(3) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED ""Torture & the Shah"
This three part series will explore America’s attempts to build up and rely on sociopaths to protect U.S. strategic interests abroad. This policy assumed that the single-minded, conscienceless vigor such psychopathic dictators displayed in pursuing their own interests, would work for ours as well. But alas, that tactic backfired – big time. It precipitated the World Trade Center bombings, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now America's public embarrassment at having stifled rather than supported the push towards democracy in Egypt and other Arab countries.
(1) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED
(2) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED "The Root Doctrine"
(3) Torture & the Shah
SAVAK was launched by the Shah in 1957 and trained by the CIA. According to Jesse Leaf: “ . . . a senior CIA official was involved in instructing officials in the Savak on torture techniques. . . based on German torture techniques from World War II.” [9]
The Iranian secret police, whom the Shah directed personally, quickly gained the reputation of being the most sadistic secret police force in the world, maintaining nearly 60,000 agents on its payroll at its peak. Its victims numbered in the tens of thousands, although researchers quibble over the exact figure. But, more than anything else, it prided itself in being innovative. Given such evocative names as the parrot’s perch, the dry submarine, the horsemen, Apollo’s helmet, SAVAK’s preferred torture methods included tying people to bedsprings heated white-hot, beating its victims with wire cables, hanging weights and pouring boiling water on the genitals, pulling out fingernails, toenails and teeth.
In one documented case, SAVAK physicians surgically amputated the arms and legs of a union organizer and sent his living trunk back to family members living in Amman, Jordan.[10] Razors, sharp edges of any sort, even shoelaces are forbidden in these prisons, for fear that prisoners will commit suicide rather than face torture. Baraheni, described one incident in which, “a young boy chewed his veins open at the wrist before he was taken to the torture chamber. He pulled the blanket up over his head and bled to death. When they came to get him, they found his lifeless body.”[11]
In a 2007 article, Newsweek reporter, John Barry, described viewing a torture video used as an instructional tape for new SAVAK recruits. “Even now, on bad nights,” Barry wrote, “images surface. The unerasable pornography of calculated violence.” He continued:
“I recall the reel unspooling with a clatter through the 16mm projector in that apartment with its curtains drawn. The film lasted, I think, for close to an hour, though my memory may be at fault. It seemed endless. I have no words to convey the horror. The film showed sequences of torture on living victims, men and women, all naked and shackled to what looked like a bed frame. A variety of techniques were demonstrated: cigarette burns to sensitive parts of the body, the effects of electricity, and then on into other savageries I shy from recalling. One technique shown on the film used water. The film was clearly professionally made.”[12]
However, the Shah’s personal thirst for violence, transcended even what he could command SAVAK officials to do. And the CIA knew it. The Iranian leader maintained a private zoo, and ordered the chief of SAVAK one day, to bring an imprisoned teacher, who had cursed the Shah in public, to the lion’s compound. Rafizadeh described what happened next:
“. . .the shah gestured to the guards, and in a single rapid motion they catapulted the helpless prisoner over the fence into the lion compound. The hungry lions instantly pounced on their victim. The shah shouted, ‘You dare call us names!’ Excited, his eyes ablaze, he moved closer to the fence and writhed with glee as he watched the teacher disemboweled and eaten by the ferocious beasts.”[13]
TO BE CONTINUED. . .
(4) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED “CIA Personality Tests”
(5) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED “Blowback Iran”
(1) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED
(2) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED "The Root Doctrine"
(3) Torture & the Shah
SAVAK was launched by the Shah in 1957 and trained by the CIA. According to Jesse Leaf: “ . . . a senior CIA official was involved in instructing officials in the Savak on torture techniques. . . based on German torture techniques from World War II.” [9]
The Iranian secret police, whom the Shah directed personally, quickly gained the reputation of being the most sadistic secret police force in the world, maintaining nearly 60,000 agents on its payroll at its peak. Its victims numbered in the tens of thousands, although researchers quibble over the exact figure. But, more than anything else, it prided itself in being innovative. Given such evocative names as the parrot’s perch, the dry submarine, the horsemen, Apollo’s helmet, SAVAK’s preferred torture methods included tying people to bedsprings heated white-hot, beating its victims with wire cables, hanging weights and pouring boiling water on the genitals, pulling out fingernails, toenails and teeth.
In one documented case, SAVAK physicians surgically amputated the arms and legs of a union organizer and sent his living trunk back to family members living in Amman, Jordan.[10] Razors, sharp edges of any sort, even shoelaces are forbidden in these prisons, for fear that prisoners will commit suicide rather than face torture. Baraheni, described one incident in which, “a young boy chewed his veins open at the wrist before he was taken to the torture chamber. He pulled the blanket up over his head and bled to death. When they came to get him, they found his lifeless body.”[11]
In a 2007 article, Newsweek reporter, John Barry, described viewing a torture video used as an instructional tape for new SAVAK recruits. “Even now, on bad nights,” Barry wrote, “images surface. The unerasable pornography of calculated violence.” He continued:
“I recall the reel unspooling with a clatter through the 16mm projector in that apartment with its curtains drawn. The film lasted, I think, for close to an hour, though my memory may be at fault. It seemed endless. I have no words to convey the horror. The film showed sequences of torture on living victims, men and women, all naked and shackled to what looked like a bed frame. A variety of techniques were demonstrated: cigarette burns to sensitive parts of the body, the effects of electricity, and then on into other savageries I shy from recalling. One technique shown on the film used water. The film was clearly professionally made.”[12]
However, the Shah’s personal thirst for violence, transcended even what he could command SAVAK officials to do. And the CIA knew it. The Iranian leader maintained a private zoo, and ordered the chief of SAVAK one day, to bring an imprisoned teacher, who had cursed the Shah in public, to the lion’s compound. Rafizadeh described what happened next:
“. . .the shah gestured to the guards, and in a single rapid motion they catapulted the helpless prisoner over the fence into the lion compound. The hungry lions instantly pounced on their victim. The shah shouted, ‘You dare call us names!’ Excited, his eyes ablaze, he moved closer to the fence and writhed with glee as he watched the teacher disemboweled and eaten by the ferocious beasts.”[13]
TO BE CONTINUED. . .
(4) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED “CIA Personality Tests”
(5) How U.S. Support for Sociopathic Dictators BACKFIRED “Blowback Iran”
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