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Terror, Torture, Drones
TRAPPED IN THE EMERGENCY STATE
Fall 2014, Monday 3:10 - 5:30PM, OLIN 308
Mark Danner
Those hijacked jet liners on September 11, 2001 brought
with them not only death and destruction on an unprecedented scale but a darker
era in American foreign policy. The United States invaded and occupied
Afghanistan and Iraq and launched an aggressive worldwide campaign to root out
Al Qaeda, mostly fought, in Dick Cheney's phrase, "on the dark side."
Terror gave way to counter-terror, much of it in the hands of elite special
operations forces and intelligence officers who made increasing use, as
President Bush gave way to President Obama, of unmanned aerial vehicles, or
drones. Though the elements of this new "dark-side war," particularly
its use of torture and drones, seemed new in US history, in fact it was built
on top of a long tradition, dated back to the National Security Act of 1947, of
a powerful and untouchable "emergency state." In this seminar we will
explore the roots of that emergency state and trace its rise and elaboration
during the Cold War, then study its final flowering in the months and years
after September 11. As we explore we will ponder the ways by which our country,
seventy years after World War II and a dozen after the terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington, might free itself from the grip of permanent emergency --
and construct a different, democratic foreign policy.
Main Class Requirements This is a seminar – a discussion class -
which means the success of the class is dependent on student participation. The
most important requirements are that students
*Attend all class
sessions
*Participate in
discussions
*Do all reading and
writing assignments
A student’s record
of attendance and participation in class discussion, together with the
thoroughness of his or her preparation, will determine the success of our class
and contribute the better part of the grade.
Schedule
Note that all classes will take place on Monday afternoons, 3:10 to 5:30 p.m.
Writing Students will be assigned several papers, for which they are meant to
draw on the assigned reading and on class discussions. To bolster the clarity
and vigor of your English prose, I strongly suggest reading two works: George
Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language” and Strunk and White’s
little manual, The Elements of Style.
The Orwell can be found easily on the internet by googling the author and
title.
Films From time to time during the term we will screen films intended to complement our studies. Details will be announced.
Required Texts
-
Danner, Mark, Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence
War. New York: Nation Books, 2009.
-
Eichenwald, Kurt. 500
Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars. Reprint ed. New York:
Touchstone, 2013.
-
Forest, James J.
F. The Terrorism Lectures. Santa Ana, CA: Nortia/Current, 2012.
-
Gardner, Lloyd C. Killing
Machine. N.p.: New, 2013.
-
Greenwald, Glenn. No
Place to Hide. New York: Metropolitan, 2014.
-
Kennan, George F. American
Diplomacy. Enlarged ed. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012.
-
Klaidman, Daniel. Kill
or Capture. N.p.: Mariner, 2013.
-
Mazzetti, Mark. The
Way of the Knife. New York: Penguin, 2014.
-
Suskind, Ron. The One Percent Doctrine.
New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007.
-
Tirman, John. The
Deaths of Others. New York: Oxford UP, 2011.
-
Williams, Brian
Glyn. Predators: The CIA's Drone War on Al Qaeda. N.p.: Potomac,
2013.
-
Wills, Garry. Bomb
Power. New York: Penguin, 2011.
-
Wright, Lawrence. The
Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York: Vintage, 2007.
Standard Operating
Procedure (Errol Morris)
Taxi to the Dark Side (Alex Gibney)
September 8, 2014
Summary:
-
ISIS (Islamic
State of Syria) or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is a Sunni
military group that wants to create a Sunni Islamic State and re-establish the
caliphate. Its predecessor organization was AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) but the two
groups split after Al Qaeda claimed that ISIS’ civilian killings were too
brutal.
-
The Great War on
Terror (GWAT) began on Sept. 11, 2001 and special-ops troops doubled during
George Bush’s presidency. GWAT is a “quiet war,” designed to be perpetuated and
elicit minimum political opposition.
-
Brief history of
events that helped to shape contemporary US foreign policy: Spanish-American
War, WWI, Wilson’s League of Nations, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam War, the fall of
the Soviet Union, Post-Cold War era, etc.
-
The development
of Emergency State institutions and their compositions.
-
Emergency State
Vocabulary: quieter response, black sites, extraordinary rendition, indefinite
detention, enhanced interrogation, unlawful combatants, public secrecy etc.
Assignments:
-
Read American
Diplomacy by George Kennan
-
Watch Obama’s speech on ISIL (9/10)
- Read David Cole’s article “Obama’s Unauthorized War”
September 15
Reading: Kennan,
George F. American Diplomacy. Enlarged ed. Chicago: U of Chicago,
2012.
