The media’s big torture lie: “Enhanced interrogation” and the politics of false equivalence

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emptywheel @emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler) · Aug 5
SSCI spent 5 years trying to understand & come to grips w/torture done in our name. Time for journos to do same. http://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/the_medias_big_torture_lie_enhanced_interrogation_and_the_politics_of_false_equivalence/ …

“U.S. Senate ’Torture’ Report Summary to Be Declassified in a Few Days,” a Reuters headline reported Tuesday, complete with scare quotes around the word “torture.” In the article, journalist Mark Hosenball reported that “CIA’s use of harsh ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods such as waterboarding, or simulated drowning, on a handful of prisoners, and other stress tactics on a larger set of captured militants, did not produce any significant counter-terrorism breakthroughs.” The next paragraph helpfully noted that, “Human rights activists and CIA critics, including some U.S. politicians, have described the CIA’s techniques as torture.” Near the end, Hosenball explained where “the militants subjected to enhanced interrogation” — with no scare quotes this time — were captured.

It has been more than 10 years since pictures from Abu Ghraib first revealed the U.S. was torturing detainees. Since that time we’ve seen the CIA’s own inspector general describe how CIA exceeded the limits set by the Department of Justice and the CIA. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse laid out the U.S. court precedent — ignored by John Yoo when he rubber-stamped CIA’s torture while at the Department of Justice — that concluded waterboarding is torture. Gitmo’s own convening authority, Susan Crawford, admitted in 2009 we tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani at the prison. A top British court called our treatment of detainee Binyam Mohammed “at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” making it a violation of the Convention Against Torture. The European Union Court of Human Rights declared Poland complicit in our torture of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri. And we’ve seen Republicans — both those voting for and against the declassification of the torture report — calling CIA’s torture “torture.”

. . . And yet journalists (Hosenball is by no means the only one) still use the Bush administration’s euphemism, “enhanced interrogation,” as if using the language of propaganda somehow marks them as objective reporters. They still introduce torture by insinuating that only human rights advocates or CIA (or Bush) critics would consider all this torture. They still wield scare quotes to separate such nasty issues from their own journalistic voice.

. . . The Senate Intelligence Committee has spent five years trying to understand and come to grips with the torture done in our name. Isn’t it time for journalists to do the same?


read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/the_medias_big_torture_lie_enhanced_interrogation_and_the_politics_of_false_equivalence/

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1. kick

Marcy Wheeler is a good source to listen to as folks weigh in on this report and the President's actions and words.

[Johonny]

2. There're too busy getting to bottom of Benghazi

They'll get another chance when the Senate report comes out but I'm not holding my breath. You can pretty much pencil the Fox news circle the wagons talking points in. Do we think the house will pick up the Senate report and hold hearings and press the DA to press charges the way they have with the IRS? No. The crippled American government is a sad thing to watch. The media spoon feeds the people talking points instead of questioning the validity of them (or making up their own fantasy talking points). They all know this thing was wrong, criminal, but can't moved to do anything. Hell, they couldn't even act on immigration so are we to believe they're going to reach back to rethink torture. And they wonder why voters think the government, the media, the establishment is totally useless these days...