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TechnoratiWaterboarding and Inquistion
Why has the Bush administration been dancing around the question of whether waterboarding is torture?
Waterboarding was one of the most common tortures employed by the Spanish Inquisition for the first half of its 450-year-long history (circa 1480-1834). This has never been a secret. It is attested to by reams of documents - letters, debates, manuals of instruction and copious records of trials that include verbatim accounts of the torture sessions themselves - in the Historical Archives of Spain and Mexico, in which I have worked for the last 30 years. The information about inquisitorial waterboarding has also been available to the English-reading general public since publication of H.C. Lea's A History of the Inquisition, the last volume of which appeared a hundred years ago this year.
Here is Lea's description of the inquisitorial waterboarding:
"The patient was placed on an escalera or potro - a kind of trestle, with sharp-edged rungs across it like a ladder. It slanted so that the head was lower than the feet and, at the lower end was a depression in which the head sank, while an iron band around the forehead or throat kept it immovable. A bostezo, or iron prong, distended the mouth, a toca, or strip of linen, was thrust down the throat to conduct water trickling slowly from a jarra or jar, holding usually a little more than a quart. The patient gasped and felt he was suffocating, and at intervals, the toca was withdrawn and he was adjured to tell the truth. The severity of the infliction was measured by the number of jars consumed, sometimes reaching to six or eight."
The Spanish Inquisition, unlike many American lawmakers and members of the executive branch, did not waffle about labeling waterboarding a torture. Waterboarding was not invented in Spain: Since the middle of the 13th Century it had been used by European civil and ecclesiastical courts, particularly the Papal Inquisition, in Rome. In Spain no one voiced doubts, as did Michael Mukasey during his October confirmation hearings for U.S. attorney general, and at a hearing just the other day, about whether waterboarding might not technically be torture.
President Bush, on the other hand, has no doubts at all. Unlike his nominee, he spoke with inquisitor-like certainty when he proclaimed that our physically coercive techniques "are safe, they are lawful and they are necessary." He apparently sees no contradiction in simultaneously insisting that these "classified interrogation procedures" be conducted offshore so as to remove them from the jurisdiction and safeguards of the American judicial system.
The Spanish Inquisition guaranteed to the accused many of the legal protections that the current administration has worked so hard to sweep under the rug. Within the context of their times the Inquisition's stance, succinctly laid out in its 1561 Manual of Instruction to Inquisitors, was remarkable. Both the prosecuting and court-appointed defense attorneys had access to the substance of all of the testimonies relating to the accused. The accused could disqualify the testimony of anyone whom he or she could prove had animus against them. Inquisitors had to weigh the full arguments of the defense and the prosecution before ordering a torture session. The order required a unanimous vote of the judges. If the defense attorney didn't accept the decision, he could appeal the ruling to the Inquisition's Supreme Council (though in practice they rarely did).
Gathered in the torture chamber itself were the inquisitors, a bishop's representative, and a recording secretary adept at speedwriting, which was the videotaping of its day. The attending doctor could rule the accused unfit to be tortured, and could order the procedure stopped at any time. Once the accused was brought into the torture chamber, he was offered several chances - the average seems to have been about six- to make full voluntary confession. Fear in the presence of imminent pain was generally enough to loosen the accused person's tongue. It was only when fear alone did not work that torture was applied, with each step of the procedure, each jar of water and turn of the winch, each question and each choked-out answer, duly noted by the recording secretary. None of the participants ever destroyed those documents out of fear of embarrassment or indictment for their actions. Nor did their bosses. The original recordings were archived, and after 500 years are still available.
I am not praising the Spanish Inquisition. I know enough about the real Inquisition - not the cartoon version of Monty Python nor the sensationalist horrors of the Black Legend - to know that the Inquisition was heinous in almost every way. Though debates raged then and still rage among scholars about the reliability of the information elicited by these procedures, there is no disagreement about one fact: Waterboarding was torture. That was its intent, and that, in conjunction with a variety of other torments, was how the Spanish inquisitors used it. Even today popular imagination condemns them for it. For the United States to adopt even one of the Inquisition's torture techniques exposes us, rightly, to moral condemnation.