Summary:
-
Discussion of Obama’s ISIL speech. US goal to
“degrade and destroy ISIL” using “light footprint” tactics. Focus on Obama’s
statement that ISIL is not Islamic and is not a state. Conversely, ISIL does
adhere so Islamic beliefs through the organizations desire to re-establish the
caliphate. ISIL is also not just a
terrorist organization, it has many features of a state government, including
its methods of occupying territory, employing its army, collecting taxes etc.
-
Obama’s “Four Point Program”
-
Discussion of the relationship between the media
and terrorist organizations, which is often symbiotic since the goal of
terrorism is to provoke reactions,
and the US political system makes its foreign policy particularly prey to
public opinion.
-
Discussion of George Kennan and American Diplomacy: In summary, how the
advent of nuclear weapons and the world of the Cold War militarized US foreign
policy and lead to the formation of the “Emergency State” and never-ending war.
Assignments:
- Read Bomb Power by Garry Wills
September 22
Reading: Wills,
Garry. Bomb Power. New York: Penguin, 2011.
Summary:
-
Discussion of Bomb Power: Nuclear weapons and the creation of a permanent
emergency state.
o “a
violent break in our governmental system” and a break with the past.
-
Nuclear weapons grant the President authority to
end the world at any time – “the football” – but he has to check with Congress
before sending troops into a country and declaring war.
-
National Security Council: President, National
Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury,
Attorney General, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of National
Intelligence
Assignments:
-
Read The
Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright.
-
Read “The U.S. Copes with Complex Logistics in
Syria”
-
Read “Islamic State recruitment soaring in the
wake of U.S. bombing”
September 29
Reading:
-
Wright, Lawrence. The
Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York: Vintage, 2007.
-
“Islamic State
recruitment soaring in the wake of U.S. bombing”
Summary:
-
Discussion of Haaretz
article: ISIS recruitment soaring
o
6,000+ new recruits –
each paid $980 a month
§ Same amount Bin Laden paid
o
U.S. helping ISIS
achieve goal of new recruitment – terrorists want their attacks to prompt
retaliation, it aids recruitment/support.
-
Discussion of Looming
Tower:
o
Terror is used to
mobilize, killing is a means to an end. Fatwas are issued by leaders to justify
violence.
o
One of the greatest
weapons of 9/11: the television
§ Al Qaeda believes the US represses Muslims – 9/11 attacks prompt the
US to respond with bombing campaign – this is televised and Al Qaeda appears to
be proven correct, thus gaining supporters.
o
Al Qaeda’s Goals: remove
American troops from all Arab states; punish states that support Israel;
disband the U.S.; build caliphate; bring down “near enemies” (Egypt, Saudi
royal family, jahaliyya)
o
Jahaliyya – persons who claim to
abide by Islam but do not follow Sharia law.
o
Takfir – heretic Muslims put
outside the zone of protection
§ Freud: Narcissism and minor differences – you will hate those
closer to you more than those farther away.
Assignments:
-
Read The Deaths of Others by John Tirman
September 30
Screening of “Battle of Algiers” and discussion
-
The French started the violence
by planting the bomb, it wasn’t sparked by a terrorist attack
-
The FLN
retaliation attacks inspired the people to join the resistance movement
o Terrorism for national liberation reasons
-
While the French
stopped the insurgency they ultimately lost the battle because they had no
political plan to support their counter-insurgency strategy.
October 6
Reading: Tirman, John. The Deaths of
Others. New York: Oxford UP, 2011.
Summary:
-
Watched Battle of Algiers Interview with former
US Counterterrorism advisors: Richard A. Clarke and Michael A. Sheehan.
o You can be good at counterterrorism but you will still
lose if you can’t win the political battle – the battle of ideas.
o Use case-studies: there’s nothing new about the
situation in Iraq, one just needs to formulate appropriate strategies for each
new conflict.
o Begin each strategy with a policy and branch out from
there.
-
Watched ‘Etats D’Armes’ (State of Arms)
o FLN didn’t set off the first bomb, the Commissaire de
police did – counterterrorism preceded terrorism.
o Dilemma arises regarding the use of forceful
interrogation tactics: Do you use harsh interrogation tactics and perhaps save
people? Or refrain and perhaps people die?
o Terror is supposed to produce counterterror – the
methods used in the Battle of Algiers were not the norm, they created a new
method for dealing with rebellion, torture, that eventually became the norm.
