quarles case, to dispense with Miranda Rights for such cases.

In contrast to the limited exception to the Miranda protocol, our criminal and military justice systems have never recognized exceptions for the use of waterboarding or other torture. Torture is not merely unethical and contrary to American values, it doesn't produce reliable information.

The administration has made Abu Zubaydah a poster boy for the effectiveness of torture. But how can we know the truth about whether he provided any valuable information? The videotapes of the interrogations were destroyed, which is reason itself for skepticism. Ron Suskind quotes an official in his book "The One-Percent Doctrine" who saw Abu Zubaydah's diary and declared that "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality."

Under torture, Abu Zubaydah reported that shopping malls were targeted by al-Qaida, as well as banks, supermarkets and water systems, along with nuclear plants, apartment buildings, and on and on. Suskind concluded the U.S. tortured a prisoner who was mentally ill. Nonetheless, because of his fabricated information, thousands of police and security officials were sent on wild goose chases because Abu Zubaydah wanted to stop the pain.

Use of torture has given rise to things worse than wild goose chases. The classic example is that of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan captured in Pakistan who denied knowing anything about Iraq providing WMD training to al-Qaida, but was tortured until he "remembered." According to the Washington Post (Aug. 1, 2004), President Bush's October 2002 statement - "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaida members in bomb-making and poisons and gases" - was based entirely on al-Libi's interrogation. The CIA later retracted al-Libi's fabricated stories, which were extracted under torture. In the meantime, the Bush administration used his false information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

In other words, torture is the least effective method to find a ticking time bomb or the kidnap victim buried underground in a timely manner. It is therefore illegal for a very practical reason: It doesn't work. Most judges are ethical but they are also pragmatic and utilitarian. They figured out quite a long time ago that confessions coerced through physical torture not only make lousy evidence but are of no utility in preserving public safety.

Coleen Rowley of Apple Valley is a former FBI agent and DFL-endorsed candidate for Congress. Tom Maertens was a senior official in the office of counterterrorism at the State Department during and after the 9/11 attacks. He also served as director of nonproliferation in the National Security Council under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. He's retired and lives in Mankato.