Jan 04 2009
The Torture Issue – February 20
One month after Obama takes office, his administration owes a briefing to the Supreme Court on the subject of torture.
WASHINGTON — Just a month after President-elect Barack Obama takes office, he must tell the Supreme Court where he stands on one of the most aggressive legal claims made by the Bush administration — that the president may order the military to seize legal residents of the United States and hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime.
The new administration’s brief, which is due Feb. 20, has the potential to hearten or infuriate Mr. Obama’s supporters, many of whom are looking to him for stark disavowals of the Bush administration’s legal positions on the detention and interrogation of so-called enemy combatants held at Navy facilities on the American mainland or at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
I honestly feel quite torn on this issue. We never should have had this situation – but now that we do – how are we supposed to undo it without creating new, awful precedent, and without creating security vulnerabilities?
Perhaps the only way out of this is to apply Bob Cesca’s fear solution and just try them as best as possible in civilian courts. Our rule of law has to be more important than any one criminal – terrorist though he may be.
QT
2 Responses to “The Torture Issue – February 20”
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We, we Americans are better than that. We are better than to become torturers.
Yes, we have become this, not by collective choice mind you, but by the choices of our elected leaders. This can be ended decisively by the new administration stepping in and declaring to the world that these recent events were anomalies. Then inventory the intelligence community and usher to the door any advocates or practitioners. Then summarily try the leaders that nodded the head and prosecute them fully.
When I was a boy, we were the country of the abused prisoners. My picture of POWs was Hogan’s Heros and Bridge over the River Kwai. Then my friends came back from Vietnam reporting the enemy’s proclivity toward torture. There were plenty of bad decisions made during that conflict as well. However, the overall sense was that we were better than the others.
There needs to be an open historical review of the past intelligence gatherings and right the wrongs. This will lead to credibility with our allies and enemies alike. If we as a nation are all about deception and subterfuge then carry on; or change openly, in a verifiable way. We seem to be so full of ourselves that we don’t want any accountability to anyone. Yet our foreign policy is always asking for others to be accountable to us.
bjritz
BJ: You are so right. But I’m willing to take baby steps. I just don’t want us to codify this wrong of the Bush era into a permanent feature of our culture. I’m willing to let a terrorist go free in order to let our national soul be free of the taint (!!!) of torture.
QT