Global = Economic=20 Crisis

Is our world going through another 1930s Great = Depression?=20 Commentary on the Global Economic Crisis by Sheldon = Filger

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Does Torture Work? Ask The Nazis Who Interrogated Noor=20 Khan

April 26th, 2009=20

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney = is on a=20 mission. He has taken to the airwaves, seeking to repair the tarnished = legacy=20 that belongs to him and George W. Bush. With the U.S. economy in free = fall=20 collapse due in large measure to the catastrophic fiscal policies of the = late=20 Bush-Cheney administration, the former Vice President has chosen a = rationale=20 that is far removed from the realm of economics. In the perverse logic = that only=20 Mr. Cheney seems capable of, he is claiming that his legacy should be = revered=20 because he and the 43^rd U.S. president were willing to use = torture in=20 the so-called war against terrorism, what he and his supporters = euphemistically=20 refer to as =E2=80=9Cenhanced interrogation techniques.=E2=80=9D The = essence of Dick Cheney=E2=80=99s=20 argument is that the ends justify the means, the rationalization favored = by=20 tyrannies since time immemorial.

Torture works, says Dick Cheney.=20 Unquestionably, torture is very effective in obtaining false = confessions. The=20 Spanish Inquisition and the Stalinist show trials of the 1930s are among = a=20 rogue=E2=80=99s gallery of evidence that these =E2=80=9Cenhanced = interrogation techniques=E2=80=9D will=20 force most people to admit to virtually anything. Stalin=E2=80=99s = secret police chief,=20 Beria, once boasted, =E2=80=9Cgive me a man for 24 hours and = I=E2=80=99ll have him confessing he=20 is the King of England.=E2=80=9D

But as a useful tool for = obtaining=20 accurate, vital information, is torture truly efficacious? Dick Cheney, = the man=20 who obtained 5 draft deferments during the Vietnam War, is not, in my = view, the=20 most authentic judge on this matter. Let us look to the Third Reich, = which made=20 use of torture against those it deemed as =E2=80=9Csecurity = threats=E2=80=9D without the least=20 restraint. In particular, we should recall the case of Noor Inayat=20 Khan.

A young Muslim woman, Noor Khan was = a=20 descendant of Tipu Sultan, the last Mogul Emperor of Southern India. = After her=20 family relocated to France, she studied at the Sorbonne, and became a = musician=20 and author of children=E2=80=99s books. A petite and fragile woman, she = was brought up=20 in the Sufi tradition of pacifism, and by all accounts was as gentle and = kindly=20 a soul as could be. When the Nazis invaded and occupied France in 1940, = Ms. Khan=20 and her family escaped to England.

Though a pacifist, Noor was deeply affected by the occupation of her = adopted=20 homeland, and the anti-Semitic bestiality of the Nazis. She became = convinced=20 that it was her duty to fight the Nazis, even at the cost of her own = life. She=20 volunteered for service with the Special Operations Executive of = British=20 intelligence, where she was trained as a radio operator. In 1943 = she was=20 flown into France, where for four months she was the principal radio = liaison=20 between the French Resistance and the SOE, until she was betrayed to the = Nazis.=20 In November 1943 she was transported to the notorious Pforzheim prison = in=20 Germany, where she endured ten months of sheer hell.

Physically and psychologically, Noor Khan was subjected to the = ultimate form=20 of Cheney=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9Cenhanced interrogation techniques.=E2=80=9D = The Gestapo was determined to=20 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=20 starvation diet, chained hand and foot, and frequently denied even a = scrap of=20 clothing. She was subjected to barbaric beatings and water torture, and = that was=20 only the beginning. Survivors of Pforzheim recall often hearing her = cries of=20 agony, as Noor was subjected to all the refinements created by = man=E2=80=99s capacity=20 for inventive inhumanity. The Nazis would subject their most = recalcitrant=20 security prisoners to having their bodies suspended until their joints = were=20 dislocated, piercing and burning their flesh, ripping out fingernails = and=20 crushing the digits of their hands. Female prisoners, in particular, = were=20 subjected to electric shocks being applied to the most sensitive regions = of=20 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=20 would not even reveal to the Nazis her true identity. Finally, her = captors=20 admitted defeat and sent Noor to her final destination on earth, Dachau=20 concentration camp.

On September 13, 1944, in front of other prisoners who witnessed her = final=20 hours, Noor Khan was stripped naked and then savagely beaten by SS = guards at=20 Dachau. A pistol was pointed at her head. Before the trigger was pulled, = Noor=E2=80=99s=20 last word ever to be uttered was overheard: = =E2=80=9CLiberty.=E2=80=9D

The life of Noor Inayat Khan does not prove that torture does not = work. What=20 her martyrdom does demonstrate is that torture is only effective when = all=20 understanding of the concept of liberty is lost to a nation.

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