Global Economic
Crisis

Is our world going through another 1930s Great Depression?
Commentary on the Global Economic Crisis by Sheldon Filger

Home

About

Switcher

Archive

Posts Tagged ‘noor khan’

Does Torture Work? Ask The Nazis Who Interrogated Noor
Khan

April 26th, 2009

No
comments

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is on a
mission. He has taken to the airwaves, seeking to repair the tarnished legacy
that belongs to him and George W. Bush. With the U.S. economy in free fall
collapse due in large measure to the catastrophic fiscal policies of the late
Bush-Cheney administration, the former Vice President has chosen a rationale
that is far removed from the realm of economics. In the perverse logic that only
Mr. Cheney seems capable of, he is claiming that his legacy should be revered
because he and the 43rd U.S. president were willing to use torture in
the so-called war against terrorism, what he and his supporters euphemistically
refer to as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The essence of Dick Cheney’s
argument is that the ends justify the means, the rationalization favored by
tyrannies since time immemorial.

Torture works, says Dick Cheney.
Unquestionably, torture is very effective in obtaining false confessions. The
Spanish Inquisition and the Stalinist show trials of the 1930s are among a
rogue’s gallery of evidence that these “enhanced interrogation techniques” will
force most people to admit to virtually anything. Stalin’s secret police chief,
Beria, once boasted, “give me a man for 24 hours and I’ll have him confessing he
is the King of England.”

But as a useful tool for obtaining
accurate, vital information, is torture truly efficacious? Dick Cheney, the man
who obtained 5 draft deferments during the Vietnam War, is not, in my view, the
most authentic judge on this matter. Let us look to the Third Reich, which made
use of torture against those it deemed as “security threats” without the least
restraint. In particular, we should recall the case of Noor Inayat
Khan.

A young Muslim woman, Noor Khan was a
descendant of Tipu Sultan, the last Mogul Emperor of Southern India. After her
family relocated to France, she studied at the Sorbonne, and became a musician
and author of children’s books. A petite and fragile woman, she was brought up
in the Sufi tradition of pacifism, and by all accounts was as gentle and kindly
a soul as could be. When the Nazis invaded and occupied France in 1940, Ms. Khan
and her family escaped to England.

Though a pacifist, Noor was deeply affected by the occupation of her adopted
homeland, and the anti-Semitic bestiality of the Nazis. She became convinced
that it was her duty to fight the Nazis, even at the cost of her own life. She
volunteered for service with the Special Operations Executive of British
intelligence, where she was trained as a radio operator. In 1943 she was
flown into France, where for four months she was the principal radio liaison
between the French Resistance and the SOE, until she was betrayed to the Nazis.
In November 1943 she was transported to the notorious Pforzheim prison in
Germany, where she endured ten months of sheer hell.

Physically and psychologically, Noor Khan was subjected to the ultimate form
of Cheney’s “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The Gestapo was determined to
break her, and compel her to reveal every piece of vital information she
possessed. To begin with, Noor Khan was placed in solitary confinement on a
starvation diet, chained hand and foot, and frequently denied even a scrap of
clothing. She was subjected to barbaric beatings and water torture, and that was
only the beginning. Survivors of Pforzheim recall often hearing her cries of
agony, as Noor was subjected to all the refinements created by man’s capacity
for inventive inhumanity. The Nazis would subject their most recalcitrant
security prisoners to having their bodies suspended until their joints were
dislocated, piercing and burning their flesh, ripping out fingernails and
crushing the digits of their hands. Female prisoners, in particular, were
subjected to electric shocks being applied to the most sensitive regions of
their bodies. What Noor endured during those ten months at Pforzheim can
scarcely be imagined. It must have been beyond human endurance. Yet this
cultured, delicate woman endured the unendurable. She never broke. Noor Khan
would not even reveal to the Nazis her true identity. Finally, her captors
admitted defeat and sent Noor to her final destination on earth, Dachau
concentration camp.

On September 13, 1944, in front of other prisoners who witnessed her final
hours, Noor Khan was stripped naked and then savagely beaten by SS guards at
Dachau. A pistol was pointed at her head. Before the trigger was pulled, Noor’s
last word ever to be uttered was overheard: “Liberty.”

The life of Noor Inayat Khan does not prove that torture does not work. What
her martyrdom does demonstrate is that torture is only effective when all
understanding of the concept of liberty is lost to a nation.

global economic crisis dick cheney, enhanced interrogation techniques, nazis, noor khan, torture

RSS feed

Random Posts

Japan Is
Sinking; Obama Looks Inward

Islamophobia Run
Amok in the USA

Fed
Chairman Ben Bernanke Resides In An Alternative Universe

Is
President Obama’s Attempt to Contain Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions Doomed to
Failure?

Is The
U.S. Auto Industry Doomed?

Tag Cloud
AIG
al-qaeda banking crisis barack obama ben bernanke car industry china chinese economy Chrysler commerce department credit crunch deficits Detroit automakers economic crisis fed
federal reserve financial crisis Ford GDP
general motors George Soros global economic crisis global financial crisis global recession GM
Great Depression hank paulson IMF
international monetary fund larry summers Lehman Brothers nouriel roubini paul krugman PIMCO president obama quantitative easing stimulus package TARP timothy geither timothy geithner u.s. deficit U.S. economy unemployment unemployment rate warren buffet

Categories

global
economic crisis

Uncategorized

Archives

October
2009

September
2009

August
2009

July
2009

June
2009

May
2009

April
2009

March
2009

February
2009

January
2009

December
2008

November
2008

Meta

Log in

Top
WordPress

Copyright © 2008-2009 Global Economic Crisis