<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Giuliani Makes Light Of Soviet&nbsp;Torture]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[
<p>The ignorance of Rudy Giuliani with respect to the history of torture is almost on a level with his ignorance about Islam and the Middle East. Yesterday, he made this <a href="http://www.samefacts.com/archives/torture_/2007/10/sadistinchief.php">comment:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>They talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I&#8217;m getting tortured running for president of the United States. That&#8217;s plain silly. That&#8217;s silly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Really? Has Giuliani ever inquired about the history of sustained sleep deprivation as a torture technique? Stalin perfected it. And one of its victims was Menachem Begin, a man for whom presumably Giuliani has some respect. Begin was subjected to the same techniques that Bush has used by Joseph Stalin in the Gulag. In Begin&#8217;s view, being forced &#8211; not choosing &#8211; to stay awake for days and even weeks on end (as Rumsfeld approved in Gitmo) is one of the worst forms of torture there is. He described <a href="http://dailydish.typepad.com/the_daily_dish/2006/11/sadism_and_tort.html">just such a torture victim</a> who is</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one sole desire to sleep, to sleep just a little, not to get up, to lie, to rest, to forget &#8230; Anyone who has experienced the desire knows that not even hunger or thirst are comparable it with it.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you think that starving someone until they tell you what you want them to say is torture? Do you believe that objecting to such torture techniques is &quot;plain silly&quot;? </p>
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