The Torture Debate in the News: Some recent articles
Every time I think that U.S.-sponsored torture has dropped off the national radar, new information or analysis comes to the forefront. A few magazines have taken up torture in recent issues, offering invaluable insight into the national debate over the use of waterboarding and other so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques.
Washington Monthly's most recent issue is titled"No Torture. No Exceptions." It is a collection of essays by more than 30 contributors speaking out against torture. They are Republicans and Democrats, a former U.S. president, faith leaders, members of the military and the intelligence community, thinkers, and activists, united by the common goal of ending torture. The editors note: "[W]e believe that when Americans look back years from now, what will shame us most is that our country abandoned a bedrock principle of civilized nations: that torture is without exception wrong...It was a profound moral and strategic mistake for the United States to abandon long-standing policies of humane treatment of enemy captives. We should return to the rule of law and cease all forms of torture, with no exceptions for any agency. And we should expect our presidential nominees to commit to this idea."
Mother Jones's March issue is called "Torture Hits Home: When the unthinkable becomes acceptable" and looks more at the reality of torture, including photos, first person accounts, and new investigative reports into the people caught up in the dark side of America's war on terror. One article I found especially compelling was "Am I a Torturer?," about American veterans coming to grips with their own roles in the harsh treatment of our prisoners overseas.
The New Yorker has continued its excellent, groundbreaking coverage of U.S.-sponsored torture and the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo. The March 24th issue's article "Exposure: The Woman Behind the Camera at Abu Ghraib" is a portrait of Sabrina Harmon, the soldier responsible for many of the most damaging photos of torture at the prison. The article asks deeper questions about what we see when we look at picture and what it doesn't tell us about what is going on outside the edges of the frame. The authors of the article, Errol Morris and Philip Gourevitch, are the authors of an upcoming book called Standard Operating Procedure, and Morris the director of a documentary of the same name. The April 14th issue looks at the obstacles facing the upcoming military tribunals in Guantanamo.
