Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for May 22, 2009
May 21, 2009
May 23, 2009
Transcript:
Havoc: Here's what makes it nuts, kid. Our interrogation program was mostly borrowed from the Commies... who used torture to extract false confessions from captured U.S. airmen. In other words, to get the truth from terrorists, our geniuses chose techniques specifically designed to make people lie! Jeff: Yo, maybe it works both ways! Havoc: And how useful that would be.
Er, SERE techniques are wimpy. If thousands of American soldiers can get through it without physical after effects, it ain’t that much. The torture used during the Cold War was actual torture—you’d be lucky to live. However, there’s never been scientific studies comparing regular interrogation techniques (often not even used by military interrogaters) and torture interrogation with people who actually had reason to resist. MK-Ultra was very much about studying torture techniques, but only on regular American citizens, and no comparison was used.