"So, it, of course, makes one wonder how many other people there might be who are completely innocent, who have been sent by the U.S. to countries where they've been interrogated, and in some instances it seems tortured"
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The line is built to do something journalism does at its most consequential: widen a single, harrowing case into a systemic question without overclaiming what can’t yet be proved. Mayer’s “of course” is doing quiet but loaded work. It signals that the proper reaction isn’t partisan outrage or moral hand-wringing; it’s basic inference. If one innocent person can be rendered, interrogated, possibly tortured, the rational response is to suspect a pipeline, not an anomaly.
Notice the careful calibration. “Makes one wonder” is rhetorically modest, almost polite, but it’s also a lever. It invites the reader to complete the indictment themselves, a tactic that lands harder than a shouted accusation because it mimics the logic of evidence. “How many other people” shifts the frame from an individual tragedy to a hidden denominator: the unknown count of lives processed by policy. That’s the subtext: the most damning part of state secrecy isn’t only what happened, but how easily it can be repeated under cover of classification and bureaucratic language.
Her syntax mirrors the fog she’s describing. “Interrogated, and in some instances it seems tortured” is a grim crescendo, with “it seems” marking both legal caution and moral horror. Mayer is pointing at the American workaround of outsourcing brutality while keeping clean hands on paper. The context is post-9/11 counterterrorism, where the distance between error and atrocity narrowed, and the real scandal became not just abuse, but the normalization of uncertainty about who deserved it.
Notice the careful calibration. “Makes one wonder” is rhetorically modest, almost polite, but it’s also a lever. It invites the reader to complete the indictment themselves, a tactic that lands harder than a shouted accusation because it mimics the logic of evidence. “How many other people” shifts the frame from an individual tragedy to a hidden denominator: the unknown count of lives processed by policy. That’s the subtext: the most damning part of state secrecy isn’t only what happened, but how easily it can be repeated under cover of classification and bureaucratic language.
Her syntax mirrors the fog she’s describing. “Interrogated, and in some instances it seems tortured” is a grim crescendo, with “it seems” marking both legal caution and moral horror. Mayer is pointing at the American workaround of outsourcing brutality while keeping clean hands on paper. The context is post-9/11 counterterrorism, where the distance between error and atrocity narrowed, and the real scandal became not just abuse, but the normalization of uncertainty about who deserved it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
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