Double-plus Ungood

I'm numb.  I watched part of Leslie Stahl's interview with the CIA's former torturer-in-chief, Jose Rodriguez.  I had to turn it off after 5 minutes.  It's like hitting your thumb with a hammer.  There's a moment when you know it's going to hurt like hell, but the pain has not yet started, and you wait in trepidation.  In my case, over 12 hours have passed and I am still waiting for the outrage to overwhelm my consciousness.  Instead, I am in shock.  My eyes won't focus.  My ears buzz.  The man who led America's team of torture and cruelty is fucking loony.  Is everyone in Langley this absurd, or was the GWOT a special modern cadre of "the best and the brightest?"


I couldn't count the real news stories that spewed from Rodriguez's mouth like shit from a goose.  Leslie Stahl let them lie to rot on the studio floor.  Ten years after 9/11, the CIA and FBI continue to fight each other.  What?  Hold on.  Really?  Isn't that important?  The segment continued without pause.  During the brief part of the interview that I watched, Mr. CIA talked about interrogating Abu Zubaydah who was badly wounded when captured in Pakistan.  Zubaydah was cooperative while recuperating from his injuries.  Then, he went quiet, and the CIA turned to torture.  Except, maybe he didn't go quiet.  The FBI says otherwise.  Huh?  Wait a minute?  But, Lesley Stahl allowed her self-serving guest to move on and explain that Zubayah became a tough character who had to be broken by waterboarding.  Except, Rodriguez added astonishing contradiction; Zubayah best responded to "insult slaps."  WTF?  The prisoner is indifferent to simulated drowning, but sings like a canary after a slap across the face?  No.  That's completely crazy.  


Rodriguez responded to Stahl's question about stress positions by showing that prisoners were forced to hold their arms straight up overhead.  Not such a big deal, he explained.  Just like exercising at the gym.  Only different.  


I turned off the television.