Mayer blasts interrogation tactics of CIA

Deception, incompetence and social indifference have led the Bush administration to breach ethical and legal boundaries in its anti-terrorism interrogation policy, New Yorker writer Jane Mayer said in a discussion of her new book, “The Dark Side,” on Wednesday afternoon.

“They redefined torture so that they were not torturing unless they caused organ failure or death,” Mayer said. She explained that by employing attorneys to find loopholes in the law, the White House was able to employ techniques such as waterboarding, which involves inducing the sensation of drowning.

Likewise, the CIA has erected black-site prisons around the world to escape the jurisdiction of American courts and the restrictions of American law, Mayer said, noting that such prisons are suspected to exist in countries such as Poland, Romania, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Afghanistan.

The current administration has also reinterpreted the definition of extraordinary rendition, Mayer added.

“The extraordinary rendition program was Deception, incompetence and social indifference have led the Bush administration to breach ethical and legal boundaries in its anti-terrorism interrogation policy, New Yorker writer Jane Mayer said in a discussion of her new book, “The Dark Side,” on Wednesday afternoon.

The current administration has also reinterpreted the definition of extraordinary rendition, Mayer added.

“The extraordinary rendition program was supposed to allow us to pick up terror suspects around the world and return them to face justice in their home countries,” Mayer said, explaining that instead, the program has been used to send arrested suspects to other countries to subject them to torture.

Incompetence, Mayer said, was also a factor in the decision to subject suspects to harsh treatment. There is evidence that torture is ineffective, she said, adding that she faults the administration for ignoring this evidence.

“[Torture] is something that amateurs turn to,” Mayer said, citing the case of al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. Mayer criticized Bush’s claim that the results obtained by using waterboarding were in fact relevant intelligence.

Mayer also stressed the long-term consequences of harsh interrogation, noting that treating prisoners unethically only allows them to be seen as victims and is counterproductive as a result.

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“Anything that would win [Abu Zubaydah] sympathy in the world with the new generation of Muslims is a tremendous political problem,” Mayer explained.

The role of the next president, Mayer noted, will be difficult, given the Bush administration’s legacy and the legal impact of changing its policies.

“Whoever comes into office next will have to decide whether the legal memos on which these programs sit are legitimate,” she said, explaining that “if they throw out the memos, they’re saying that what [the Bush Administration] did before was criminal, and there are very high stakes for that.”

Mayer also noted the failure of proper checks and balances in the decision-making process, stressing the need for Congress to “grow a spine.”

She said, however, that the public must be the last line of defense in preventing abuses of power.

“What makes Congress stand up is when people in the country demand that it stand up,” she said, adding that “if we don’t understand where we went wrong and try to set more civilized rules for the next time, it will just get worse.”

The audience, which included students and community members, was generally supportive of Mayer’s criticisms of the current administration.

“I think we should impeach Bush, and if he leaves office before then, we should criminally prosecute him because he lied to the public,” Raheel Anwar ’12 said.

Sandra Mukasa ’12 said she is disappointed with the government’s actions.

“I find the whole process infuriating because I am seeing people in high levels of government who are abusing our legal system [and] tarnishing our moral standing,” she explained.

Marian Messing ’11 said that for her, “the most important thing is to put in place policies that will prevent this from happening in the future.”

“Whether conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, [we should agree that] what occurred was a violation of international and domestic law,” she said.