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The most effective propaganda themes are based on existing paradigms in the target population. The belief that the United States is a singularly unique democracy is such a paradigm. Thus the most brutal imperialistic foreign policy can be carried out under the propaganda cover of spreading American democracy. The effectiveness of this propaganda theme is such that the resistance to US imperialism can be dismissed as the work of die-hard fanatics and terrorists. |
annals of democracy
December 9, 2005
he
differences between the 1933-45 German dictatorship and the US
it-can't-happen-here democracy slowly slip away. Here's a comparison of two
specific cases of the handling of prisoners considered by the authorities to be
a threat to security.
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National entity: Germany, Third Reich (1933-45) |
National entity: United States of America | ||
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National flag: |
National flag: | ||
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Self-proclaimed form of government: Personal dictatorship |
Self-proclaimed form of government: Democracy | ||
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Officially perceived threat: Communism |
Officially perceived threat: Terrorism | ||
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Responsible government agency: Gestapo (Geheime Staats Polizei, State Secret Police) |
Responsible government agency: Central Intelligence Agency | ||
Source: Topography of Terror Willi Gleitze was a member of the Social Democratic Party
[of Germany, SPD] since 1921 and from 1930-1933 he was the Youth Secretary
of the Socialist Workers Youth [SAJ] in Leipzig. He participated
prominently in illegal activities carried out by the SPD and the SAJ.
On December 27, 1933, the Gestapo arrested him and took him to the
Gestapo prison at 8 Prinz Albrecht Street [in Berlin]. After the
interrogations were over — in the course of which he was systematically
beaten — he was transferred on the same day to the concentration camp
Columbiahaus. He was tried in August 1934 at the Berlin Superior Court of
Justice and acquitted.
This is his statement:
After I was taken to the Gestapo building on Prinz Albrecht Street I
was interrogated by a Gestapo official named Müller. He told me to talk
about all my activities since the dissolution of the SAJ in Leipzig and
subsequently here in Berlin…
Our talk proceeded along these lines for quite some time. Suddenly six
youngish men showed up in the room (which was pretty large). They
positioned themselves in a circle and at their respective places picked up
equipment for beating people that had been put there beforehand. There
were rubber truncheons, cowhide whips, riding whips, and clubs. Very soon
Müller rose from his seat whereupon everybody pounced upon me and started
to beat me indiscriminately.
I tried to protect myself as far as possible. I slid into the open
space beneath the office desk, but was pulled out. Then I sought refuge on
top of a pile of books, succeeded in shielding myself there fairly well
for some time, but then was dragged down and continued to be beaten until
Müller ordered them to stop.
The interrogation proceeded but remained inconclusive as far as Müller
was concerned. I stuck to my earlier statements. After a considerable
period of time another gang of thugs showed up and again took their places
by the equipment for beating people. Shortly thereafter Müller got up
again, and the same abuse as before was resumed. I had to endure all this
for two hours. Müller always stopped the beatings whenever he thought that
he would reach his objective through interrogation. During these two
hours, five different gangs of thugs took turns beating me.
At one point, one of the thugs placed a chair in the middle of the
room. He ordered me to raise my right arm and give the Hitler salute. I
refused. Thereupon everybody who stood around beat me again. I remained
stubborn and the beatings continued. Finally I realized that I would have
to give in. After I had rendered the Hitler salute, the same thug (who had
given the original order) said, "This fellow has the cheek to salute us
with 'Heil Hitler'." I was beaten again until Müller put a stop to it.
Willi Gleitze |
By Dana Priest …On the 23rd day of his motel captivity, the police videotaped Masri,
then bundled him, handcuffed and blindfolded, into a van and drove to a
closed-off building at the airport, Masri said. There, in silence, someone
cut off his clothes. As they changed his blindfold, "I saw seven or eight
men with black clothing and wearing masks," he later said in an interview.
He said he was drugged to sleep for a long plane ride [to Afghanistan].
Masri said his cell in Afghanistan was cold, dirty and in a cellar,
with no light and one dirty cover for warmth. The first night he said he
was kicked and beaten and warned by an interrogator: "You are here in a
country where no one knows about you, in a country where there is no law.
If you die, we will bury you, and no one will know."
Masri was guarded during the day by Afghans, he said. At night, men who
sounded as if they spoke American-accented English showed up for the
interrogation. Sometimes a man he believed was a doctor in a mask came to
take photos, draw blood and collect a urine sample.
Back at the CTC [CIA Counterterrorism Center in Langley, Virginia],
Masri's passport was given to the Office of Technical Services to analyze.
By March, OTS had concluded the passport was genuine. The CIA had
imprisoned the wrong man.
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