The modern debate surrounding government interrogation, specifically the treatment of terror suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency, has “forgotten and often secret” roots that can be traced back centuries, renowned torture expert Darius Rejali told the 51 community last week during his two-day visit to campus.
“It’s something that has an incredibly long history … one that has always been tied to the world’s democracies,” said Rejali, explaining how torture tactics date back to ancient Greece and Rome.
“It isn’t that democracies have no history of torture, as many think, but rather that they have a different history of torture.”
His award-winning book, Torture and Democracy (2007), an exhaustive analysis of modern torture techniques, thrust him into the media spotlight as a leading expert on the topic.
As part of his research, Rejali, a political science professor at Reed College, mapped how torture spread around the globe over the course of the past 200 years.
The work, he said, revealed some surprising conclusions. “With very few exceptions, almost none of the techniques used today originated with the Nazis, Stalinists, or Inquisitionists.”
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| Darius Rejali speaks to students during his two-day campus visit. His public lecture the previous evening launched the Peter C. Schaehrer ’65 Memorial Lecture series sponsored by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. (Photo by Andy Daddio) |
“What drove the torture innovation was something that no one really considers having to do with torture at all: mainly international human rights monitoring and democracy.”
According to Rejali, as human rights spread after World War II, democracies developed “clean” techniques — such as torture by sleep deprivation, electricity, and water — that lead to less “scarring” and are more likely to escape watchful eyes.
“‘Clean’ techniques are valuable to some because allegations of torture are less credible when there is nothing to show of it. In the absence of physical wounds or photographs of torture, who are you going to believe?”
“Would Americans really have been outraged about Abu Ghraib had there not been pictures?” he asked, referring to photos released in 2004 that allegedly show “clean” torture techniques being used on prisoners at the Baghdad facility.
“No one cared until a news outlet broke the embargo on the photos and they were there for everyone to see.”
Rejali also noted that a prisoner being tortured by these methods is likely to say whatever he or she thinks captors want to hear, making it a poor method for gathering reliable intelligence.
His public talk, “The Secret Histories of Modern Torture,” Thursday night in Love Auditorium inaugurated the Peter C. Schaehrer ’65 Memorial Lecture series.
On Friday, Rejali offered his insights during intellectual discussions with P-CON students as well as alumni who established the series in honor of the late Peter Schaehrer ’65, a career educator and champion of civil rights.
“The lecture series is a great way to keep alive the ideals Pete stood for,” said Rick Stege ’65, a former classmate of Schaehrer’s. “Our small group discussion with Mr. Rejali was fascinating. It was like we were back in a college seminar learning things we never dreamed of.”
“To have him in our class was really meaningful because we got to ask deeper questions about his research and the process of writing his book,” added Eugene Riordan ’11.