-
Deaths of Others discussion:
o America justifies it’s actions with the “myth of the
frontier” and the “errand into the wilderness” – as if it is our duty to tame
everything wild.
o Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq War
§ All high civilian casualties, but the deaths of others
often go ignored in American dialogue about war.
§ “Victim derregation”
Assignments:
-
Read 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror
Wars
-
Online Article: A Creeping Sensation
October 13 No Class (Fall Break)
October 20
Reading: Eichenwald,
Kurt. 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars. Reprint ed.
New York: Touchstone, 2013
Summary:
-
Discussed final essay requirements and possible
topics.
-
Discussed U.S. response to 9/11: consisted of
conventional warfare (boots on the ground), the invasion of Iraq, and the
involvement of CIA special operations troops to work with the Northern Alliance
and tribal leaders.
-
Why did it expand past the terrorists
responsible for the attack?
o Bush
struck back at “terror” instead of “terrorists” – saw it as an opportunity to
fight terrorism around the world
o Idea
of terror as a function, not just the people behind it
o Expanded
target to match U.S. military power
-
Bush had no political strategy to back up the
military actions
o “Victory
will take care of that problem” (449)
§ Echoing
the issues in Battle of Algiers: will the US lose in the long run in the war
against terror?
Assignments:
-
Read The
Terrorism Lectures by James Forest
-
Final essay proposal due Nov. 3rd
-
Final essay due Dec. 1st
October 27
Reading: Forest,
James J. F. The Terrorism Lectures. Santa Ana, CA: Nortia/Current,
2012.
Summary: Discussion of The Terrorism Lectures
-
al-Qaeda was originally so small they could not
really be pointed out on a map
o Maps
can now depict how much the organization has grown and where the ideology has
spread to.
-
U.S. strategy should have been to prevent
al-Qaeda’s influence from growing, aimed at drying up recruitment.
o Instead
U.S. actions and attempts to “humiliate the enemy” spread anti-U.S. sentiments
and encouraged the radicalization of individuals in the Middle East.
o Iraq
was already an unstable country, population split between Sunni and Shia Arabs,
as well as the Kurds.
-
Media is one of al-Qaeda’s greatest tools for
recruitment
o Daily
images of Americans repressing Muslims
o Huge
prisoner population, of whom many were innocent
§ Many
joined the insurgency after being released for retaliation
-
Extraordinary Renditions, Black Sites and
Torture
o CIA
erected secret prisons around the world
o Targeted
and abducted people outside of US territory
o Began
using “enhanced” interrogation methods (torture) to extract information
-
Drones and the Quiet War
o Bush
authorizes use of drones in Pakistan in 2007-2008
o Ability
to target and kill people thousands of miles away from a U.S. government
building with the click of a button.
o 4,500-5,000
estimated to have been killed in drone strikes, about 10% of which were
civilians,
o Obama’s
“light footprint” strategy, no troops on the ground, just power in the air.
November 3
Reading:
-
Suskind, Ron. The One Percent Doctrine.
New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007.
-
Danner, Mark, Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence
War. New York: Nation Books, 2009.
o “Taking Stock of the Forever War”
- President Bush’s Speech to Congress 9/20/01
Summary: Discussion of The One Percent Doctrine
-
Summer 2002 the
US begins torturing detainees with official permission and explanation.
-
Notables and
invisibles: the people who are seen in media and those who actually make things
happen.
-
Why did the
government use torture after 9/11?
o Fear of another attack happening
o The individuales were “stateless” and “boundless” and
therefore beyond the real of law, so the rights enumerated in the Geneva
Conventions were deemed nonapplicable.
-
The Office of
Legal Counsel redefined the definition of torture to fit the needs of the
government – interpretation allowed the use of “enhanced” interrogation
techniques.
-
Torture became a
way to “ride the world of [the] evil” that Bush insisted was there.
o Bush didn’t know much about foreign policy, and many
of his advisors attempted to give him only the minimal amount of information.
§ Made it so there were only a handful of people in the
loop and making decisions regarding policy, imposing it downward.
-
Obama’s speech in
August 2014: “We tortured some folks and hopefully it won’t happen again.”
November 10
Danner, Mark, Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence
War. New York: Nation Books, 2009.
-
“Taking Stock of
the Forever War”
-
“The War of
Imagination”
-
“Voices from the
Black Sites”
-
“Into the Light?
Torture, Power, and Us”
-
Suggested: “Abu
Ghraib: Hidden in Plain Sight”
Summary:
-
Returned Final
Paper proposals and passed around sign-up sheet for meetings
-
Discussed the
decision-making behind the use of torture
o “ticking bomb” scenario and immense pressure for
actionable intelligence.
o How do you make people talk? Many assumed the answer
would be by the use of force.
