Torture
When a government places its own interests over those of its people, it can transform into a Leviathan and institutionalize torture. The latter serves three functions: obtain information, plant false confessions and act as a deterrent.
The United Nations established a set of international instruments to put an end to these practices, including: the “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 1984“ and the Committee Against Torture which monitors its implementation.
Nevertheless, during the Cold War the United States introduced the widespread use of these practices in the Third World, going so far as to create two torture schools, one in Panama (the School of the Americas) and one in Taiwan (Political Warfare Cadres Academy). However, this practice remained illegal and was large outsourced to militias or allied States. By declaring a “Global War on Terrorism,” the Bush administration reinstated the use of torture, first by making it public outside U.S. borders and by legalizing it inside the United States itself.
Applying the North Korean techniques adapted by Professor Albert D. Biderman, the torture practiced at Guantanamo, Bagram and in many other secret CIA and Navy prisons aimed to transform the innocent into guilty by instilling a false confession. That is how the Bush administration manufactured the “evidence” to justify its narrative of the September 11 attacks and its “war on terror.”
The Obama administration has officially prohibited torture. But, in reality, nothing has changed since the number of CIA and Navy prisons outside the United States has doubled.
