US masters the art of political show trials
March 15th, 2007
In Stalinist Russia it was common for political prisoners, after a suitable period of detention, to miraculously “confess” to all kinds of crimes. Of course, such practices were common during the Inquisition as well.
The United States is showing that it’s now a torture power to be reckoned with. No second-rate torture for us. We’ve now mastered the art of getting the desired “confessions,” as needed for the 6:00 News. Witness the “confession” of Khalid Sheik Mohammed:
“I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z,” Mohammed told a panel of military officers through a personal representative, who read off a list of 31 terrorist acts that were either carried out or planned but not executed. According to transcripts released by Defense Department officials last night, Mohammed later spoke in broken English and Arabic, saying, “For sure, I’m American enemies.”
Somehow, lawyers and human rights are completely absent at these farce trials, but the recording machine is their to “record” that which needs to be released for the Press Release.
Of course, what Khalid Sheik Mohammed says could even be true. Who knows? But only a fool would believe a show trial confession afters years of torture in one of the CIA’s private hells.
Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Law, Rights and Liberties, Torture, War Crimes
4 Comments Add your own
1. I.G. | March 15th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Hi Stephen, i found your blog through reading “US masters the art of political show trials” on http://www.signs-of-the-times.org. It’s where i get my daily news, an objective news site in a subjective world. From your writings i think you too might find it worth visiting.
I was done reading a book recently, having read an editorial about it on above mentioned site, called Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes by psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski. Judging from what you wrote in your bio:
“Psychoanalysis emphasizes the role of the irrational in everyday life, of our passions and desires. Research strives to develop knowledge based on rationality. Social change must contend with both the rational and irrational in people’s lives.”
I would like to recommend this book to you, because the information contained therein armours one with understanding as to the why’s and hows of the “irrationality” you speak about. Which in the end might be not an innate “normal human being” trait after all, Speaking in Lobaczewski’s language. As a psychoanalysts by profession, you are familiar with psychopathy, no?
You can read the book editorial here:
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski.htm
Keep it up!
2. Cyre Gray | March 16th, 2007 at 10:34 am
>Of course, what Khalid Sheik Mohammed says could even be true. Who knows? But only a fool would believe a show trial confession afters years of torture in one of the CIA’s private hells.
You think that’s bad, try googling ‘the greenbaum speech’ given by one DC Hammond. Discusses inducing multiple personality syndrome for the purpose of ‘programming’ a human mind… disturbing.
The link above is also interesting, i wouldn’t be shocked to discover BushCo doesn’t have a conscience.
3. Randy | March 18th, 2007 at 4:09 am
Excellent commentary.
The Stalinist show trials were precisely what I thought of when I started reading the remarkable panoply of terror crimes and plots in Mohammed’s laundry list of confessions.
Some of the favorite techniques of Stalin’s torturers were beatings, “stress positions”, and sleep deprivation. Of course, these will sound very familiar to anyone following the interrogation program now widely used by the United States in its GWOG (global war on terror).
These Stalinist methods were used at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram and numerous other torture centers under orders from Rumsfeld and Bush. Stalin’s henchmen appear to have failed to use sexual humiliation, however, so the United States has made some advancement in torture methodology.
Stalin and his agents also liked to use the threat of arrest and torture against family members to break major Bolshevik leaders such as Bukharin and Kamenev:
“It is now known that the confessions were given only after great psychological pressure had been applied to the defendants. From the accounts of former OGPU officer Alexander Orlov and others, the methods used to extract the confessions are known: such tortures as repeated beatings, making prisoners stand or go without sleep for days on end, and threats to arrest and execute the prisoners’ families. For example, Kamenev’s teenage son was arrested and charged with terrorism. After months of such interrogation, the defendants were driven to despair and exhaustion.”
Isn’t it fascinating to note that the CIA also decided to seize Mohammed’s sons age 7 and 9 as a way of breaking him and forcing him to talk.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/09/1047144871928.html
Americans have a lot to be proud of now that they’ve become a beacon of torture, militarism, and propaganda. Who is the real ‘Evil Empire’ again?
4. Randy | March 18th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Additionally, there is one very large difference between the Stalinist show trials and the confessions of Khaled Mohammed before a military tribunal at the Guantanamo gulag.
The Stalinist engineered confessions were made in open court in front of numerous witnesses, including many Western visitors who were largely taken in by their staged legitimacy.
“At the time, most Western observers who attended the trials said that they were fair and that the guilt of the accused had been established. They based this assessment on the confessions of the accused, which were freely given in open court, without any apparent evidence that they had been extracted by torture or drugging.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Trials
On the other hand, Mohammed, who has been in the hands of torturers at the Pentagon and CIA for four years, presented his confessions in a ‘redacted’ (censored) transcript offered to the mighty Wurlitzer of the ‘free press’ by a secret Pentagon military tribunal. Needless to say, our courageous ‘free press’ reported it all with great fealty.
Mohammed certainly confessed to an extensive array of crimes:
“Other plots he said he was responsible for included planned attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange, the Panama Canal and Big Ben and Heathrow Airport in London—none of which happened.
He said he was involved in planning assassination attempts against former Presidents Carter and Clinton, attacks on U.S. nuclear power plants and suspension bridges in New York, the destruction of American and Israeli embassies in Asia and Australia, attacks on American naval vessels and oil tankers around the world, and an attempt to “destroy” an oil company he said was owned by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Sumatra, Indonesia.
He also claimed he shared responsibility for assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
In all, Mohammed said he was responsible for planning 28 attacks and assisting in three others. The comments were included in a 26-page transcript released by the Pentagon, which blacked out some of his remarks.”
Unlike the Stalinist show trial victims, who were almost entirely innocent, most being committed Bolshevik leaders and revolutionaries, Khaled Mohammed is possibly even guilty of some of these crimes. However, due to the application of torture and a Kafkaesque legal farce, we will never know with certainty.
In some respects, however, it is unfair to compare the Stalinist show trials to Mohammed’s confessions. Unfair to Stalin and his henchmen that is; after all, they presented a far more open and credible effort to fool the world then the Bush regime has.
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