Nor will anyone at Time magazine be arrested for publishing classified data on U.S. military interrogation techniques at Guantanamo. But there should be no doubt that the material detailed in the periodical is now being incorporated in the next editions of training manuals used to indoctrinate members of the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, et al. That begs a broader question about the whole controversy surrounding the Guantanamo detention facility: Does our so-called mainstream media have a "death wish"?
Much of the information contained in this week's Time magazine was apparently extrapolated from a classified "interrogation log" prepared by those observing and questioning "Detainee 063" -- Mohammed al-Qahtani -- a Saudi member of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization. Though the authors of the report quote an unnamed Pentagon source saying that the illegally disclosed document was "never meant to leave Gitmo," they don't say why -- or clarify the rationale for its "secret" classification.
The reason for these omissions is simple: The publication reveals interrogation techniques that our enemies will now use against us, making it more difficult to extract valuable intelligence from terrorists in the future. In substance and consequence, this week's Time magazine is little different from the 1942 "code-breakers" report in the Chicago Tribune.
Though the right of news organizations to "break" this kind of "news" is well protected by our Constitution's First Amendment, the motive for doing so is suspect. A careful reading of this week's story -- now repeated in numerous outlets -- reveals that "Detainee 063" is subjected to treatment that is barely harsher than a military boot camp: standing for prolonged periods, isolation, removal of clothing, forced shaving of facial hair, playing on "individual phobias" (such as barking dogs), "mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with the finger and light pushing."
His interrogation cell has pictures of Sept. 11 victims, American flags and red lights. He has to stand for the playing of the U.S. national anthem. He is subjected to "Invasion of Space by a Female." And when he refuses to drink the water he is routinely offered and becomes severely dehydrated, his handlers take him to a hospital facility, where medical personnel administer fluids intravenously. Time magazine describes all of this as a "glimpse into the darker reaches of intelligence gathering."
Darker reaches? The "log" was classified so that our well-trained and very dedicated adversaries wouldn't know how to beat the interrogation "system" when captured. Time claims that their story reveals how U.S. military personnel "specialize in extracting information by almost any means." But the truth is, the means used are remarkably humane.
In response to the furor created by the al-Qahtani story, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) observed: "The guy ... is going to dine tomorrow on lemon fish with two types of vegetables, two types of fruit, and then he will be afforded his taxpayer-funded Quran, taxpayer-funded prayer beads and oil so he can pray, presumably, to kill more Americans."
Though the editors are unlikely to acknowledge it, Time magazine's much-ballyhooed story has far less to do with human rights than it does with domestic politics. The authors even admit that "the case of Detainee 063 is sure to add fire to the debate about the use of American power in the age of terrorism." Fire indeed. One should be careful what one wishes for.