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Dead Constitution
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Title: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" (PICKING UP LANGUAGE FROM THE GESTAPO)
Source: Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish
URL Source: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.c ... h/2007/05/enhanced_interr.html
Published: May 25, 2007
Author: Andrew Sullivan
Post Date: 2007-05-25 19:17:55 by aristeides
Keywords: None
Views: 118
Comments: 4

"Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"

25 May 2007 03:57 pm

A reader writes:

You asked

"Second, of course, the hideous term: "enhanced interrogation techniques.' I'm not sure where exactly this came from..."

Well, "enhanced interrogation techniques" is a fairly decent English translation of the Gestapo euphemism "verschaerfte Vernehmung" which was the code word for torture in the Third Reich. Look it up.

The dictionary confirms it. So Dean Barnett is picking up his terms from the Gestapo. Way to go, Dean.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  

#1. To: All (#0)

As the Heydrich character observes in the Wannsee Conference movie, "Das ist die Sprachregelung."

To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.

aristeides  posted on  2007-05-25   19:18:38 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

Politics and the English Language

25 May 2007 03:22 pm

If you haven't read Orwell's masterpiece, now is a good time. Two recent examples of linguistic malfeasance spring to mind. The first is turning the word "illegal" into a noun. I know it's short for "illegal immigrant." But the concision makes a rhetorical difference. It does help subtly to dehumanize the individuals involved. They are illegal immigrants. Which is to say: they are human beings. I'm sympathetic to the suspicion many have about the enforcement issues in the immigration bill. I don't think it's racist or nativist to want to have the rule of law effectively enforced on the border. But equally, I find the demonization of "the other" by this kind of linguistic device to be troubling. It's ugly, period. Maybe it's my Catholic upbringing, but it's morally wrong, in my view. Every person is made in the image of God.

Second, of course, the hideous term: "enhanced interrogation techniques.' I'm not sure where exactly this came from, but George Tenet seems to have been the tipping point. But it's important to note that Tenet has a very personal interest in lying about torture. After all, he will be subject to war crime charges if he concedes that he authorized it. But in his rewording, he has also, it seems to me, conceded something very important. He was clearly concerned that the term "coercive" in the newspeak phrase "coercive interrogation techniques" could be legal peril. It implies physical or mental pressure so severe it renders any choice to cooperate moot. It implies, inevitably, "severe mental or physical pain or suffering," in order to extract information. That is the only relevant legal and moral criterion for torture. Is the information coerced, i.e. is the physical or mental suffering so severe that the victim has no choice but to tell the torturers what the want to hear? If it is, it's torture, under American and international law. And Tenet is a criminal.

Abuse of common English is one of the hallmarks of political mischief. I don't think any journalist should let a politician off the hook on this one. Words matter.

That reader was responding to this earlier posting by Sullivan. By the way, as much worth reading as Orwell, is Victor Klemperer's masterpiece on the language of the Third Reich, LTI [Lingua Tertii Imperii]. (I understand it's even been translated into English, but I'm not sure a book about the German language would work very well in translation.)

To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.

aristeides  posted on  2007-05-25   19:26:57 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

The dictionary confirms it. So Dean Barnett is picking up his terms from the Gestapo. Way to go, Dean.

the neocons give the Gestapo a bad name. A Russian who was tortured by both the Nazi Gestapo and the Soviet NKVD he said he'd take his chances with the former because the Germans would stop when you told them the truth. The NKVD didn't stop till you told them what they wanted to hear.

I expect that is where most of the "terrorist plots" of the future will come from. Just grab some poor dope off the street and drive him mad with pain till he confesses to being Osama's long lost twin.

"The more I see of life, the less I fear death" - Me.

Pissed Off Janitor  posted on  2007-05-25   19:36:36 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

My Russian isn't good enough to know whether the Russians had a term equivalent to verschärfte Vernehmung. But, even if they did, I think it's a good deal more likely that our homegrown totalitarians took the term from German, where we know the term existed.

To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.

aristeides  posted on  2007-05-25   19:39:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  

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