Abusive interrogation practices were systemwide, not isolated aberrations.

Evidence

In his review of Mark Danner’s book Torture and Truth and The Abu Ghraib Investigations, edited by Steven Strasser, Andrew Sullivan (2005) summarized the widespread use of the abusive practices: “They were everywhere: from Guantánamo Bay to Afghanistan, Baghdad, Basra, Ramadi and Tikrit and, for all we know, in any number of hidden jails affecting ‘ghost detainees’ kept from the purview of the Red Cross. They were committed by the Marines, the Army, and Military Police, Navy SEALs, reservists, Special Forces and on and on. The use of hooding was ubiquitous; the same goes for forced nudity, sexual humiliation and brutal beatings.” — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2408 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It is essential to be clear about what one means by the word of which Massu was “not frightened”. In a conventional war, so-called “war crimes” generally fall into two distinct categories; those committed in hot blood—prisoners despatched out of hand on the battlefield, shot-down bomber crews lynched by enraged civilians after an air-raid; and those perpetrated in cold blood—the concentration camps. Similarly, in an unconventional war like Northern Ireland or Algeria, there are the brutalities, the roughing-up, the passage à tabac that may be inflicted immediately following the arrest of a suspected terrorist; and there is the prolonged and systematic application of physical or psychological pain expressly aimed at making a suspect “talk”, which constitutes torture as opposed to brutality. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 581 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Although they lacked experience in interrogating detainees, the CIA outsourced to them, with a multimillion-dollar contract, the task of designing and implementing the interrogation program at Guantánamo and overseas facilities. … Mitchell minimized the brutality of the practices by advantageous comparisons. “It’s a lot more humane, even if you are going to subject them to harsh techniques, to question them while they are still alive,” he argued, “than it is to kill them and their children and their neighbors with a drone” (Dilanian, 2014). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2378 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Abusive interrogation was systemwide across US forces, not isolated — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2408; Professional bodies enabled abusive interrogation by certifying it as safe and ethical; Judicial torture was a quantified technique, not lawless rage — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Abusive interrogation was systemwide across US forces, not isolated #corroborates (1.00) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2408
• Perpetrators sanitize abusive interrogation by comparing it to worse alternatives like drone strikes #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2378
• Horne distinguishes physical brutality after arrest from systematic torture aimed at extracting information #complicates (0.75) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 581