You're never going to believe this, but the White House has it's own interrogation room! You know, just in case George and the boys want to blow off a little steam by personally water-boarding people. After all, invading other countries on false premises while shredding the constitution is hard work and really, what would they be doing all that for if they couldn't reap the benefits of their own personal oubliette? As Ron Suskind documents in his new book "The Way of the World", the room has been used only to detain terrorists. Right? Eh, if by "terrorists" you mean Usman Khosa, a young Pakistani graduate of Connecticut College who was seized in front of the White House for fiddling with his ipod. Suskind describes the incident in vivid detail:
"He turns as a large uniformed man lunges at him. The backpack!” the man yells, pushing Usman against the Italianate gates in front of Treasury and ripping off his backpack. Another officer on a bicycle arrives from somewhere and tears the backpack open, dumping its contents on the sidewalk.What is this, the season finale of 24 or something?
Usman is trundled from the SUV, escorted through the West Gate, and onto the manicured grounds. No one speaks as the agents walk him behind the gate's security station, down a stairwell, along an underground passage, and into a room--cement-walled box with a table, two chairs, a hanging light with a bare bulb, and a mounted video camera. Even after all the astonishing turns of the past hour, Usman can't quite believe there's actually an interrogation room beneath the White House, dark and dank and horrific. He mops the perspiration from his brow. Real sweat. It's no dream."
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