The United States has long been a beacon to the world for its ethical principles (even when sometimes these have been honored in the breach). Equal treatment under the law. Habeas corpus. Free and open discussion informed by access to information and a free press. Checks and balances to ensure that these rights are protected.
That the Bush-Cheney administration has squandered our human and material resources in this so-called war against terror is a calamity that will affect us for decades. But that they have blown away our moral capital, that they have compromised the principles that define us as a nation, that is a tragedy.
David M. Gitlitz is a professor of Hispanic studies at the University of Rhode Island.
© 2008 The Providence Journal Co.
30 Comments so far
Show AllWow!
Nothing else to say.
By the way, I am persuaded that the Founders were astute students of world history.
They intuited or understood that something in the human condition formed the basis for despotism, blind nationalism, imperialism, etc.
Our "experimental" republic was founded and our Constitution was written with these ideas in mind.
They understood that some People will tend to become nationalists, that they may seek out tyrants, that they may want to exaggerate petty differences and criminalize and torture those so distinguished.
Ergo, Separation of Powers. Ergo, the First Amendment where all ideas can enter the marketplace but religion (an extremely deep impulse) cannot be imposed on others by state fiat nor state subsidy. And those who disagree cannot be criminalized nor punished by state authority.
It seems we've forgotten this ancient wisdom...
Jefferson would have thoroughly condemned W's empire and the corrupt justices and legislators who enabled him.
As the man said, those who do not learn history are forced to have Santayana quoted to them.
wilmoor, canardtahiti and Grayling have hit it on the head.
Recall: the human brain is a bundle of hard-wired impulses, (sexual, sadistic, masochistic, tribal, territorial, acquisitive, envious, religious, etc.) a "gift" of millions of years of evolution. And these impulses have to be understood and delicately and intelligently channeled or the human specie perishes.
Now in the light of these impulses, let's analyze the issue at hand.
Some people's ideology (i.e. religion/religious impulse) must be so strong and necessary for their emotional well-being that this ideology helps them overcome their natural empathy toward their fellow man.
Furthermore, in this absurd universe, most men have an emotional need for an "organizing principle" in order for the universe/existence to make sense. Ergo, as a remedy, men invent abstractions and then proceed to adore these abstractions. I call that idolatry.
If that is the case, man-made, linguistically expedient, yet Platonistic, abstractions ("enemy combatants" "terrorists" "commies" "fags" "Americans" "Iraqis") become _more important_ in their minds than the real, the human.
Those convenient abstraction differentiate "them" from "us." And very real humans will be sacrificed for the sake, nay, for the very "survival" of the abstract ideology.
The other point to consider is the psychological need for True Believer commitment to an ideology.
The individuals who worked for the Inquisition invoked God's name every time they inflicted _their personal_ sadism. Others come to mind, such as the Gestapo, the "renditioners" abroad and the regimented grunts in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
Bottom line: It's very convenient for the soul to have an ideological _excuse_ when one vents one's own hard-wired sadistic impulse. There is no need for conscience, remorse or confession. After all, this was "virtuous behavior" and action taken in "God's (or ideology/abstraction-of-choice) name."
Therefore, when confronted by men of conscience and good-will as to why the inquisitors inflicted suffering on their fellow man, the inquisitors invoke the common-good ideology and say they simply followed its commands ("I followed orders.")
And this ideology says that "other" is not quite human. This is the tribal impulse's finest moment.
As long as we choose to remain in such an infantile stage and refuse to acknowledge that evolution's "gift" (our impulses) persists in our brains and influences our decision-making we are doomed as a specie.
Great article. I have been thinking about the historical roots of the waterboarding controversy too, espcially through reading Foucault, who states that in general, the extraction of confession in whatever form (inquisition, torture, penitential discipline, psychoanalysis, Oprah, the People's Court, autobiographies...whatever!!!) is so central to Western Culture that we don't even realize that we do it anymore. As Nietzsche would say, the habit of confessing has been "bred" into us, good herd animals that we are.
