Believe Me, It’s Torture: Vanity Fair

Voluntarily trussed to a wooden board with a black hood over his face, writer Christopher Hitchens was positioned so his head rested below his heart. His tormentors started pouring water over the tightly wrapped towels around Hitchens’s face; every time he inhaled, it felt “as if a huge, wet paw had been… annihilatingly clamped” over his face. That’s when he realised that water-boarding – a torture technique that simulates drowning -- was not a relaxation exercise. He lasted seconds before asking the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) agents to stop the exercise, recently used on three top terror masterminds by the CIA that led to ‘unreliable’ confessions. Hitchens argues that waterboarding should be banned because it will add to the Jihadists’ arsenal of evil tricks.

Preparing the Battlefield: The New Yorker

Published after President Bush’s recent trip to the UAE, where he said to the people of Iran, “You have a right to…a government that listens to your wishes,” Seymour Hirsch’s article claims that the administration has sought $400 billion to finance a major escalation of covert operations against Iran. These operations are “designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership… (and) also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.” Speculations are now rife that a preemptive military strike is in the ‘offing’.

The Lonely Beatle: Uncut

The magazine’s 13-page special on George Harrison is a treat for The Beatles’ fans, although it may be a bit too full of syrupy nostalgia. Nonetheless, Sir Paul McCartney reveals some details that haven’t been made public before, including the odd feud. There’s a touching pre-deathbed scene from 2001: “We held hands. It’s funny, even at the height of our friendship - as guys - you would never hold hands… He was about 10 days away from his death.”

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