Dilemma: Torture may be coming
It’s been lost in the noise.
All the current hubbub over President Trump’s nomination of conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, his apparently angry phone call with the prime minister of Australia, and revelations that he has threatened to send U.S. troops after “bad hombres” in Mexico ...
An obvious conclusion is being reached.
“(Trump) has kept his promises to the American people,” said Sen. Ted Cruz. “He’s doing what he said he would do.”
So far that appears to be true, which leads to a huge question.
Will Trump actually sanction various U.S. agencies to conduct the most extreme forms of torture in pursuit of his oft-declared battle against “Muslim terrorists?”
While running for the presidency, Trump routinely told cheering crowds that “waterboarding doesn’t go far enough” in torturing prisoners to gain information.
IF TRUMP follows through on the torture threat, the United States will face international condemnation — not that Trump has shown he gives a hoot about that.
On the issue of torture, however, I would humbly suggest Trump and the rest of America search out a film called “Unthinkable.”
It’s a low-budget, $15 million movie whose premise nevertheless drew stars like Samuel L. Jackson (who gets an average of $6.2 million per film), Carrie-Anne Moss (“Matrix” series) and Michael Sheen (“Amadeus”).
The plot is simple and yet complex, all in the same troubling package.
Steven Arthur Younger (Sheen) is an American citizen who has converted to Islam, and in a video, he claims he has left three “suitcase nukes” in major U.S. cities.
He says he will give up the locations only on the condition the U.S. remove all troops from Muslim-majority countries — and his deadline is four days from that announcement.
A task force involving the military, the FBI, various other agencies and a terrifying black-ops “interrogator” (Jackson) has Younger in custody.
Jackson, who is known in the film only as “H,” seems to be a professional torturer, jarring with his happy home life involving a wife and two children – with whom he is shown as a doting, all-American dad.
H’s main partner in confronting Younger is FBI agent Helen Brody (Moss). She wants no part of the fingernail-pulling and electric shocks being administered, but in one scene she gets so frustrated at the thought of three nuclear bombs going off in America she screams at Younger and carves a gash in his chest with a chisel.
And then hurries away to stare at herself in a mirror.
BEFORE and after her one moment of fury, Brody insists torture is “not who we are,” and argues it produces no useful results, since victims ultimately will say anything to stop the pain.
Eventually, after a conventional explosive Younger placed in a shopping mall kills 53 people, H turns up the heat — killing Younger’s wife in front of him and hauling his young children into the chamber.
The sobbing Younger gives up the location of the three bombs, but then with the various agents and generals certain the threat is over, there is some chaos in the building — during which Younger grabs a gun and kills himself.
At that point, H explains the amount of fissionable material Younger stole would make FOUR bombs — and says calmly he should have been able to begin work on the kids with Younger still watching, in order to get the full truth about the fourth device.
The movie ends with Brody outside the building, hugging Younger’s two children.
And only a horrible question as its conclusion.
Perhaps the most crucial part of this film is, depending on your viewpoint, the title could describe the terror of nuclear devices actually brought to America — or the can’t-watch, Auschwitz-style torture ordered by the U.S government — Which still proved futile.
Agent Helen Brody summed up this nightmare scenario with the question: “Who are we?”
On the other hand, H countered as Trump might: “You either win or you lose.”
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Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press. Reach Steve at scameron@cdapress.com.