I have been wondering about whether confession, as in self-disclosure, plays anywhere near such a big role in Islamic countries. It probably doesn't, making the current practices even more disgusting (if that's possible) because so culturally alien to the people they are being enacted upon. In any case, the author has hit on something...there is something dark and deeply repressed and historical about what is being enacted at Guantanomo (sp?) and in the secret prisons...It is as if we feel compelled to re-enact the whole oppressive history of the West in a single war (from the Crusades to the Inquisition to Vietnam), sort of like one big bloody historical revue.
"I don't think we're the worst country, but we're not the best either!Maybe no country is "the best". Some have one thing that is great, others have another.
Anyway, it's a stupid, arrogant thing to say."
Agreed. It's known formally as "American Exceptionalism", a doctrine bound up with the idea that America is particularly favored by God.
Silly stuff, of course, but historically: deadly. As a refuge for scoundrels and the incompetent it is without peer. It makes America rather like that "special" child that can do no wrong, is always forgiven, and has no authentic responsibilities.
David Grayling February 9,2008 3:43 a.m.
"The Catholic Church, long ago, conducted the cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition and now the U.S.A., that shining light of freedom, democracy, and human rights, employs similar methods (of course, much worse things were carried out during rendition to other countries)."
Now it's clear why we have five Catholic Supreme Court Justices making all the decisions on what is "constitutional" for the country!
Everything understood under "harsh interrogation techniques" was literally taken from the handbooks of Nazi Gestapo (including waterboarding and all the other techniques), so even the terms are nothing more than simple translations (i.e. "verschärfte Vernehmung"). Sixty years ago, Nazis were hanged because they created and used these interrogation techniques against freedom fighters, fighting against the German occupation forces. After WW2 the US took over all these techniques from the Nazis (also the people, not only the techniques). In the sixties, they also took over other techniques created by the French during the aggression of Algeria. Today, the US is training, exporting and using all these techniques against freedom fighters, nothing more than oppressed people, fighting against the US aggression and occupation forces (or allies, like i.e. the Israeli aggression forces). Guess, as long as you have US style freedom, i.e. you can eat hamburgers for 1$, have the choice between 40 toothbrushes and daily stupidity from one of the 400 commercial TV-channels, nobody will act against fascism in the US.
Of course, not only the techniques are the same, also the reasoning and the explications behind the application of torture are the same like during Nazi Germany. So if you hear Charles Krauthammer, John Yoo, Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld trying to explain why torture is legitimate, then you can go back sixty years and read the exactly same sentences from Nazi bureaucrats. Nothing new, just a translated copy-paste, but with the small difference that sixty years ago these bastards were finally hanged.
All good comments from principled human beings. The Enlightenment is indeed over and the age of Endarkenment began with the stolen elections of 2000. Oh what a difference a few Supreme Court justices can make.
America's exceptionalism is naive and dangerous. How many times have you heard "We're No. 1" or "God Bless America"? Yeah, right, we're No. 1, in debt; No. 1 in military spending; No. 1 in purveying arms to other countries, no matter what form of regime takes delivery. No. 1 in selfl-indulgence; No. 1 not preventing preventable diseases compared with other developed countries; No. 1 in greenhouse gases; No. 1 among develped nation in failing to provide healthcare to its people.
We're a rogue nation about to become a failed state.
The Catholic Church, long ago, conducted the cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition and now the U.S.A., that shining light of freedom, democracy, and human rights, employs similar methods (of course, much worse things were carried out during rendition to other countries).
It seems terribly ironic that a religious group that preaches about love and a country which is trying to shape the whole world into its image should be guilty of such atrocities.
Doesn't say much about Religion or Democracy does it?
www.dangerouscreation.com
BTW, Elmysterio is right on. The USA myth is one thing, its reality another.
