As the whole subject of torture is pitchforked into the headlines we get this disturbing report from the New York Times about torture by insurgents:
KARABILA, Iraq, Sunday, June 19 – Marines on an operation to eliminate insurgents that began Friday broke through the outside wall of a building in this small rural village to find a torture center equipped with electric wires, a noose, handcuffs, a 574-page jihad manual – and four beaten and shackled Iraqis……
The men said they told the marines, from Company K, Third Marines, Second Division, that they had been tortured with shocks and flogged with a strip of rubber for more than two weeks, unseen behind the windows of black glass. One of them, Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, a former member of the new Iraqi Army, said he had been held and tortured there for 22 days. All the while, he said, his face was almost entirely taped over and his hands were cuffed.
In an interview with an embedded reporter just hours after he was freed, he said he had never seen the faces of his captors, who occasionally whispered at him, “We will kill you.” He said they did not question him, and he did not know what they wanted. Nor did he ever expect to be released.
“They kill somebody every day,” said Mr. Fathil, whose hands were so swollen he could not open a can of Coke offered to him by a marine. “They’ve killed a lot of people.”
This is pretty hard-core stuff. And you have to feel nauseated when you read the following:
The manual recovered – a fat, well-thumbed Arabic paperback – listed itself as the 2005 First Edition of “The Principles of Jihadist Philosophy,” by Abdel Rahman al-Ali. Its chapters included “How to Select the Best Hostage,” and “The Legitimacy of Cutting the Infidels’ Heads.”
Also recovered were several fake passports, a black hood, the painkiller Percoset, handcuffs and an explosives how-to-guide. Three cars loaded with explosives were parked in a garage outside the house. The marines blew them up.
There’s more so read it all. You would hope that this story would simply spark outrage and not become a political football to some on the right and left — but, then, you could also hope that your car could have wings tomorrow when you’re stuck in rush hour traffic.
The problem is some who will say:”Well, this ignores what our people are doing.” And those who’ll say: “Now can’t you see how much worse these people are than anything our people have erroneously done?”
If you look at a story like this, you realize both of these natural reactions miss the point. Stories of U.S. jailers abusing prisoners lower the impact of shocking stories like this one. They dilute what should be international outrage. Just think what impact THIS STORY would have had if it had surfaced without any stories coming before it about abuse of Iraqis by U.S. jailers.
Looking at it coolly, from the the standpoints of U.S. national goals, the anti-terrorism war’s mission, the Iraqi war’s mission, the perpetuation of traditional American military values, communication of the U.S. mission to the world, and pure propaganda, the United States MUST hold itself to much higher standards. Even if some in the U.S. think that this means there’s a double standard. Why? So the U.S. can combat with absolute maximum military and public relations strength people who consult manuals on how to seize hapless hostages and saw their screaming heads off.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.