Writers and artists bear witness to torture victims

Last Tuesday I attended “Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the War on Terror,” co-presented by PEN American Center and the ACLU. The event brought together 17 well-known writers and human rights workers to read from the War on Terror’s chilling record.

I attended this event not long after screening Steve York’s Confronting the Truth, a documentary about the use of truth commissions to respond to the needs of victims of mass atrocities. The film focused on examples from South Africa, Peru, Morocco, and Indonesia, which, while varying in methodology, all aimed to create a space for victims’ voices to be heard and become part of the public record. This documentary helped me frame “Reckoning with Torture” as an attempt at public truth telling.

When I walked into Cooper Union’s Great Hall I was greeted by two floor-to-ceiling screens showing images of Iraqi detainee's handprints taken while in U.S. custody. The images had been manipulated by artist Jenny Holzer who had carefully scribbled out or outlined with black permanent marker as though censoring the unique trace of each detainee's identity. On the armrests of our seats were sheets of paper marked with the handprints of those who had died in U.S.-run prisons. All of the images, which also included censored memoranda and reports, had been made available by way of the Freedom of Information Act, used since 2003 by NGOs and others to petition for these prisoners' release.

With these images as backdrop, I listened as participating authors read testimonies from the War on Terror. Some segments were outrageous, like a statement by GW Bush reaffirming the United States’ adherence to the Geneva Convention in the aftermath of the Abu Graib scandal. Other parts were devastating, like watching video footage of Guantánamo detainees divulging the treatment they received in detention. Particularly poignant was hearing a very visceral account of one detainee's experience being water boarded interspersed with a reading of the Department of Defense's praise of the brutal technique.

The readers of these testimonies (which included the likes of Art Spiegelman, Eve Ensler, and Paul Auster) were themselves moved and hence left a powerful impression on me. It also wasn’t about them. They were there to draw an audience to bear witness to and create a public record of the atrocities committed during the War on Terror, whose victims are dispersed around the world, some still in prison. The likelihood that a formal truth commission will emerge to recognize and record these stories is slim. I therefore urge you to take the time to see and hear what took place last week in the Great Hall. Seeing and hearing, as truth commissioners will tell you, are qualitatively different from simply reading, and chances are you will learn of some new, atrocious, truth.

The full hour and a half-long event is available to watch PEN’s website here. For the ACLU's critique of the Obama administration's handling of our torture legacy, go here.

PHOTOS: Far above, Holzer's version of a hand print of Iraqi accused of crimes by the U.S. military. Above, Ismael Beah reads from a sworn statement of Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, former lead prosecuter in the military commission case of detainee Mohammed Jawad. (Both images) Copyright © Beowulf Sheehan/PEN American Center for non-profit editorial use only.