Hell, frozen over

A somber Dick Cheney, dressed to the nines for the Auschwitz memorial ceremony:



Justice Antonin Scalia would seem to be just out of the frame, leaning on the limo's horn, calling "C'mon Dick, those ducks won't shoot themselves!"



Robin Givhan, in today's Washington Post:

Just last week, in a frigid, snow-dusted Washington, Cheney sat outside through the entire inauguration without so much as a hat and without suffering frostbite. And clearly, Cheney owns a proper overcoat. The world saw it during his swearing-in as vice president. Cheney treated that ceremony with the dignity it deserved -- not simply through his demeanor, but also through his attire. Would he have dared to take the oath of office with a ski cap on? People would have justifiably considered that an insult to the office, the day, the country.

Vladimir Putin and Dick Cheney paying their, ahem, respects:



Speaking of Hell, a story today about the release, by Brazilian federal police, of more of Josef Mengele's letters from exile. ("How is the Fatherland, is it still the Fatherland?" he wrote a friend in 1972.) Mengele also complained about his lazy housekeeper, and had words of praise for the local strudel.

The "Last" Nazi (a pity about those quotation marks), a 20-year old biography of Mengele, also offers some fascinating details of his life in South America.

For instance, in a letter smuggled to his son Rolf, Mengele claimed his Auschwitz career was in defense of "indisputable traditional values." He did not expect to face justice, because, as he told Rolf, "There are no judges. There is no guilt."

Which reminds me of a story today about another Hell. And there are no judges there, either.

The US media is at last reporting stories of sexual abuse at Guantanamo Bay. This comes nearly a year after The Mirror ran the story of former detainee Jamal al-Harith, entitled "My Hell at Camp X-Ray":

Jamal's most shocking disclosure centred on the use of vice girls to torment the most religiously devout detainees.

Prisoners who had never seen an "unveiled" woman before would be forced to watch as the hookers touched their own naked bodies. The men would return distraught. One said an American girl had smeared menstrual blood across his face in an act of humiliation.

Jamal said: "I knew of this happening about 10 times. It always seemed to be those who were very young or known to be particularly religious who would be taken away.

"It was a profoundly disturbing experience for these men. They would refuse to speak about what had happened. It would take perhaps four weeks for them to tell a friend - and we would shout it out around the whole block."

[And as we remember al-Harith's sensational, now-corroborated, story, let's make note of his other memories of the camp: punishment beating handed out by the "Extreme Reaction Force" with victims paraded in front of other prisoners; a diet of foul black water and food ten years out-of-date; water turned off before prayers so inmates couldn't wash themselves; unneccessary amputations ("All the men who had lost limbs complained they would chop them off high up and not bother to try to save as much as possible.") ]

There are some interesting discrepancies between today's for-American-ear's story, based on an "insider's" manuscript, and al-Harith's. For instance, the former claims only "skimpy" clothing, not nudity, and that the menstrual blood smeared on detainees' faces was "fake." And I won't be surprised if, in another year, there's a "shocking" correction. Because how much more must we see, to know that if something seems inconceivable to us, it's only because we didn't conceive it?

The perverse exploitation of sexuality, even of children's sexuality, by military-intelligence, is one of the most bizarre, and almost certainly the most disturbing, chapters in the samizdat history of the National Security State. (One in which, to some telling, Dick Cheney plays no small part.) It would be nice to have the confidence of intellect and experience to dismiss it all out of hand; to think that some things are beyond their comprehension, because they're beyond ours. But there are too many incredible stories, told by credibile people, not to wonder at just how deep America's rabbit hole goes. Because when you follow that thread, it leads into to the abyss of ARTICHOKE, MK-ULTRA, the Franklin Cover-Up, Project Monarch and "Dr Greene."

In 1995, before a US presidential advisory committee investigating government radiation experiments after World War II, a survivor of this curious Hell, named Claudia Mullen, gave the following testimony:

Good afternoon. Between the years 1957 and 1984 I became a pawn in the government's game. Its ultimate goal was mind control and to create the perfect spy, all through the use of chemicals, radiation, drugs, hypnosis, electric shock, isolation in tubs of water, sleep deprivation, brainwashing, verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuse. I was exploited unwittingly for nearly three decades of my life and the only explanations given to me were "that the end justifies the means" and "I was serving my country in their bold effort to fight communism". I can only summarize my circumstances by saying they took an already abused seven year old child and compounded my suffering beyond belief. The saddest part is, I know for a fact I was not alone. There were countless other children in my same situation and there was no one to help us until now. I have already submitted as much information as possible including conversations overheard at the agencies responsible. I am able to report all of this to you in such detail because of my photographic memory and the arrogance of the people involved. They were certain they would always control my mind. Although the process of recalling these atrocities is not an easy one, nor is it without some danger to myself and my family, I feel the risk is worth taking.

Dr. L. Wilson Greene [who] received $50 million dollars from the Edgewood Chemical and Radiology Laboratory as part of the TSD, or Technical Science Division of the CIA, once described to Dr. Charles Brown that "children were used as subjects because they were more fun to work with and cheaper too. They needed lower profile subjects than soldiers and government people so only young willing females would do. Besides," he said, "I like scaring them. They in the Agency think I am a God, creating subjects in experiments for whatever deviant purposes Sid and James could think up" (Sid being Dr. Sidney Gottlieb; James is Dr. James Hamilton).

In 1958 they told me I was to be tested by some important doctors from the Society, or the Human Ecology Society and I was instructed to cooperate. I was told not to look at anyone's faces, and to try hard to ignore any names because this was a very secret project. I was told all these things to help me forget. Naturally, as most children do, I did the opposite and remembered as much as I could. A Dr. John Gittinger tested me, Dr. Cameron gave me the shock, and Dr. Greene the x-rays. Then I was told by Sid Gottlieb that "I was ripe for the big A" meaning ARTICHOKE. By the time I left to go home, just like every time from then on, I would remember only whatever explanations Dr. Robert G. Heath, of Tulane Medical University, gave me for the odd bruises, needle marks, burns on my head, fingers, and even the genital soreness. I had no reason to think otherwise. They had already begun to control my mind.

The next year I was sent to a lodge in Maryland called Deep Creek Cabins to learn how to sexually please men. I was taught how to coerce them into talking about themselves. It was Richard Helms, who was Deputy Director of the CIA, Dr. Gottlieb, Capt. George White, Morris Allan who all planned on filling as many high government agency officials and heads of academic institutions and foundations as possible so that later when the funding for mind control and radiation started to dwindle, projects would continue. I was used to entrap many unwitting men including themselves, all with the use of a hidden camera. I was only nine years old when the sexual humiliation began. I overheard conversations about part of the Agency called ORD which I found out was Office of Research and Development. It was run by Dr. Greene, Dr. Steven Aldrich, Martin Orne and Morris Allan. Once a crude remark was made by Dr. Gottlieb about a certain possible leak in New Orelans involving a large group of retarded children who had been given massive doses of radiation. He asked why was Wilson so worried about a few retarded kids, after all they would be the least likely to spill the beans.

More about Dr Greene later. I'll just say, for now, that it leads us all the way back to Auschwitz.

Where Cheney wasn't the only invitee who dressed down for the occasion.