There are two important stories about the use of “alternative interrogation techniques” by US forces which deserve to get more attention:
First, the suicide of Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, a 27 year old mormon translator who “died by her own hand after objecting to interrogation methods used on prisoners.” What I find especially troublesome is that we will never know what drove her to suicide:
Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed.
It is bad enough that we are engaging in practices so awful they drive a young woman to suicide. Even worse that even the parents will never know what those techniques are.
The second story shows how the efforts to keep our own crimes a secret are impacting the judicial process: Majid Khan is being denied access to a lawyer because he was tortured. That’s right, his having been tortured means that he is now in possession of highly sensitive information which would threaten US security were it to be leaked. That sensitive information? The “alternative interrogation methods” which were used on him!
(These stories were found via Ethan Zuckerman and Kevin Drum, respectively.)
