Published:
By the time House Republicans were finished with him, Bill Clinton must have
thought of a thong as a torture device.
For the Bush administration, it actually is.
A former American Army sergeant who worked as an Arabic interpreter at Gitmo has written a book pulling back the veil on the
astounding ways female interrogators used a toxic combination of sex and
religion to try to break Muslim detainees at the
The Bush administration never worries about anything. But these missionaries
and zealous protectors of values should be worried about the American soul. The
president never mentions Osama, but he continues to
use 9/11 as an excuse for American policies that bend the rules and play to our
worst instincts.
"I have really struggled with this because the
detainees, their families and much of the world will think this is a religious
war based on some of the techniques used, even though it is not the case,"
the former sergeant, Erik R. Saar, 29, told The Associated Press. The A.P.
got a manuscript of his book, deemed classified pending a Pentagon review.
What good is it for President Bush to speak respectfully of Islam and claim
Iraq is not a religious war if the Pentagon denigrates Islamic law - allowing
its female interrogators to try to make Muslim men talk in late-night sessions
featuring sexual touching, displays of fake menstrual blood, and parading in
miniskirt, tight T-shirt, bra and thong underwear?
It's like a bad porn movie, "The Geneva Monologues." All S and no M.
The A.P. noted that "some Guantánamo
prisoners who have been released say they were tormented by 'prostitutes.'
"
Mr. Saar writes about what he calls
"disturbing" practices during his time in Gitmo
from December 2002 to June 2003, including this anecdote related by Paisley Dodds, an A.P. reporter:
A female military interrogator who wanted to turn up the heat on a
21-year-old Saudi detainee who allegedly had taken flying lessons in
After the prisoner spat in her face, she left the room to ask a Muslim
linguist how she could break the prisoner's reliance on God. The linguist
suggested she tell the prisoner that she was menstruating, touch him, and then
shut off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash.
"The concept was to make the detainee feel that after talking to her he
was unclean and was unable to go before his God in prayer and gain
strength," Mr. Saar recounted, adding: "She
then started to place her hands in her pants as she walked behind the detainee.
As she circled around him he could see that she was taking her hand out of her
pants. When it became visible the detainee saw what appeared to be red blood on
her hand. She said, 'Who sent you to
"He began to cry like a baby," the author wrote, adding that the
interrogator's parting shot was: "Have a fun night in your cell without
any water to clean yourself."
A female civilian contractor kept her "uniform" - a thong and
miniskirt - on the back of the door of an interrogation room, the author says.
Who are these women? Who allows this to happen? Why don't the officers who
allow it get into trouble? Why do Rummy and Paul Wolfowitz
still have their jobs?
The military did not deny the specifics, but said the prisoners were treated
"humanely" and in a way consistent "with legal obligations
prohibiting torture." However the Bush White House is redefining torture
these days, the point is this: Such behavior degrades the women who are doing
it, the men they are doing it to, and the country they
are doing it for.
There's nothing wrong with trying to squeeze information out of detainees.
But isn't it simply more effective to throw them in isolation and try to build
some sort of relationship?
I doubt that the thong tease works as well on inmates at Gitmo
as it did on Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.