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The LA Times reports on the passing of Jeremiah Denton, the US Navy pilot held by the Viet Cong, who let the world know in a TV interview that POWs were being tortured by blinking out the word "torture" in Morse code. From 1965 to 1973, Denton was held at the "Hanoi Hilton" and several other infamous Vietnamese prisons and was held in isolation for lengthy periods totaling about four years. At points, he was in a pitch-black cell, a cramped hole crawling with rats and roaches. His beatings opened wounds that festered in pools of sewage. Frustrated that Denton would not confess to alleged American war crimes or reveal even basic details of US military operations, jailers subjected him to horrific abuse.
Taking command of fellow POWs he usually could not see, Denton fashioned a secret prison communication system using the sound of coughs, hacks, scratching, spitting and throat-clearing keyed to letters of the alphabet. "When you think you've reached the limit of your endurance, give them harmless and inaccurate information that you can remember, and repeat it if tortured again," he told his men. "We will die before we give them classified military information." Thinking they'd broken him, Denton's captors allowed a Japanese TV reporter to interview him on May 2, 1966. "The blinding floodlights made me blink and suddenly I realized that they were playing right into my hands," he wrote. "I looked directly into the camera and blinked my eyes once, slowly, then three more times, slowly. A dash and three more dashes. A quick blink, slow blink, quick blink." While his impromptu blinks silently told the world that prisoners were being tortured, he was unabashed in the interview, which was later broadcast around the world, in his denial of American wrongdoing. "Whatever the position of my government is, I believe in it yes, sir," said Denton. "I'm a member of that government and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday April 03 2014, @12:40PM
It's not torture, it's "enhanced interrogation" and it's all completely legal and ethical and justified by the ends and we have no problem with it whatsoever.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 03 2014, @12:55PM
Great, great, do you think we could use those enhanced techniques when questioning members of the intelligence community about their programs?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 03 2014, @02:27PM
This should also make it harder for people to morse it out!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Techwolf on Thursday April 03 2014, @02:28PM
Where is the +1 Sad but true mod?
(Score: 1, Troll) by hemocyanin on Thursday April 03 2014, @03:06PM
This is a guy who would kill innocent people because his government told him to. I wish there was a hell for him to rot in.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pk on Thursday April 03 2014, @03:46PM
You're speculating there. By the way, did you not see the part where he was tortured for years?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday April 04 2014, @02:08AM
After bombing villages? Sounds like karma.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 04 2014, @03:01AM
It is perverse to celebrate people who drop napalm on children. [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Sir Garlon on Thursday April 03 2014, @03:09PM
John McCain, a US Senator who knows a thing or two about torture (having been subjected to it while a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam), co-sponsored the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 [pitt.edu]. That passed both houses of the legislature and was signed into law by President *BUSH*. So Congress has made very clear that "enhanced interrogation" shall not continue and the President agreed (at least in principle) to comply. In other words, disgraceful as it was, "enhanced interrogation" is banned by current US law and policy. So to me as a citizen, that's a small comfort, that at least my government no longer claims it is OK (though no comfort at all to the past victims.)
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday April 03 2014, @03:55PM
> the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.
OK, I guess I missed that. Good work Mr McCain.
Thing is, torture was supposed to be illegal in the US even before that legislation, what with the Geneva Convention and all. Where are the trials and sackings of the guilty politicians, civil servants and other culpable parties?
Meanwhile, Guantanamo is still open and Bradley Manning's extended spell in solitary occurred well after 2005.
It seems to me that the administration (be it Bush, Obama or someone else) will always flagrantly ignore things like "human rights" for as long as the population are prepared to ignore it/ eat up the "it's for your own good" and "well Jack Bauer says it's OK" bullshit (i.e. indefinitely). Just search this site for the word "unconstitutional" if you want examples.
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Thursday April 03 2014, @06:49PM
I fully agree that the United States frequently falls short of its founding ideals and/or common decency. I'm sad to say that this is nothing new, and has been going on since before the US became independent of Britain. The best that we plebs can do is use those First Amendment rights to call attention to the abuses, agitate for reform, and to applaud the occasional positive step.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2) by combatserver on Thursday April 03 2014, @09:00PM
"John McCain, a US Senator who knows a thing or two about torture..."
Apparently, he has a short memory, short enough that he cannot differentiate between good and evil any longer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/13/mccain-vo tes-against-tort_n_86549.html [huffingtonpost.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/us/politics/17to rture.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/0 5/john-mccains-spotty-record-on-torture/238842/ [theatlantic.com]
I hope I can change this later...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Thursday April 03 2014, @05:55PM
I understand you're trying to poke fun at things like gitmo and waterboarding. I get it. But the line has to be drawn somewhere, right? he was in a pitch-black cell, a cramped hole crawling with rats and roaches. His beatings opened wounds that festered in pools of sewage. That is not even in the same realm as gitmo and waterboarding.
I'm curious what level of detainment for POWs (not civilian combatants) you consider ethical. Same goes for any methods use to extract information (not for creating propaganda).
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