Closing Gitmo is only the start. Find out why in American Methods

Available From South End Press

American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination
by Kristian Williams

The US “should cease to detain any person at Guantánamo Bay and close
this detention facility,” proclaimed the United Nations Committee Against
Torture.

The call to close Guantánamo Bay is important, but to view Gitmo as a bad
apple is to ignore the rest of the report, which is deeply critical of the US
relationship with torture.

The committee also:

* said that the US should end interrogation techniques “including
methods involving sexual humiliation, ‘water boarding,’ ’short shackling’
and using dogs to induce fear”
* questioned the lack of prosecution of those involved in the Chicago
Police Area 2 and 3 torture “scandals”
* challenged the use of prolonged isolation in SuperMax prisons.

The fact that the report called into question practices in military detention
camps, US prisons, and US police stations comes as no surprise to Kristian
Williams, author of *American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination*.

“The UN report, damning as it is, really just hits the largest targets—the
most widespread practices, the most well-documented cases. What I
found in the course of my research is that the sort of abuse the UN
condemns aren’t just add-ons. They’re characteristic of the operations of
American power, whether at the hands of law enforcement within our
borders or of soldiers overseas.”

It is this everday quality of state violence that launches Kristian Williams’s
extensively researched and annotated new book *American Methods*. And
Williams’s rigerous audit of the US record in underwriting human rights
violations around the globe–at home and abroad–doesn’t stop at what,
but explores why. What emerges is the distinct character of American
torture, particularly its emphasis on sexual violence, misogyny, and
racialized spectacle.

“Torture is nothing new for the US. My book looks at the past 25 years,
but it would clearly be possible to trace it further back, all the way to the
Colonial period. One thing that really stands out if you examine the
country’s record is the use of sexual violence as a model and method of
maintaining state power. The UN report also highlights the sexual aspect of
torture, but the report’s questions are mainly, ‘What abuses are occurring?’
and ‘Do they violate the Convention Against Torture?,’ whereas I was also
asking, ‘What does torture say about our society?’ and ‘What does it show
us about the nature of state power?’”

* * *
Support Independent Media and get American Methods at 25% off the
cover price when you get it online from the South End Press website
through June 30th. (www.southendpress.org/2005/items/87530)
* * *

Kristian Williams’s writings have appeared in CounterPunch, Columbia
Journalism Review, and We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global
Anti-Capitalism (2003). A member of Rose City Copwatch in Portland,
Oregon, Williams also authored Our Enemies in Blue (2004).

http://www.southendpress.org
read. write. revolt.

To make the obvious sick joke, I guess this is why they call it “rendering.” “Sick fuckers” doesn’t begin to describe these people, and by “these people” I’m referring to a lot more than the Uzbeks.