On a Roll

Well I just happened to read a disturbing article by Robert Fisk about the actions of the former Shah of Iran's intelligence (torture) agents SAVAK. He was musing on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution and the causes of this revolution.

I'll never forget how, a few years ago, western governments worshiped the infallible president of Uzbekistan. A strong ally and fighter of terrorists. I don't care to remember his name. The one thing I'll never forget though was his agents' favourite torture method: boiling victims alive. Can you imagine that one?

Well for a taste of one of the Shah's torture chambers, here's Robert Fisk interviewing a fellow reporter:

“There was a fishpond outside,” he told me. “There were vases of flowers in the front hall. But downstairs there were cells. In each of them was a steel bed with straps and beneath it two domestic cookers. There were lowering devices on the bedframes so the people strapped to them could be brought down on the flames. In another cell, I found a machine with a contraption which held a human arm beneath a knife and next to it was a metal sheath into which a human hand could be fitted. At one end was a bacon slicer. They had been shaving off hands.”