On Torture and Amnesty to the Torturers
As you have probably heard, four primary torture memos (approving torture of “detainees” who may or may have not done anything remotely dealing with terrorism) by lawyers in the Bush Department of Justice are out. They are a must read and no, they were not written by Orwell (although you would swear they stole his style from 1984).
Here’s how it goes. The Bush DOJ lawyers solely relied on the CIA to describe the “techniques” they were using and the effect it had on the detainees. Do you think the CIA might have exaggerated the lack of harm or the abundance of harm torture caused these human beings? Ding, ding, ding! So the Bush DOJ lawyers methodically go through each technique and state categorically that among other things “walling, waterboarding, stress positions, confinement, confinement with insects, sleep deprivation for 11 days, dietary manipulation, and leaving a detainee naked” are all not torture because they do not cause prolonged mental harm according to the CIA! Got it?? Circular reasoning? You bet!
The problem is that most of these techniques are defined as torture already by treaties we signed and therefore are OUR law. Under OUR law, all participants in torture MUST be procecuted (see the Convention against Torture where the nation “must extradite the participant OR submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution.”)
But no, says the Obama administration. We are to look forward and not backwards and turn a blind eye to all this lawless activity. Will that really help us move forward? Can bank robbers argue not to prosecute them because they were asked to rob the bank and we must look forward? Do you see double, triple standards going on here?
Great column to read on these topics at Glenn Greenwald’s column at salon.com. Click here to read it.
