“I am speaking of a special situation now, I am speaking of a situation in which I am probing for the truth, in which I have to exert pressure to find it. First I get lies, you see–this is what happens–first lies, then pressure, then more lies, then more pressure, then the break, then more pressure, then the truth. This is how you get the truth,” – Colonel Joll, from J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians.
I think this is the argument being thrown about now by the Bush administration’s war criminals. If you systematically destroy a prisoner’s body and soul, eventually some grain of truth can be found in a beach of lies.
We didn’t have to wait for the barbarians, of course. For some of them were already in the White House. And some of them are still spinning the New York Times.
The Dish 