Zero Dark Thirty: Torturing the Facts
Posted: 01/11/2013 12:00 pm
On January 11, eleven years to the day after George W. Bush sent the first detainees to Guantanamo, the Oscar-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty is making its national debut. Zero Dark Thirty
is disturbing for two reasons. First and foremost, it leaves the viewer
with the erroneous impression that torture helped the CIA find Bin
Laden's hiding place in Pakistan. Secondarily, it ignores both the
illegality and immorality of using torture as an interrogation tool.
The thriller opens with the words "based on first-hand accounts of
actual events." After showing footage of the horrific 9/11 attacks, it
moves into a graphic and lengthy depiction of torture. The detainee
"Ammar" is subjected to waterboarding, stress positions, sleep
deprivation, and confined in a small box. Responding to the torture, he
divulges the name of the courier who ultimately leads the CIA to Bin
Laden's location and assassination. It may be good theater, but it is
inaccurate and misleading.
The statement "based on first-hand accounts of actual events" is
deceptive because it causes the viewer to think the story is accurate.
All it really means, however, is that the CIA provided Hollywood with
information about events depicted in the movie. Acting CIA Director
Michael Morrell wrote a letter to the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence in which he admitted the CIA engaged extensively with the
filmmakers. After receiving his letter, Senators John McCain, Dianne
Feinstein and Carl Levin requested information and documents related to
the CIA's cooperation.
The senators sent a letter
to Morrell saying they were "concerned by the film's clear implication
that information obtained during or after the use of the CIA's coercive
interrogation techniques played a critical role in locating Usama Bin
Laden (UBL)." They noted, "the film depicts CIA officers repeatedly
torturing detainees. The film then credits CIA detainees subjected to
coercive interrogation techniques as providing critical lead information
on the courier that led to the UBL compound." They state categorically:
"this information is incorrect."
The letter explains that after a review of more than six million
pages of CIA records, Feinstein and Levin made the following
determination:
The CIA did not first learn about the existence of the UBL courier from CIA detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques. Nor did the CIA discover the courier's identity from CIA detainees subjected to coercive techniques. No CIA detainee reported on the courier's full name or specific whereabouts, and no detainee identified the compound in which UBL was hidden. Instead, the CIA learned of the existence of the courier, his true name, and location through means unrelated to the CIA detention and interrogation program.
In a speech on the Senate floor, McCain declared,"It
was not torture, or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of
detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our
intelligence community to find Osama bin Laden." McCain added: "In fact,
not only did the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' on Khalid
Sheik Mohammed not provide us with the key leads on bin Laden's courier,
Abu Ahmed; it actually produced false and misleading information."
Many high-level interrogators, including Glenn L. Carle, Ali Soufan
and Matthew Alexander, report that torture is actually ineffective and
often interferes with the securing of actual intelligence. A 2006 study by
the National Defense Intelligence College concluded that traditional,
rapport-building interrogation techniques are very effective even with
the most recalcitrant detainees, but coercive tactics create resistance.
Moreover, torture is counter-productive. An interrogator serving in Afghanistan told Forbes,
"I cannot even count the amount of times that I personally have come
face to face with detainees, who told me they were primarily motivated
to do what they did, because of hearing that we committed torture...
Torture committed by Americans in the past continues to kill Americans
today."
Torture is also illegal and immoral -- important points that are ignored in Zero Dark Thirty.
After witnessing the savage beating of a detainee at the beginning of
the film, the beautiful heroine "Maya" says "I'm fine." As he's leaving
Pakistan, Maya's colleague Dan tells her, "You gotta be real careful
with the detainees now. Politics are changing and you don't want to be
the last one holding the dog collar when the oversight committee comes."
Torture is illegal in all circumstances. The Convention Against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a treaty
the United States ratified which makes it part of U.S. law, states
unequivocally: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state
of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other
public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture." The
prohibition of torture is absolute and unequivocal. Torture is never
lawful.
Yet despite copious evidence of widespread torture and abuse during
the Bush administration, and the Constitution's mandate that the
president enforce the laws, Obama refuses to hold the Bush officials and
lawyers accountable for their law breaking.
Granting impunity to the torturers combined with propaganda films like Zero Dark Thirty,
which may well win multiple Oscars, dilutes any meaningful public
opposition to our government's cruel interrogation techniques. Armed
with full and accurate information, we must engage in an honest
discourse about torture and abuse, and hold those who commit those
illegal acts fully accountable.
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Her most recent book is The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse.
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