You [the CIA] would like to place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box with an insect. You have informed us [the Department of Justice] that he appears to have a fear of insects. In particular, you would like to tell Zubaydah that you intend to place a stinging insect into the box with him. You would, however, place a harmless insect in the box. You have orally informed us that you would in fact place a harmless insect such as a caterpillar in the box with him.

It’s almost as if “1984″ was on top of the reading pile for someone at the DOJ or CIA. Simply compare that paragraph with the penultimate chapter of Orwell’s novel, in which the hero, Winston Smith, prepares to meets his “worst thing in the world” — rats — in dystopic leader Big Brother’s all-purpose torture chamber, Room 101.

Here’s the scene as performed by John Hurt and Richard Burton in the 1984 film version, followed by excerpts from Orwell’s novel. (Note that the parallel stands up even to U.S. government claims that no one actually put a bug in Zubaydah’s “confinement box.” Big Brother didn’t have to actually release the rats on Smith either to achieve the desired result of breaking his prisoner.)

Excerpts from Part 3, Chapter 5 of Orwell’s “1984″:

For a moment he was alone, then the door opened and O’Brien came in.

‘You asked me once,’ said O’Brien, ‘what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.’ …

‘The worst thing in the world,’ said O’Brien, ‘varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.’ …

‘In your case,’ said O’Brien, ‘the worst thing in the world happens to be rats.’

A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of he was not certain what, had passed through Winston as soon as he caught his first glimpse of the cage. But at this moment the meaning of the mask-like attachment in front of it suddenly sank into him. His bowels seemed to turn to water.

‘You can’t do that!’ he cried out in a high cracked voice. ‘You couldn’t, you couldn’t! It’s impossible.’ …

‘By itself,’ (O’Brien) said, ‘pain is not always enough. There are occasions when a human being will stand out against pain, even to the point of death. But for everyone there is something unendurable — something that cannot be contemplated. Courage and cowardice are not involved. If you are falling from a height it is not cowardly to clutch at a rope. If you have come up from deep water it is not cowardly to fill your lungs with air. It is merely an instinct which cannot be destroyed. It is the same with the rats. For you, they are unendurable. They are a form of pressure that you cannot withstand, even if you wished to. You will do what is required of you.’

‘But what is it, what is it? How can I do it if I don’t know what it is?’ …

But he had suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just one person to whom he could transfer his punishment — one body that he could thrust between himself and the rats. And he was shouting frantically, over and over.

‘Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!’ …

There was still the cold touch of wire against his cheek. But through the darkness that enveloped him he heard another metallic click, and knew that the cage door had clicked shut and not open.

There’s nothing new about the northern Minnesota reservation getting attention during tight election contests. As reported here last month, the director of President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign, Ed Rollins, is fond of recalling how he had to talk down hard-charging colleagues who wanted to recount what they thought were suspicious votes there (by “dead Indians”) in hopes of netting the Gipper a full 50-state sweep. And Red Lake has had experience with close races and calls for recounts in tribal government elections as recently as 2006.

The area has even found a way to play a leading role in the preliminaries to the historic recount that begins this week in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election. Last week the Franken campaign put forward what turned out to be mostly a rural legend about an elderly woman whose absentee ballot was rejected because after she had a stroke, her signature no longer matched the one on file. Even as it emerged that this wasn’t the case, the woman was never identified publicly — except that she lives in Beltrami County, where most of the Red Lake reservation lies.

Rollins’ use of the phrase “dead Indians” is disturbing — especially coming amid what one blog says were “lusty laughs” during some playful patter at the end of a segment titled “America Divided” that co-anchor Kiran Chetry had kicked off with a replay of Bachmann’s calling the country’s first major-party African-American presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, ”anti-American.”

In the most charitable light, Rollins seems to be asserting that through fraudulent means, Native Americans in northern Minnesota who were ineligible to cast ballots — possibly because they were actually deceased? — threw the election and denied Reagan a 50-state sweep.

It’s not the first time Rollins has nursed that particular surface wound to his professional campaign manager’s pride. On Nov. 14, 2000, in the midst of the Bush-Gore presidential election recount mess, he told CNN’s Larry King, “I’ve had many people second-guess campaigns that I’ve run, including why did I lose Minnesota when I was running Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1984?” Right-wing blogs say Reagan himself pined for a recount, but the Minnesota secretary of state’s office tells Minnesota Independent that no recount took place in the state’s 1984 presidential election, which Mondale won by an actual count of “about 3,700 votes out of 2,000,000 cast.” 

Here’s an excerpt from CNN’s transcript of today’s “American Morning” show:

CHETRY: Is Pennsylvania, even though it looks right now to appear to be leaning toward Obama still up for grabs because of some of the comments that have been made?

ROLLINS: Well, I’m not saying it’s up for grabs, it’s always been a very competitive and a very hard state for Republicans to win. Even in Reagan’s campaign that I ran 24 years ago, it was the last state to come into the line. So it’s a competitive state. 13 points, 14 points is a pretty darn good lead. And if I was Obama, i would go back one more time. I would do what the governor wants.

CHETRY: All right. Ed Rollins, always good to have you with us.

ROLLINS: My pleasure.

CHETRY: Thanks.

ROLLINS: Thank you very much.

ROBERTS: How did you screw up in Minnesota? 

ROLLINS: They voted a lot of dead Indians along the border. 1620 votes, I’m not bitter.

ROBERTS: Ed, thanks.

ROLLINS: Thank you.