While much of the "torture debate" has emphasized the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" defined by the twisted legal framework of the Office of Legal Council memos, IRF teams in effect operate at Guantánamo as an extrajudicial terror squad that has regularly brutalized prisoners outside of the interrogation room, gang beating them, forcing their heads into toilets, breaking bones, gouging their eyes, squeezing their testicles, urinating on a prisoner's head, banging their heads on concrete floors and hog-tying them -- sometimes leaving prisoners tied in excruciating positions for hours on end.
Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama
Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet, May 15, 2009
Here's how your truly commented on this article in a private email:
Personally, I don't think even for a minute that this is about Gitmo, Al Qaeda, fighting terrorists, etc. as much as it is about developing and expanding totalitarian law enforcement and penal methods. Everybody and their brother knows that most of those people at Gitmo can be let go and nothing will change; at least, they can be treated with reasonable dignity and chances are they will be quite manageable. Give them their books, let them write letters home and receive letters, feed them three squares, and chances are there won't be any more problems than in any good ole' county jail.
Then what gives? What gives, I think, is that Gitmo is but a prototype, with a view of every police station and every county jail in the US of A being eventually gitmoized. And while they ain't there yet, not by a long shot, I can't help but say that some progress is apparantly being made in that direction.
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