Evil is banal, get it?

That phrase “the banality of evil” has always bothered me. Evil is not banal. It is potentially seductive, exciting and even exhilarating. Hannah Ardent finds one dull, meticulous Nazi bureaucrat and concludes, to the subsequent agreement of all Western intelligentsia forever more, that evil is a banal thing. When Eichmann was shuffling his papers his fellow Nazis were dressing in fetishistic black leather uniforms, holding neo-pagan blood festivals with fully or half-naked Aryan “goddesses” parading through the streets of Berlin and conquering nations with a satisfactory zeal.

Evil has a kind of magnificent glamour attached to it in many cases. The Hapsburgs dined on gourmet baby seal hearts whilst their slave populations starved. Too many examples to mention. I think the whole “banality of evil” explanation is a crock. I haven’t been able to figure out why Western intellectuals have swallowed it as Gospel truth but there has to be a reason.

we should interrogate prisoners while doing bikini waxes.

ROFL

In 2006, a few weeks before the court heard arguments over the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Scalia told an audience in Switzerland that the Constitution doesn’t protect foreigners who are held there.

“War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts. Give me a break,” Scalia said.

(from an msnbc link)
He’s a little more agreeable to multiple interrogation methods as well, at war time and especially in the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario.
We need more like him.

Must read if you find the Gitmo Lawyer story interesting. Not so much that there’s new information on this one, but rather that the WSJ editorial board lays down a pretty serious barrage: Whether they intend it or not, KSM’s……

No phsycological coertion is allowed. They have less interrogation power than the US police.

If “casual conversation” works in getting intelligence, then I’m all for it. It also seems reasonable that it’s not going to work 100% of the time. When it doesn’t, I don’t see how it’s reasonable to intentionally handicap our interrogators. In a time of war, I don’t think anything should be off the table in this regard.

He’s trying to stop terrorists by questioning captured terrorists.

Brya, Bryan, Bryan. Have you forgotten that Bush is evil and that all his foot soldiers are only out there to instrument evil upon all Muslims? Come on!

schmuck281 on February 18, 2008 at 3:37 AM

You nailed it. This is one of the best summaries of interrogation I’ve seen.

My husband was the psychologist for the SERE school and underwent waterboarding. The experience was as you say–he experienced panic, he knew they would not drown him deliberately but thought he was experiencing a training accident, and he emphatically says he was not harmed. And not one of these people now protesting waterboarding has ever protested that he went through it–apparently, it is only reprehensible to use it on the enemy in order to save American lives.

If waterboarding is so awful, perhaps we should interrogate prisoners while doing bikini waxes. Millions of women worldwide regularly and voluntarily have them. “It’s not torture, it’s grooming.”

Intelligence information is whatever information that can be combined with other information to tell you the enemies plans, intent, or just lead you somewhere that you didn’t know existed. It isn’t always Jack Baur shooting someone in the kneecap or telling the prisoner “Ve haff vays uff making you talk!” and asking for the secret plans to the doomsday device.

Interrogation is a conversation. It is a lot like people pay big bucks to psychologists for. It is a piece here and a piece there. It can involve threats, it can also involve simple gestures that form a relationship between the interrogator and the subject.

There is no roadmap for interrogation. Your more experienced interrogators use various methods depending on how the session is going. It may be necessary for the subject to really believe that he is going to be hurt or die. Or maybe not.

It’s as stupid for people to try to dictate what methods can be used under what circumstances as it is for me to suddenly dictate plays during the Super Bowl.

I recall when I went through Basic Training back in 1967. It was very much like “Full Metal Jacket” in many ways. We had been told numerous times about what the Drill Sergeants could and couldn’t do to us. That went right out the window as soon as we got off the bus at the Company.

WE knew what the Drill Sergeants could and couldn’t do. But we weren’t sure that THEY knew. There was an element of doubt that allowed them to manipulate us. In SERE training that the SF, pilots and others go through, they KNOW that the opforce people are only role playing, but there is always an element of doubt there. The possibility that they might have gotten too wrapped up the role playing to realize what they’re doing.

