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Reed College Expert Weighs in on U.S. Senate Torture Report

Professor Darius Rejali is the author of "Torture and Democracy"

Darius Rejali, professor of political science at Reed College

The U.S. Senate report on the C.I.A.'s use of torture, released last Tuesday, offers chilling detail about the government's conduct after Sept. 11 and the uselessness of its harsh interrogation techniques. 

As Americans digested the report, they may have seen one Portland name popping up in news articles again and again.

Darius Rejali, a political science professor at Reed College, wrote the definitive account of contemporary torture in 2007 with the book Torture and Democracy.

And last week he offered his perspective on the context of the Senate Intelligence Committee report, which contradicts C.I.A. claims that torture techniques helped find Osama Bin Laden, to numerous news outlets across the country.

In The Washington Post, for example, Rejali talked about the effects of torture on torturers, who are in some regards victims themselves. They're not "bad apples" when they're recruited, he says, they're normal but loyal. But they don't get accolades for their actions the way top brass may.

"The people who order torture at the top of the food chain, they have lots of friends, people who tell them, 'You did the right thing,'" Rejali told The Washington Post reporter.

Rejali appeared a second time in The Washington Post last week, when he published an op-ed for the newspaper, along with Reed colleague Paul Gronke and a post-doctoral fellow at University of Pennsylvania. Titled "No, Americans Aren't 'Fine With Torture.' They Strongly Reject It," the piece looked at extensive polling to show that American politicians and the mainstream media have largely overstated U.S. support for torture—even torture that is presented as crucial in preventing terrorist attacks. 

Rejali is traveling out of the country this week and couldn't be reached for further comment in WW.

But in the current issue of The New Yorker, Rejali told writer Jane Mayer that he doubts the release of the report will produce lasting reforms. 

Here he hit an even more pessimistic note: "Nothing predicts future behavior as much as past impunity.'"

WWeek 2015