James Mandrell: From the Inquisition to us.

[20score]

Very informative article about the history of torture by Brandeis University's James Mandrell:



The release of Bush administration torture memos proves one thing at least: When those at the highest levels of our government discussed "enhanced interrogation," they neglected to consider the sordid history of torture.

Had they been interested, they might have discovered an illustrated article on water torture in a popular 19th century Spanish newspaper (I happened on it in Madrid, doing research for my next book). Published in 1836, just two years after Spain abolished the Inquisition, the article noted that torture was still practiced in a few places, although Catherine the Great of Russia outlawed its practice in 1760, as did France's Louis XVI in the early years of his reign. The article claimed that the principal objection to torture was not necessarily moral or ethical. Torture doesn't work, it said: "It's not efficacious."

Different types of water torture were reviewed, including a detailed presentation of a version of waterboarding as mandated in French documents from the time of Louis XIV. The article concluded by pointing out that such a "savage act" paradoxically took place in the most glorious court ever seen, headed by a king "who was daily surrounded by the most select individuals in a peaceful and educated nation."

At the time, interest in Spain in the topic of torture was not coincidental. Many people struggled with the implications of support for the Inquisition -- 300 years during which the apparatus of the Catholic Church and a Catholic state pursued, sometimes to death, Arabs, Jews and other "heretics" -- in an otherwise enlightened country. In 1888, in the first comprehensive history of the Inquisition, Henry Charles Lea described one of the inquisitors' punishing techniques, which ought to sound familiar. Prisoners were bound to a ladder-like plank that was tilted, so their heads were lower than their feet. A piece of linen was forced down the "patient's" throat to allow water to trickle through slowly as it was poured from a vessel.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mandrell9-2009may09,0,2268685.story

[20score]

1. Sorry if this has been previously posted.

I haven't seen it, anyway.

[Wednesdays]

2. K&R

:kick:

[20score]

3. If it isn't obvious by the link, this is from the LA Times.