I just returned from lunch. I picked up a rental car today and as I was eating, I listened to “World View”, a radio program on National Public Radio.
One of the articles was about a woman whose husband had worked for the Guatemalan resistance. He was “disappeared” by the Guatemalan military in the early 90’s. As a lawyer, she did everything in her power to find him and have him released. She finally determined that he had been taken by the military, tortured and executed, all with the knowledge and even the tacit consent of the American CIA.
The article was about the torture that still goes on today in Guantanamo Bay and in other facilities either run by or sanctioned by the US Military and US intelligence agencies.
It was her position that this kind of behavior by our government is not only immoral, but also useless in that torture is known in the intelligence community for returning at best unreliable information. I would never dispute that the practices of our government are barbaric and unacceptable to me and to the majority of humanity. However, I believe that there is a major misconception that exists regarding torture.
The purpose of torture is not the acquisition of information. The purpose of torture is intimidation and revenge.
I believe that our government and the intelligence community are both happy to let the people of the US believe that somehow they are taking appropriate measures to safeguard our "way of life". This allows them to justify their behavior. However, as the descendent of African slaves, I must point out that torture has been used as a regular tool for controlling the minds and emotions of slaves and thier descendants since this country was "discovered" by the Europeans.
The same techniques that are used today in the ghost prisons of the world have been used for hundreds of years against my people. Of course, in the beginning, the justification was the practical management of a useful resource. Later, when it was used in the south after the abolition of slavery, it was justified as “Protecting our women and our way of life”. Today, we justify it as protecting us from the evils of terrorists.
I cannot advocate these actions that are practiced in my name around the world. But let us be very clear on their purpose. It is not about acquiring information. It is about sending a message. This message is best sent when those who are tortured are both the strongest and most upstanding of the community to be controlled. If we were to torture the guilty, it would have little effect. It is better to torture the innocent. In this way, integrity is undermined and community is destroyed. This creates an environment where an attitude of “every person for them selves” dilutes the power of the people. And makes a fertile environment for bribery and mistrust among the population being controlled.
May our Ancestors forgive us all.
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