Impeach George W. Bush Now
Scott Horton:
"Defending Enhanced Interrogation Techniques": Before there were “enhanced interrogation techniques,” there was verschärfte Vernehmung, (which means “enhanced interrogation techniques”) developed by the Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst in 1937 and subject to a series of stringent rules. Now, as we have seen previously, there were extremely important differences between the Gestapo’s interrogation rules and those approved by the Bush Administration. That’s right-—the Bush Administration rules are generally more severe, and include a number of practices that the Gestapo expressly forbade.
Today Andrew Sullivan takes a look at the criminal prosecutions that followed the war in which Gestapo officers who used enhanced interrogation techniques were prosecuted for war crimes as a result. What arguments did they advance? Well, Dick Cheney and Rudy Giuliani will be pleased to know that they haven’t missed any major points.
the ticking time-bomb exception, and the need for better intelligence about an insurgency-—the same defense as the GOP establishment has used for exactly the same techniques-—hypothermia, stress positions, sensory deprivation, etc.—-in the US and Iraq. The terms and specific methods used are the same for the Gestapo’s “verschärfte Vernehmung,” “Third Degree,” and Bush’s “enhanced interrogation.”
HEYDRICH told him that he reserved for himself the final approval of such measures in Germany and he would see to it that they were applied only in the most urgent cases.
