Utica native and prominent American writer and educator Mark Danner presented a lecture, “Obama, Torture and Human Rights,” on Nov. 4 in the Hamilton College Chapel.
Danner began his presentation by framing the issue of torture within modern day American politics. He stated that he would not only discuss the origins of torture, the technique devised and how such techniques were made legal and applied, but also how we’ve come to live with torture. He maintained that following the September 11th attacks, torture has been made a conscious policy choice of our government.
He went on to describe torture techniques at various “Black Sites” or sets of CIA secret prisons set up in countries such as Thailand, Afghanistan, and Pakistan with the purpose of holding and torturing secret detainees. He read the account of a Taliban member who was captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan, detailing the prolonged torture he underwent at such a Black Site. Called the “conditioning phase” by the CIA, the detainee was force into sleep deprivation, prolonged nudity, exposure to cold temperatures and loud noise to induce stress. He also described continuous water-boarding and physical abuse with graphic detail. Danner also read government reports outlining the same man’s torture. The reports maintained that such extreme measures were necessary to both information gathering and the protection of United States citizens at home and abroad.
Danner raised an important question in his presentation: Is counter-terrorism necessary in combating terrorism? He alluded to Dick Cheney’s argument immediately following President Obama’s inauguration that “torture kept the country safe for seven years” and that in order to keep the country safe in the future, “ the gloves needed to come off.” The “gloves” are laws that prevent the United States from torturing and practicing “extraordinary rendition” -- the practice of apprehension and illegal transfer of a person from one state to another for the purpose of torture.
Danner argues that instead of protecting the country, torture techniques have left us with a permanent class of detainees that cannot be tried in court because they have been tortured. According to Danner, the practice of torture has deprived us the possibility of “rendering justice on them." He also claims that when we enter in wars as a nation, we enter into a “state of acceptance,” that is, accepting actions that are out of the ordinary in order for the nation to protect its citizens. He believes that this politics of acceptance -- what he deems as synonymous with the politics of fear -- has not been reversed yet in American politics and for that our political system remains forever changed.
Danner has written about foreign affairs and American politics for more than two decades, covering Latin America, Haiti, the Balkans and the Middle East, among other stories. He has written extensively about the development of American foreign policy during the late Cold War and afterward, and about violations of human rights during that time. His books include Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War (2009), The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War's Buried History (2006), and Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror (2004).
Danner was a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is also professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs, Politics, and Humanities at Bard College.
The lecture was sponsored by the Dean of Faculty office.
Danner began his presentation by framing the issue of torture within modern day American politics. He stated that he would not only discuss the origins of torture, the technique devised and how such techniques were made legal and applied, but also how we’ve come to live with torture. He maintained that following the September 11th attacks, torture has been made a conscious policy choice of our government.
He went on to describe torture techniques at various “Black Sites” or sets of CIA secret prisons set up in countries such as Thailand, Afghanistan, and Pakistan with the purpose of holding and torturing secret detainees. He read the account of a Taliban member who was captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan, detailing the prolonged torture he underwent at such a Black Site. Called the “conditioning phase” by the CIA, the detainee was force into sleep deprivation, prolonged nudity, exposure to cold temperatures and loud noise to induce stress. He also described continuous water-boarding and physical abuse with graphic detail. Danner also read government reports outlining the same man’s torture. The reports maintained that such extreme measures were necessary to both information gathering and the protection of United States citizens at home and abroad.
Danner raised an important question in his presentation: Is counter-terrorism necessary in combating terrorism? He alluded to Dick Cheney’s argument immediately following President Obama’s inauguration that “torture kept the country safe for seven years” and that in order to keep the country safe in the future, “ the gloves needed to come off.” The “gloves” are laws that prevent the United States from torturing and practicing “extraordinary rendition” -- the practice of apprehension and illegal transfer of a person from one state to another for the purpose of torture.
Danner argues that instead of protecting the country, torture techniques have left us with a permanent class of detainees that cannot be tried in court because they have been tortured. According to Danner, the practice of torture has deprived us the possibility of “rendering justice on them." He also claims that when we enter in wars as a nation, we enter into a “state of acceptance,” that is, accepting actions that are out of the ordinary in order for the nation to protect its citizens. He believes that this politics of acceptance -- what he deems as synonymous with the politics of fear -- has not been reversed yet in American politics and for that our political system remains forever changed.
Danner has written about foreign affairs and American politics for more than two decades, covering Latin America, Haiti, the Balkans and the Middle East, among other stories. He has written extensively about the development of American foreign policy during the late Cold War and afterward, and about violations of human rights during that time. His books include Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War (2009), The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War's Buried History (2006), and Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror (2004).
Danner was a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is also professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs, Politics, and Humanities at Bard College.
The lecture was sponsored by the Dean of Faculty office.