-
Discussed
torture: the actions consisting of it.
o Used program designed by reversing SERE (Survival
Evasion Resistance Escape) training to use for torture.
November 17
Reading:
-
Klaidman, Daniel. Kill or Capture.
N.p.: Mariner, 2013.
- George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language”
-
Red Cross Report 24 pg
Summary: Discussion of Kill or Capture
-
Obama enters office and shuts down CIA black
sites. He also promises to close GTMO within the year – turned out not to be
possible.
o What
do you do with the prisoners that can’t be released or tried in criminal court?
Keep them indefinitely?
-
Terror is a wedge issue: an issue that divides
people that normally agree.
o Opinions
vary not only across party lines but within the parties themselves.
-
Obama’s goals, January 2009:
o Bring
the troops home from Iraq
o Stabilize
Afghanistan
o Close
black sites
o Close
GTMO
o Make
policy regarding terror transparent and law based
o Stop
the use of torture
-
Public secrecy actually increased under Obama,
particularly regarding the use of drones. The rate of drone strikes has
increased dramatically during his time in office.
o Lack
of public acknowledgement means that he does not have to deal with the legal
implications. In fact, there are no legal claims to make since the
administration is systematically denying what it is doing.
-
Two types of drone strikes
o Signature
strikes: algorithm that detects characteristics of terrorism (i.e. carrying
AK-47s
o Personality
strikes: knowledge of who the person is because of intelligence on the ground –
targeted killings.
November 24
Reading: Reading: Mazzetti, Mark. The Way of the Knife. New York: Penguin, 2014
Summary: Discussion of The Way of the Knife
-
Pakistan
o Running
rivalry/conflict with India since 1948 – relies of afganistan as an important
chess piece in that rivalry
§ Pakistans
long borders make it hard to protect, Afghanistan adds width by supporting
Pakistan.
o Pakistan
is US ally that we give aid to but they are a major supporter of the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
-
When Afghanistan was occupied by the Soviet
Union in the 1980s the US, Saudi Arabia and others sent arms and support to the
mujahideen (holy warriors), through
Pakistan, which then distributed the weapons according to its own discretion.
-
Since 9/11 the CIA has transitioned from a
primarily intelligence gathering organization to a paramilitary organization
that compiles intelligence to make lists of people to kill and then conducts
the operations.
-
The military has tighter constraints imposed on
it.
-
How could things have been different under the
Obama Administration instead of this evolution of the secret war?
o CIA
power should have been restricted, not expanded
o The
actions followin 9/11 have been the opposite of what the 9/11 commission (which
advises the CIA) recommended. CIA should not conduct covert operations.
§ The
CIA evaluates and then carries out the actions: it grades its own homework.
December 1
Reading: Greenwald, Glenn. No Place to
Hide. New York: Metropolitan, 2014
Summary:
- Watched an interview with Snowden filmed by Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald
- Watched a Ted Talk with Snowden
- Discussed NSA actions following 9/11 – has broken its own rules hundreds of thousands of times (e.g. intercepting all calls in Washington D.C. “by accident” which already accumulates 2,776 abuses.
o Stellarwind:
Bulk collection of metadata for calls within the U.S., beginning in 2002
§ 2004
NYT reporters exposed it, the story was withheld for 15 months. Only reason why
it was published was because James Risen was about to publish his book.
o PRISM:
collects content from Skype, Google, Facebook etc.
o Bull
Run: targets our own infrastructure – NSA intentionally misleads corporate
partners and builds back doors in secure websites which opens the US up to
cyber attacks.
-
Bankston-Soltani principle – expectation of
privacy is violated when means of surveillance become cheaper, it needs to be
reevaluated.
December 8 - FINAL ESSAYS DUE
Reading:
-
‘Somebody
Else’s Civil War’ by Michael Scott Doran:
-
‘The
Cheney Fallacy’ by Jack Goldsmith:
-
‘He
Remade Our World’ by Mark Danner:
Summary:
-
Watched
‘How the US Created the Islamic State’
-
Final
class discussion on the themes of the class: what does it mean to be trapped in
the emergency state? How did we get here?
o How can we escape?
-
What
could we have done differently after 9/11?
o Set precise targets (AQ leaders)
o Created a list of goals
o Limited freedom of action
o Define victory
-
What is
victory in the Global War on Terror?
o Proving AQ was behind 9/11
o Degrade & destroy AQ
o Undermine political support for jihadists
o Improve relations with Muslim states