basement) is the death chamber. The final room is fitted with a glass
floor, and the personal remains of prisoners (shoes, eyeglasses, etc.)
are displayed strewn over sand beneath the glass. It was a quiet and
sobering room, and an icy reminder of what people are capable when
they become rigid and evangelical about their vision of how things
should be.
There was a part of the museum that I found especially powerful- the
KGB water torture rooms. I thought a lot about "water boarding", and
the passifying excuses our government is providing to cover up what is
essentially facist modes of torture. I read this quote at the museum:
"Officially, torture was called 'means of physical influence' or
'active interrogation'. The officials could easily obtain permission
from prison authorities for the application of such means. Besides
physical torture, psychological pressure, such as threats,
interrogations that lasted several days, and solitary confinement were
imposed on the arrested. Those who refused to eat were force fed."
Sound familiar? Prisoners have been held at Guantanamo Bay for over 4
years with no proper charges or legal recourse. We hold their heads
underwater and make them feel as if they are drowning, we endlessly
play loud music with the goal of driving prisoners mad, we force feed,
and we have recinded habeus corpus- a former foundation of our legal
philosophy. Will there be a museum on that island one day detailing
our methods of torture?
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