Michael Otterman's powerful book, 
Monday, July 20, 2009
Yoo's Classroom Rationalization
An oddly revealing moment in this clip from ABC Australia's Chaser's War on Everything featuring chief torture architect John Yoo:
Note at 57 seconds Yoo quips to the hooded man with outstretched arms: "You are putting yourself in that position". This is an interesting comment to make when forced to witness within his Berkeley classroom the fruits of his labor for the Bush Administration.
The Red Cross called this torture "prolonged stress standing" and found it was used, among others, on at least 10 CIA high value prisoners "from two or three days continuously, and for up to two or three months intermittently". Unlike beating, flogging or burning, stress standing affords the torturer (or torture-authorizer) a high degree of psychological insulation as the victim is technically hurting themselves. Could this off-the cuff remark thus reference a rationalization he made when authorizing "prolonged stress standing"?
Note at 57 seconds Yoo quips to the hooded man with outstretched arms: "You are putting yourself in that position". This is an interesting comment to make when forced to witness within his Berkeley classroom the fruits of his labor for the Bush Administration.
The Red Cross called this torture "prolonged stress standing" and found it was used, among others, on at least 10 CIA high value prisoners "from two or three days continuously, and for up to two or three months intermittently". Unlike beating, flogging or burning, stress standing affords the torturer (or torture-authorizer) a high degree of psychological insulation as the victim is technically hurting themselves. Could this off-the cuff remark thus reference a rationalization he made when authorizing "prolonged stress standing"?