Imagination does not dare to tread that path, reality pushes the horse on that path. Our real-world events sometimes go beyond our most creative imaginations. Philip Roth has a famous complaint in this regard, ‘Reality always goes beyond our limits.’ Many novelists may not dare to narrate such an event, lest it seem strange or imaginary. The latest proof of my conviction is the Senate report on the torture tactics used by the CIA in the "war on terror."
Yes, in Hollywood movies we have seen the flow of unbridled imagination. But I have never seen anything like 'pouring water in the anus'. It actually involved medieval tactics, including anal rape. This causes the intestines to swell. And there is severe pain in the abdomen. The viewers of the program entitled 24 may tolerate the waterboarding scene, but when it is applied to one person 183 times a month, it is very difficult to tolerate. Very few TV producers would dare to show the scene that the prisoner was inhumanely tortured and he was getting up for waterboarding again at the finger of the investigator.
I want these criminals to face trial. Meanwhile, the head of the US Civil Rights Union has asked Barack Obama to forgive everyone involved. The idea is that they have an inherent right to be forgiven. Their argument is that if this pardon is granted then at least it will be established that the crime has taken place. And it will be possible to set a legal precedent to prevent its recurrence in the future. But my point is, if it is judged, it will set a stronger precedent.
The question now is how we will take this report into account or what the consequences will be. We have to look at the power of language and speech that has the power to deactivate. Notably, the CIA director on Thursday went on to refute the argument about the report but did not utter the word torture. Instead, he says, "interrogation is a widespread strategy." As a result, it is not a problem to discuss its pros and cons. This language is also mastered by his lower level employees. They said ‘attention-grabbing’ and ‘cold cells’, but said nothing about pushing prisoners or keeping them naked in freezing temperatures. The phrase ‘anal water sprinkling’ is a proverb. For example, the phrase 'ethnographic uprising' is also a eulogy. In fact these phrases have been created to create a distance between the speaker and the listener.
In Britain, we are still awaiting the results of the Chilkat investigation into our involvement in the 2003 occupation of Iraq, which was the culmination of the 9/11. The most influential event of our time took place on September 11, 2001, and its effects are still being felt today, almost a decade and a half later. We are still living in the shadow of those two destroyed buildings. Every investigation has shown that the occupation of Iraq and the "war on terror" as a whole have led to serious mistakes.
The Senate report said that an organization that was intimidated by the 9/11 attacks and had no experience in interrogation had resorted to an approach that was not only unethical but also ineffective in the pages of history. Simply put, torture does not work. There is no fruit in it. People give wrong information to avoid torture. The enemy benefits. Dissatisfied with the perpetrator's actions, the victims rallied against him. Take a look at how the Abu Ghraib prison created resistance in Iraq against the US occupation.
Those who have justified the "war on terror" have been repeatedly proven wrong. Martin Chulov has revealed the wonderful story of the rise of IS. It appears that the organization would not have been formed if its top leaders had not gathered in the US-controlled prisons in Iraq. The occupation of Iraq has not been able to deal with terrorism like the CIA's torture, which has fueled these terrorists.
Diane Feinstein can publish the results of his investigation despite opposition from the White House. Because, there has been a separation of powers in the United States. Their law department is very different from the executive branch, they can control the work of the executive branch (in Britain it is too late to do so). However, this is not a complete solution.
It has paved the way for us to express our collective blind passion and the deepest and darkest persecution. Stuck in the story, we wanted to, say, cut off the villain's head with a boy's ax. But this is not exactly what we want from our government. The state cannot be the sum of our instincts and persecutions. The state must listen to the rule of law. The basic human rights and the sense of general human courtesy must be taken into account. Reality may spread beyond imagination, but the state must do the right thing. Otherwise, we will have to face the same horrible truth that we faced last week.