That doubt should always be there in an interrogation too. The prisoner might KNOW what restrictions are on the interrogator, but he should always be wondering if maybe, just maybe, the interrogator is out of control and he might be hurt or killed. Most likely there will be another interrogator playing that role. “Good cop. Bad cop” It works.

But some people are trying to remove that doubt. If a prisoner knows that interrogators have been punished for using certain techniques, the element of doubt is gone. The element of fear is gone. They know that all the hard talk is just “woof tickets” and they can relax and play their own games.

Just in passing. “Waterboarding” is a technique that was developed fairly recently to replace a technique that has been around for eons. The old method involved holding a prisoner’s head underwater until he felt like he was drowning, then pull him out and ask questions. I’m sure you’ve seen it used in countless movies. But it was dangerous. Because if you misjudged things you ended up drowning the prisoner. That wasted a source and in the American military, at least, resulted in a lot of paperwork.

The “waterboarding” technique was developed as a safe way of inducing the panic from drowning without killing or damaging the prisoner.

So what happens? Someone complains about the safe method. I have no doubt that the jihadists do not bother to waterboard using the safe method.

They are barbarians.

Big deal, our guys go through more than that in Boot Camp.

This kidgloves nonsense only weakens our side against a brutal and merciless foe who mocks our “Geneva Conventions” pudeurs by slicing off someone’s head or setting fire to live captives, and recording the crime on video for release online to frighten and demoralize their sworn enemy. Us.

Terrorists, spies and saboteurs, who operate out of uniform and under no code of war, are only required to be given a cloth blindfold, not our Constitution for their toilet paper.

Saves money on free Koran handouts, too.

MSNBC:Interrogators received intelligence from detainees that helped U.S. troops in Afghanistan attack Taliban fighters last summer — and they did it through casual questioning and not torture, the military’s chief interrogator here said.In a rar…

Because liberalism is a form of mental illness.

‘Death without Dignity’ legal in Orygun…headed your way.

P.S.- Don’t worry about the water boarding. Do what you got to do. I support you.

Why do we Americans continue to hold a 9mm to our own head? Do we have a death wish complex?

misterspork on February 17, 2008 at 4:31 PM

Because liberalism is a form of mental illness.

Yea right. All those stories about Gitmo showing the prayer rugs, food, et al do exactly that. Dod doing a black arts scheme with the MSM? Dod doesn’t have to because the leftists MSM are already on the other side.

Excuse me?? I can only conclude that reading comprehension is not your strong suit.

Think it through, yourself, dude.

MSNBC:
Interrogators received intelligence from detainees that helped U.S. troops in Afghanistan attack Taliban fighters last summer — and they did it through casual questioning and not torture, the military’s chief interrogator here said.
In a rar…

I am really conflicted about making comments on this subject.

Interrogation is more psychological than it is physical. Thus commenting on the psychological aspects reveals ’sources and methods’. In other words, talking about this publicly, gives insight into how we do interrogation to our enemies.

If opposition forces believe that we torture, and abuse captives, it works to our advantage. If the prisoner is expecting to be brutally treated, and we don’t do it, there is a time when a sympathetic approach breaks down the resistance to interrogation.

Unfortunately, to foster the idea among our enemies that being captured results in unpleasantness, we also have to permit that idea to be the dominant perception among the general public, to our detriment.

rockhauler on February 17, 2008 at 4:13 PM

First, the media runs the lies about “torture” to get the government to reveal more about our techniques, in order to clue in our enemies.

Second, the enemy knows we don’t do things like that, so the rest of the comment is meaningless. Please think.

Why do we Americans continue to hold a 9mm to our own head? Do we have a death wish complex?

Not all of us, no, but many on the Left hate America enough to shoot a 9mm into its head. Some of them aren’t smart enough to realize that they’ll take the hit, too, and the rest are just nihilists.

I’m still not clear how they distinguish a genuine Taleban or al-Qa’ida combatant from some hapless fool

I thikn the same thing occured during WWII. many wanted the SS/gestapo instead of just the Whermacht foot soldiers.

What I recall is that they used other prisoners to point them out as well as captured records and ideological fevor. The true blue Jihaidst would have trouble hiding his Religeous fevor.