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28 Jul 08 - 11:44 AM (#2399475) Subject: BS: US Anti-Terrorist Methods Explained From: JohnInKansas The Fiction Behind Torture Policy [Newsweek] The lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Jack Bauer more frequently than the Constitution. Dahlia Lithwick NEWSWEEK Updated: 1:56 PM ET Jul 26, 2008 The most influential legal thinker in the development of modern American interrogation policy is not a behavioral psychologist, international lawyer or counterinsurgency expert. Reading both Jane Mayer's stunning "The Dark Side," and Philippe Sands's "Torture Team," it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox television's "24," Jack Bauer. This fictional counterterrorism agent—a man never at a loss for something to do with an electrode—has his fingerprints all over U.S. interrogation policy. As Sands and Mayer tell it, the lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Bauer more frequently than the Constitution. According to British lawyer and writer Sands, Jack Bauer—played by Kiefer Sutherland—was an inspiration at early "brainstorming meetings" of military officials at Guantánamo in September 2002. Diane Beaver, the staff judge advocate general who gave legal approval to 18 controversial interrogation techniques including waterboarding, sexual humiliation and terrorizing prisoners with dogs, told Sands that Bauer "gave people lots of ideas." Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security chief, gushed in a panel discussion on "24" organized by the Heritage Foundation that the show"reflects real life." John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who produced the so-called torture memos—simultaneously redefining both the laws of torture and of logic—cites Bauer in his book "War by Other Means." "What if, as the Fox television program '24' recently portrayed, a high-level terrorist leader is caught who knows the location of a nuclear weapon?" Even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking in Canada last summer, shows a gift for this casual toggling between television and the Constitution. "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles … He saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Scalia said. "Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" [More at the link] Yeah, it's just a book review; but don't you believe it? John |
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28 Jul 08 - 11:52 AM (#2399483) Subject: RE: BS: US Anti-Terrorist Methods Explained From: Amos YEah, I do--but theirs some basic fundamental of education missing here...you don't expect folks who read "Frankenstein's Monster" to want to emulate the monster!! LOL A |
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28 Jul 08 - 11:56 AM (#2399487) Subject: RE: BS: US Anti-Terrorist Methods Explained From: GUEST,DV Why are we surprised life imitates art among neo-cons? Whether it's Jack Bauer or John Wayne or Rambo, this is the stuff of American male fantasy legends. Before shit happens, things get very blurry. |
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28 Jul 08 - 07:25 PM (#2399903) Subject: RE: BS: US Anti-Terrorist Methods Explained From: The Fooles Troupe "Whether it's Jack Bauer or John Wayne or Rambo, this is the stuff of American male fantasy legends." Funny! I was taught that psychotics, and other delusional mentally deficient souls cannot separate Fantasy from Reality, and usally prefer the former! Who needs THEM to be running the country (or the FBI again!). |
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28 Jul 08 - 07:43 PM (#2399915) Subject: RE: BS: US Anti-Terrorist Methods Explained From: McGrath of Harlow Frankesnstein's monster is quite a sympathetic character. A much better role model than Jack Bauer, unless you are a closet Nazi. |
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28 Jul 08 - 07:59 PM (#2399924) Subject: RE: BS: US Anti-Terrorist Methods Explained From: The Fooles Troupe And people wonder why I never wanted to watch a 2nd episode of 24... |