The Bush Administration called them an "alternative set of procedures" - forced standing for up to forty hours, sleep deprivation for weeks on end, dousing naked prisoners with ice water in rooms chilled to fifty degrees Fahrenheit, and strapping prisoners to inclined boards then flooding their mouths with water. American Torture examines the origins of this interrogation regime and traces how it was refined, spread, and kept legal. Along the way, American Torture uncovers the effects of state-sponsored torture and deconstructs the myths espoused by its proponents.
Critical Acclaim
Michael Otterman's powerful book, American Torture, traces the history of American torture from Nazi Germany to Guantanamo Bay. It is an immensely disturbing story made all the more chilling by his disclosures that today these interrogation techniques are officially sanctioned under the guise of national security and that sets of rules have been developed to govern its practice. This book should be compulsory reading for everyone with concerns over human rights."
- Rod Barton, former Director of Intelligence, weapons inspector, and advisor to the CIA
Michael Otterman's book makes you think long and hard not only about human nature, but also about what the long haul of civilisation has brought us. The irony is that one of modern history's outstanding democracies is peeling back those achievements like the skin of an orange. Fortunately, many decent Americans are fighting back."
- Sydney Morning Herald
Otterman writes as a patriot - one who expects much of his country and is angry when it fails him."
- The Age (Melbourne)
About The Blog
This blog provides a venue for discussions about the American use of torture, as well as a place for experts and non-experts alike to post thoughts and reactions to political events in the United States and elsewhere. If you would like to be a featured blogger for americantorture.com, email us.
Michael Otterman is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, as well as an award-winning journalist and filmmaker.
Featured Bloggers
Michael Otterman
Michael Otterman is an award-winning freelance journalist, author, documentary filmmaker and recent visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney. He has written American Torture and co-authored Collateral Carnage (Pluto 2010)
Andy Worthington
A freelance historian and journalist, based in London, Andy is the author of The Guantanamo Files, the first book to tell the stories of all the detainees in America's illegal prison (Pluto Press, September 2007). Visit his blog here.
Jeffrey Kaye
Jeffrey Kaye works as a psychologist in Northern California. He sees clients in private practice, and works part-time with the torture treatment center, Survivors International, in San Francisco, California. He offers classes in the history of psychology, and has done special investigations into the history of research into sensory deprivation. He has been blogging on torture issues since 2005.
Fatima Kola
Fatima Kola is a doctoral candidate and teaching fellow at University College London, where as a Bonnart-Braunthal scholar she is researching the legal and moral dimensions of the international prohibition on torture, and the permissibility as torture as a response to terrorism.
The Baggage Handler
(a pseudonym) works as a psychoanalyst in the bay area, and is a member of the clinical staff of Survivors International in San Francisco. In addition to working with traumatized torture survivors, he also works with traumatized veterans. He is a veteran himself, and a graduate of the SERE program. He has been blogging on torture since the Abu Ghraib photos were released in 2004. Visit his blog here.
30+ torture memos remain sealed while thousands of torture photos will eventually be released. Be prepared: Learn the deep history of US torture in SERE, Vietnam, Latin America, GMTO, Black Sites and beyond in American Torture.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Whats Goin On
Posted by Michael Otterman at 9:22 AM |
Now that my Australian Amnesty International tour has finished-- I will be directing my attention back on to keeping this blog as up to date as possible. There has been much news and opinion regarding the use of SERE to train interrogators in Soviet torture, the American Psychological Association torture-controversy, chatter about closing Guantanamo, and the tragedy that is the Jose Padilla trial down in Florida.
Today I had an interview with the blog, The Talking Dog, which I think went very well. Also, my interview with JTV Australia was recently posted on Youtube. Check it out:
Below is a sampling of declassified documents that chart America's involvement in torture from the early Cold War onward. To view the entire catalog of documents used in research for American Torture, click the view all link above.
Interrogation of Suspects Under Arrest Declassified 1958 article from the CIA journal, Studies In Intelligence. Written by Don Compos, this article can be read as an early blueprint for the interrogation system employed by the CIA and US armed forces in the war on terror - a regime engineered to elicit debility, dependence and dread. ( via CIA )
Status of Legal Discussions Outlines the official positions of CIA and Pentagon lawyers on Geneva applicability. Reveals that the CIA sought to "circumscribe" a policy of humane detainee treatment "so as to limit its application to the CIA." ( via Slate )
Interrogation Log: Detainee 063 Incredible minute-by-minute account of the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani (Detainee 063). Describes an array of coercive SERE techniques that took place between November 22, 2002 and January 11, 2003. ( via TIME )
Regarding Our Conversation Declassified email on June 21, 2004 to Pentagon investigators outlining the techniques Military Training Teams brought to Abu Ghraib in October 2003. ( via ACLU )
Blogs and Other Links
Balkinization Avidly following the torture debate. Insightful commentary.
Daily Dish Andrew Sullivan, standing up to torture.