Tortured Logic

This blogger, Matt Cornell, makes a fine point.  Defenders of Zero Dark Thirty, including screenwriter Mark Boal, often cite a key scene to suggest that the film does NOT suggest that torture was responsible for the key break in the hunt for bin Laden.  They say that after outright torture did not produce the name of bin Laden's courier, the two lead CIA handlers took the fellow to a civilized lunch and then sort of tricked him into disclosing the name without tearing out his fingernails.  What they leave out, as Cornell and the clip he posted below show, is that he provides the name just seconds after the CIA guy threatens to string him up "from the ceiling" once again. (Note: Much more here on the latest protests including from inside Hollywood.)

 

Greg Mitchell writes daily for The Nation and has written over a dozen books on subjects including influential political campaigns, atomic cover-ups, WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, the death penatly in America, and more--see rail at right on this blog.