January 5, 2012 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Guantanamo Detention Center. The use of torture to obtain information varies from country to country and differs also by culture. The timeliness and importance of the information needed are also factors. The use of torture is typically denounced and at the same time used continuously -- even by the countries that denounce it.
Internment of one's enemies is also a tactic that is used and it, too, is perceived differently by other cultures.
And then there's capital punishment. What a can of worms!
These issues and more are all included in a best selling novel by Andre Le Gallo, Satan's Spy. We spoke recently and I asked him about these topics. Here is his reply:
Le Gallo: Both the internment of Japanese Americans and the use of Guantánamo reflect national security policies crafted to deal with the perceived threats of the time. To my knowledge there was no popular outcry at FDR's executive order and the use of Guantánamo has now received bipartisan imprematurs by two very different administrations, Bush's and Obama's. An interesting, and unintended, consequence of leftist uproar over the Bush counter terrorist policies has been an increase in the loss of life and intelligence. Rather than face opposition from its core supporters, the Obama administration has chosen to kill rather than capture enemy combatants in spite of their intelligence potential.
Interesting comments from a former CIA agent.
My review of Satan's Spy can be found HERE.
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