Secrets, Politics and Torture

September 11, 2001 was a day that would radically change America. Determined to avoid a repeat terrorist attack, some members of the Bush administration felt a need to explore "enhanced interrogation techniques" to be used on captured terrorists, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and even mock executions. Filmmaker Michael Kirk's PBS-aired Frontline documentary questions the effectiveness of these techniques in providing reliable information, while also asking whether the procedure of "capture, detain, interrogate" is consistent with American values and international law. The acclaimed but controversial film Zero Dark Thirty left many viewers with the impression that enhanced interrogation was essential in acquiring the intelligence that was used to track down Osama Bin Laden. These CIA procedures were ominously dubbed "dark operations," and carried out in secret—taking suspected terrorists to "black sites" out of the view and reach of American justice. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, was waterboarded 183 times, and one detainee died while in custody. Vice President Dick Cheney strongly advocated for these enhanced techniques (and still defends them), while Senator John McCain, who was brutalized as a POW in North Vietnam, opposed these actions as torture, pure and simple. Most Americans initially supported, or least tolerated the new interrogation methods, but the tide began to turn after the American excesses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were revealed. The film features surprisingly frank interviews with key officials, as well as the findings of a detailed report (heavily redacted) that concluded the techniques were brutal, mismanaged, and ineffective—a polarizing verdict both in Washington and across the American heartland. A fair, timely, and informative report, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)