Richard Cohen's tortured imagination

Posted By Joshua Keating Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - 4:49 PM Share

Dave Noon has already addressed the tired and misguided literary cliche -- "Call him Ishmael" -- that forms the lede of Richard Cohen's new column on why torture opponents need to address the unanswered question of how to deal with the imaginary terrorist named Ishamel who lives in his brain. But the name is the least of it:

No one can possibly believe that America is now safer because of the new restrictions on enhanced interrogation and the subsequent appointment of a special prosecutor. The captured terrorist of my fertile imagination, assuming he had access to an Internet cafe, knows about the special prosecutor. He knows his interrogator is under scrutiny. What person under those circumstances is going to spill his beans?

Ah yes, the interrogator must build rapport with the captured terrorist. That might work, but it would take time. It could take a lot of time. Building rapport is clearly the preferred method, but the terrorist is going to know all about it. He will bide his time. How much time do we have?

As long as we're playing this game, I'm going to imagine my own terrorist -- call him Queequeg -- who knows the clock is running and he only has to stand up to interrogation for a short time, thus rendering torture ineffective. As fun as this is, perhaps constructing hypothetical scenarios isn't the best way to design interrogation policy.

There's also this:

I am torn between my desire for absolute security and my abhorrence of torture.

Absolute security? That's the trade-off? Well things certainly are straightforward in Richard Cohen's imaginary war on terror. Why do I get the feeling that if Cohen would see the logic in nuking Imaginationland?

EXPLORE:MIDDLE EAST, TERRORISM

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BLUE13326

7:39 AM ET

September 2, 2009

'I'm going to imagine my own

'I'm going to imagine my own terrorist -- call him Queequeg -- who knows the clock is running and he only has to stand up to interrogation for a short time, thus rendering torture ineffective.'

Tell that to Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Funny thing is, we don't need imaginary terrorists. We know these interrogation methods worked and saved lives. Period. Full stop.

“The report found that the interrogations obtained critical information to identify terrorists and stop potential plots and said some imprisoned terrorists provided more information after being exposed to brutal treatment.”

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/pop/articles/25intel.html

EXOTTOYUHR

10:22 AM ET

September 2, 2009

Or maybe not.

Surely you saw http://www.slate.com/id/2226276/ and other articles on the recent release of the torture memos. That being said, Cheney was the one who said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was waterboarded for a total of about 30 seconds, as opposed to 183 sessions; it should be no surprise that if one is willing to tear up international treaties and commit moral outrages, one is also willing to be slightly dishonest in describing the results.

Moreover, does it matter in the least what results one gets from an intrinsically wrong action? The Holocaust improved the Nazis' lampshade output, but does that make it justified?

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