It was a beautiful experiment in Enlightenment thought, embodied in a brilliant Constitution, championed by men of rare wisdom and insight. But British bankers, beginning with the War of 1812, would have none of it.
The Civil War ended that experiment: British bankers, not the Union, were victorious in having indebted America to themselves until WWI...when the FR took over and the cycle was repeated.
(Lincoln, who had sought to avoid this take-over by international finance, was eliminated by the bankers).
Nixon, Reagan, GHB and GWB were the ultimate and irreversible result of this undermining of the nation. Now we are indebted to the world, the Constitution is shredded, our system of checks and balances on power is destroyed, the Fourth Estate is subverted. The USA "empire" is financed by Chinese and Saudi money.
As a dual national, I now live in Europe....where my sentiment of true freedom and well-being is far superior to life within the SSA (subverted states of America). But I will continue to vote at my nearest USA Consulat. Hope springs eternal.
The history of the French Resistance is replete with references to "the bathtub" torture employed by Nazi Gestapo agents at their Paris HQ during WWII. It was the same as waterboarding.
The bushcheney sociopaths, this entire fascist regime and its eager "contractors," have led our nation directly into Dante's Inferno.
There will be hell to pay. The American "experiment" as a beacon of hope, rooted in the Enlightenment, is over.
The administration has about 8 more months in office. They have yet to be held accountable for their atrocious, heinous crimes by our so called oppostion party.
If they are not held accountable before this time, anybody with a conscience should refuse to vote Democratic.
Remember, if you need to vote at all, hopefully there will be Nader, McKinney or some other sincere person on the ballot. You can vote without hastening our country's slow drift toward facism which the Democrat's seem clearly complicit in.
The tortures of the Inquisition were targeted at the "other" and hence justified because the victim was unlike "us". The same logic justified the slavery of African people, after all the Pope had said they were not fully human. Now torture, denial of due process, pre-emptive war, killing of civilians as acceptable collateral damage etc. is openly promoted as justified in dealing with the "other"; centuries after the assertion that all men are equal and entitled to security in their lives and property, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans need to ask themselves if this is worthy of them.
I don't think it was a good idea to put h.c lea's description of inquisition style waterboarding out here in public like this. what if cheney sees It? bang- there goes the old rag down the throat, here comes the iron band around the head, line up 6,7,8 quarts of water- man that's waterboarding! now he's gonna start it tomorrow. only he will skip the part about the legal formalities they observed. too quaint for us.
"Just WHEN has the US ever been the great country that we're reminded over and over again that it is? I'd be inclined to argue, NEVER."
Good point! You know what makes me crazy? people who mindlessly say "America is the best country". You know how many supposedly educated people I have heard say that? And they are always people who have never been to any other country.
Sometimes I ask them in what way America is the best and all they can think of (if you cna call it thinking) is "we have more freedom". More freedom than who? more freedom than the French? More than Canadians? PuhlEEZE! I guess we have more freedom than people who live in Uzbekistan!
I don't think we're the worst country, but we're not the best either!Maybe no country is "the best". Some have one thing that is great, others have another.
Anyway, it's a stupid, arrogant thing to say.
Good one, militant! :-)
Interesting to know that the Inquisition had a manual. Perhaps someone should reprint it with the U.S. presidential seal.
"The United States has long been a beacon to the world for its ethical principles (even when sometimes these have been honored in the breach). Equal treatment under the law. Habeas corpus. Free and open discussion informed by access to information and a free press. Checks and balances to ensure that these rights are protected."
That is the big myth... the US has never been ethical at all. Come on, that's such bullshit. They've sponsored genocide in all corners of the world, founded the country on the blood of the aboriginal peoples of North America... Exported terror, promoted predatory capitalism... the only country to use nuclear weapons on a civilian population.
Equal treatment under the law? Bullshit. Maybe if your a rich white man... But if you're poor, or a minority, the law is not equal.
