A Lapse in Intelligence

Colonel Steven Kleinman, who has referred to himself as the "most unpopular officer" in all of Iraq, describes the previous administration's support of SERE tactics for interrogation as not only ineffective in securing accurate intelligence, but also as a systematic approach to torture that clearly compromises essential moral values upon which this nation was founded.

SERE, which stands for "survival, evasion, resistance, and escape," refers to a formal, structured group of strategies to resist hostile interrogation. During the period of the Cold War, American service people were trained in SERE in order to resist possible severe, torturous interrogations in situations such as the Korean War, at the hands of the Chinese. The Bush administration re-introduced the flip-side of SERE; that is, it encouraged and supported the very techniques of interrogation that earlier service people had been trained to resist and withstand.

In a recent interview with NPR (All Things Considered, April 23, 2009), Kleinman confirmed that the tenets of SERE had been employed against detainees in Iraq:

"Exactly, and I think a key point that your listeners need to understand, so they can grasp the gravity of the situation, is that the primary objective of that approach to interrogation was not truth … but somebody's political truth. In the Korean War, they actually compelled some of our pilots to admit to dropping chemical weapons on cities and so forth, when in fact that didn't happen. Now, that stands in stark contrast to intelligence interrogation, where the overriding objective is provide timely, accurate, reliable, comprehensive intelligence." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103421778

The Bush administration was well aware that these SERE techniques were not created to extract accurate intelligence; they were employed to make people say things that were not true, and to promote propoganda. These strategies are of little or no use if one's primary objective is to obtain important, useful information to help the young American men and women in harm's way. Colonel Kleinman referred to himself as the "most unpopular officer" in all of Iraq because a culture of systematic torture of detainees had become a deeply penetrated status quo by the time he arrived on the scene, and Kleinman was perceived as an unwelcome enforcer of morality. The standard defense of these tactics by those who in engaged in them was that this was, at the very least, the expected treatment our soldiers would receive from the enemy if they were ever captured. This is a very different justification, this "eye for an eye" reasoning, than the official position that the main purpose of these interrogations was to obtain intelligence.

Our government sanctioned, encouraged, and instituted a systematic regime of torture applied to detainees that not only compromised the safety and well-being of our enlisted men and women by wasting time on ineffective interrogation methods, but also indoctrinated those Americans involved in the torture process in a method of treatment that goes against our core American value of respect for basic human dignity.

Perhaps these SERE tactics were effective, at times, despite what research and experience has shown, but I question whether or not the information obtained through these methods could have been obtained through other, less damaging, means. Because, in the end, what has been damaged, once again, is our reputation and our sense of ourselves as Americans. On April 29th, President Obama addressed these concerns through the following statements:

"Could we have gotten that information without using these techniques?" (a core question) and "Are we safer?" (a broader question)

"Churchill understood...you start taking shortcuts, and it corrodes the character of a people."

"Hold true to your ideals when it's hard, not just when it's easy to." (This was said in reference to our actions against detainees now being used as an Al Quaeda recruitment tool.)

"...stick to who we are, even when dealing with unscrupulous enemies."

And, finally, our current president reiterated a primary focus of his leadership that he thinks about every day, and every night before he goes to sleep:

"I will be judged as a Commander in Chief by how safe I am keeping the people...the best way I can do that is by making sure that we are not taking shortcuts that undermine who we are."

The Bush adminstration should be held responsible for our government's engagement in systematic torture techniques. I support any and all investigations into this extreme and damaging lapse of moral judgement, even at a time when the present administration must deal with more than any other administration's share of moral, economic, and policy clean-up from the past eight dark, horrific years.

Flu

After decades in politics Joe Biden finally said something that made sense, stating that he advised his family not to travel in enclosed vehicles like planes or trains because of the swine flu pandemic. For that he was muzzled by his boss and had to backtrack from his statement.

As the head of the Center for Disease Control said… um, nothing. There isn’t a head of the CDC yet because after 100 days in office President Obama hasn’t gotten around to appointing one. Since Tom Daschle was found to be a tax cheat there is no director at Health and Human Services either and there is still a vacancy for Surgeon General. A Dream Team will surely be assembled to handle the pandemic perhaps by the time it’s over.

While Mexico City is in lockdown and other countries are putting people on alert we trust the judgment of President Obama who says this is a time for concern but not alarm. Aside from some cities cancelling Cinco de Mayo events the only meaningful thing the U.S. and the World Health Organization has done is rename the Swine Flu to Bad Flu Nasty Type A or some such so as not to offend Jews, Muslims and pigs.

This flu could be a quick event with few fatalities or it could be as bad as the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed more than 10% of the population of some countries and perhaps as many as 100 million people worldwide. The 1918 flu like the current Swine Flu caused its victims to have an overreaction of the immune system which tended to kill mostly the healthy in the age range of 20-40. Surprisingly the people in the prime of life who contracted Spanish Flu were the most likely to die, opposite a regular flu that tends to kill infants and the elderly. Back then the double-whammy of the flu and World War I decimated an entire generation of young adults.

There have been many advances in medicine since the Spanish Flu so the mortality rate of the current flu likely wouldn’t be as high in the United States. Developing countries may not be as fortunate.

Since no one in the administration is giving you direction I’ll take a stab at it. Cliché alert: You should hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Take some steps to protect yourself in case the virus spreads to your area like wear a surgical mask with an N95 rating as the cheaper cloth masks allow air in through the sides. Wash your hands and use hand sanitizer frequently. Never touch your eyes, nose or mouth without cleaning your hands first. Stock up on food in case you have to stay home for an extended period.

The government could have issued the simple warning that Joe Biden gave to his family. They could have closed the Mexican border and barred incoming air travel but didn’t want to cause a panic or further damage the teetering economy. For that the Obama is risking taking ownership of the pandemic the way George W. Bush took the bullet for Hurricane Katrina.