Torture Probe
by digby
Hullabaloo
April 08, 2012
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Writing about the strip-search decision the other day, I
said:

	This is punitive, anyone can see that. They are
	"breaking down" suspects with humiliation to
	make them docile and afraid. There is no reason
	to grant the police blanket permission to do
	this except for a naive belief that anyone who
	is arrested must be guilty of something.

Scott Horton points out in this article called "The High
Court's Body-Cavity Fixation" that this is a well
documented technique,

	Just as the Florence decision was being
	prepared, the Department of Defense released a
	previously classified training manual used to
	prepare American pilots for resistance to
	foreign governments that might use illegal and
	immoral techniques to render them cooperative.
	Key in this manual are the precise practices
	highlighted in Florence. Body-cavity searches
	are performed, it explains, to make the prisoner
	"feel uncomfortable and degraded." Forced nudity
	and invasion of the body make the prisoner feel
	helpless, by removing all items that provide the
	prisoner with psychological support. In other
	words, the strip search is an essential step in
	efforts to destroy an individual's sense of
	self- confidence, well-being, and even his or
	her identity. The value of this tool has been
	recognized by authoritarian governments around
	the world, and now, thanks to the Roberts Court,
	it will belong to the standard jailhouse
	repertoire in the United States. Something to
	consider the next time you walk Fido without
	scooping up his droppings-a cop may well be
	watching, ready to seize the opportunity to
	invade your rectum.

This reminded me of this from Jane Mayer back in 2007:

	"The C.I.A.'s interrogation program is
	remarkable for its mechanistic aura. 'It's one
	of the most sophisticated, refined programs of
	torture ever,' an outside expert familiar with
	the protocol said. 'At every stage, there was a
	rigid attention to detail. Procedure was adhered
	to almost to the letter. There was top-down
	quality control, and such a set routine that you
	get to the point where you know what each
	detainee is going to say, because you've heard
	it before. It was almost automated. People were
	utterly dehumanized. People fell apart. It was
	the intentional and systematic infliction of
	great suffering masquerading as a legal process.
	It is just chilling.'"

	[...]

	"A former member of a C.I.A. transport team has
	described the 'takeout' of prisoners as a
	carefully choreographed twenty-minute routine,
	during which a suspect was hog-tied, stripped
	naked, photographed, hooded, sedated with anal
	suppositories, placed in diapers, and
	transported by plane to a secret location. A
	person involved in the Council of Europe
	inquiry, referring to cavity searches and the
	frequent use of suppositories during the takeout
	of detainees, likened the treatment to 'sodomy.'
	He said, 'It was used to absolutely strip the
	detainee of any dignity. It breaks down
	someone's sense of impenetrability. The
	interrogation became a process not just of
	getting information but of utterly subordinating
	the detainee through humiliation.' The former
	C.I.A. officer confirmed that the agency
	frequently photographed the prisoners naked,
	'because it's demoralizing."

Strip searches are a form of torture. So is tasering.

And here's where all that good stuff comes together.
That cavity probe is always the next step:

	" 'Let me get my shoes,' " Maten quoted Booker
	as saying as he walked toward the chairs to get
	his shoes.

	The deputy yelled at him repeatedly to stop, got
	up and followed Booker. Booker turned and
	repeated that he was getting his shoes, Maten
	said.

	The deputy grabbed Booker by the arm and put a
	lock on him, Yedo said. Booker, who was 5 feet 5
	and weighed 175 pounds, pushed her away. At that
	point, four other deputies wrestled Booker to
	the concrete floor. They slid down two steps to
	the floor in the sitting area. Yedo said the
	deputies each grabbed a limb while he struggled.

	" 'Get the Taser. Get the Taser,' " Yedo quoted
	one of the deputies as saying.

	Yedo said he was only about 3 feet away, and
	Maten said he was close enough that if he stood
	and took one step, he could reach out and touch
	one of the deputies.

	None of the deputies involved in the restraint
	has been identified. One female deputy was
	treated at a hospital for an injury she suffered
	in the confrontation, Gale said.

	A fifth deputy put Booker in a headlock just as
	the female deputy began shocking him with a
	Taser with encouragement from one of the
	deputies, who kept repeating, "Probe his ass,"
	Maten said. He could hear the Taser crackle
	repeatedly.

	Booker said, "'I can't breath . . .," Yedo
	heard. Then, Booker went limp.

	Booker's wrists were handcuffed behind his back
	in an awkward position when the deputies picked
	him up, each holding an arm or a leg, and
	carried him stomach-down to a holding cell with
	an unbreakable glass door.

	They set him down on his stomach, with much of
	his weight on one shoulder and his legs bent,
	Yedo said. They took the handcuffs off and
	without checking his pulse, the officers left
	him on the floor of the holding cell.

	The deputies walked away high-fiving and
	laughing, Maten said. Several inmates were
	saying, " 'I can't believe they're doing this,'
	" Maten said.

He died.

Both President Bush and President Obama have used the
same phrase repeatedly: "The United States doesn't
torture."

Oh yes it does. And the highest court in the nation just
approved another torture technique last week.

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