(BBC News Online Magazine, Jennifer Quinn, Published: 2004/06/29 11:10:42 GMT)
"In investigations of US abuse of imprisoned Iraqis, there has been reluctance to use the T-word," Martha Huggins, a sociology professor at New Orleans' Tulane University, told a forum on torture this week. ...
After studying Brazilian police from 1964 to 1985, Ms Huggins laid out the classic conditions for mistreatment of prisoners. ...
Ms Huggins told the conference an environment like that [at Abu Ghraib -- EBB] encourages cruelty, by "establishing a climate where no explicit order to torture has to be given".
This idea, of ubiquitizing a "torturous" climate, is analogous to what I said (below), in reference to the Supreme Court's latest ruling against online child-pornogrpahy restrictions, about America's youth being too sensitive. Kiddie porn is simply media-based torture of children. All we then need do is ubiquitize the climate of child pornography as a "natural" form of self-expression and "mature" sexual development, and then the boundary between "indecent" and "obscene" will disappear like blood down a drain.
Torture, she said, is systemic and not simply the work of a few twisted people. The actions of those who torture are supported by many others, including those who feed and look after prisoners, deliver them into custody, who treat their injuries and even those who pay the guards' wages. ...
A key element is that national security is used as a reason to interrogate enemies of the state. ...
"Torture is nurtured and justified by ideologies that create an ever-expanding category of 'enemy' others," said Ms Huggins. "Where 'good' nations are threatened by 'evil-doers', and anyone could be an 'enemy' there should be no restriction on interrogation.
"Fear, whether or not deliberately instilled - as in fictions about 'weapons of mass destruction' - grants legitimacy to torture."
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