Free and open discussion? Again bullshit. If you don't follow the "mainstream" line of thinking, you're branded anti-american, a traitor, anti-semetic, a communist.
Just WHEN has the US ever been the great country that we're reminded over and over again that it is? I'd be inclined to argue, NEVER.
dionski: "amerika is now officially a rogue banana republic."
Seemed inevitable in light of the School of the Americas that America should become what it preached to banana republics.
Dear rebelnow: I tried to use the link to that 30-second video you recommended, but it is "not available" on YouTube. Too subversive, I guess. Nice try, anyway.
For an excellent fictionalized description of Inquisition-style waterboarding, read Geraldine Brooks new book "People of the Book" in which she gives all the gory details, including how the process forces the victim to half-swallow the linen cloth through which the water is poured so that it subsequently gets yanked out through the esophagus, ripping and tearing. Of course, we modern types daren't call it torture....
Well it's longer than 30 seconds but it's worth the laugh, except that maybe it's no longer as funny. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZQ10Xm29To
amerika is now officially a rogue banana republic.
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Monty Python
A humorous 30 second skit that speaks volumes.
bush et al. are descendants of people who supported the Nazi death camps, people who were profoundly evil. we must never, never forget this.
There is a shift in the color of things this morning. We now live in a country in which our privacy has disappeared and our rulers are no longer legally prohibited from seizing and torturing us. It's a little like waking up in the woods with bears - on your own in a situation unconcerned with your safety and well being. I suppose it it better to be shed of the illusion of constitutional protection than to continue to pretend that it exists. In any case it is a safe bet that we are no longer a "beacon to the world for our ethical principles."
See also "Clinton Backs off support for torture", Politico 9/27/07 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6050.html
and then two weeks later where Hillary backed off from her backing off on support for legal Presidential waterboarding: "Clinton Cites Lessons of Partisanship", Washington Post 10/10/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/AR2007100902284.html
This is another substantive difference between Clinton and Obama. Here is Obama, and I hope to God Democrats don't shoot themselves in the foot by nominating the flawed Hillary (who is likely to lose to McCain) versus the dynamic (and more likely to mobilize not only all the Democratic base but independents and some grassroots Republicans as well and defeat McCain in November) Obama.
"I have been consistent in my strong belief that no Administration should allow the use of torture, including so-called 'enhanced interrogation techniques' like water-boarding, head-slapping, and extreme temperatures. It's time that we had a Department of Justice that upholds the rule of law and American values, instead of finding ways to enable the President to subvert them. No more political parsing or legal loopholes." — Barack Obama, 10/29/07
No surprise here.
We got rid of habeas corpus from our legal system. This turned our rule of law back to pre-Magna Carta 'might is right' law.
It only makes sense to also turn back our morality to that approximate time as well.
If we keep going, we can create a time that future historians will refer to as "Dark Ages II".
Oh, what's the use? America is dead.
This article says it all. Do we want to be known for a great leap backward to the Spanish Inquisition? Heck, we're practically there now, what with this whole emphasis by some on making this a Christian nation and anybody who doesn't ascribe to their rigid dogma is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Well, I have news for y'all: This is not now, nor ever has been, a Christian nation. Article 11 of the Treaty Of Tripoli, ratified by the United States Senate on June 7, 1797, and signed into law by President John Adams, reads as follows:
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
A word of clarification here: Mussulmen and Mahometan refers to Moslems and Muslim nations.
As for waterboarding, the fact that this country sanctions such acts shows just how far we have slid from our moral bearings. If we don't do something soon to restore our moral grounding in the world, we may as well kiss this country goodbye and march headlong into Empire. And we all know what has happened, historically, to each and every Empire that ever existed on the face of the earth. They have collapsed under their own bloated weight and fallen into long periods of instability. And if that's not already happening now, well, I don't know what else to think. But the old saying goes, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
If it looks like an Empire and it acts like an Empire, then surely it must be an Empire, only in our case, it is one that is in the throes of decline. I suppose it was inevitable, historical precedent being what it is.