A statement by Anthony J. Russo, an employee of the RAND Corporation who was dispatched to Viet Nam to interrogate prisoners there during the US war in that country in the late 60’s, could have been made by US employees who work in Afghanistan and the Middle East now and in the very recent past.
Russo reported in detail the kind of torture and abuse that prisoners he interrogated had endured. The CIA was putting into practice the methods of torture that exist to this day and that include being suspended by the thumbs or the feet, beatings, rape, electric shock–especially to the genitals–confinement in dark and dirty cells, waterboarding.
Anthony Russo
This brave man documented every instance of these atrocities and crimes against humanity that he encountered, He wrote about the torture of the people he interviewed in the reports he had to file and argued with his superiors who wanted him to suppress that information, which was ultimately removed from the reports by those who controlled the final drafts.
Eventually, he helped Daniel Ellsburg who exposed the “Pentagon Papers” that revealed what the US wanted hidden about the war in Viet Nam. As Ellsburg was, he was indicted for complicity in that matter. The Ellsburg trial had huge implications for the war and the early resignation of Richard Nixon in disgrace. It was another step on the path to the ignominious end of that disastrous war.
Though not so well known as Ellsbrug, Russo was as courageous and acted on principle. Ellsburg always said that Russo was the first person who recorded the torture of the Vietnamese. This is not well known largely because the RAND Corporation buried that information quite successfully.
The US has a history of torture. What can we do now to stop it and ensure that torture will not be used in the future?