Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Bush Administration War Criminals-- Nazi Style

The Nazi Gestapo used the techniques of "Verschärfte Vernehmung" to interrogate prisoners. "Verschärfte Vernehmung" can be translated to the term "enhanced interrogation" (also "intensified interrogration" or "sharpened interrogation"). The techniques the Nazis used are the same as what has been used by the Bush administration.

Critics will no doubt say I am accusing the Bush administration of being Hitler. I'm not. There is no comparison between the political system in Germany in 1937 and the U.S. in 2007. What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn't-somehow-torture - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death.