Enhanced Interrogation Techniques

Former Vice President Richard Cheney says harsh interrogation practices – like the “fit feels like I’m drowning” water boarding technique used to interrogate Al Qaeda prisoners – were essential to protect national security. He’s out there on news programs and talks shows making that point. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair admitted that some of the information obtained in such questioning may indeed have been valuable, but wondered if other normal interrogation and investigation might not have provided the same information. And more than one top American General has questioned the reliability of an “I’ll say anything they think they want to hear to stop this torture” response.

All well and good, and there is always the savant who makes the point that anything is acceptable to stop a ticking bomb from wiping out a city. But has “Do unto others before they do unto you” replaced “Do unto others as you would have done unto you”? Are terrorists who think they are freedom fighters exclusions form moral codes? And how many times is it appropriate to water board a “person of interest”? Once? Over 180 times as clearly occurred? Let’s forget about morality for a moment, as it appears our American leaders recently did. Let’s avoid constitutional issues, the issue of punishing an alleged perpetrator before there is a conviction, and whether there is justification for the technique. Let’s just be practical.

If you were running a terrorist group and you knew anger and revenge were powerful tools to recruit new terrorists, what would you do? And yes, the Internet, posters, radio and television in the hotbed of recruiting grounds were and still are full of clear evidence of American cruelty, a disdain for non-Europeans (true or not). People who has no real axe to grind with the U.S. wound up in guerilla training camps for the sole purpose of attacking the U.S.

Think we could have kept this a big secret? Not in an era of Internet communications and whistleblowers… and particularly not when there are clearly going to be administration changes, lots of secret memos, opinion letters and the pervasive use of “harsh techniques.” Not in a world where Western media and governments are hell bent on enforcing the Convention Against Torture. Can Dick Cheney really ever travel extensively outside the U.S. again without fear of arrest?

And if we condone torture on our prisoners, haven’t we pretty much sanctified torture as an interrogation technique for all captured prisoners? Does that mean “it’s okay to torture” American soldiers when captured? Are they different because they are in uniform? The Geneva Conventions say they have rights. We said the Conventions didn’t apply to Al Qaeda captives. Yet, the Geneva Conventions actually do not allow member nations to interpret their meaning – that privilege belongs to the governing body, no matter what our government said. The message we sent was clear… and unfortunate. If we really care about our men and women in uniform, can we ever suggest that there is an excuse for torture? And didn’t the Nuremburg trials after World War II establish that just “following orders” was not a legal excuse to cruelty and murder?

Further, in a world where the financial burden of dealing with world problems is not longer within America’s fiscal grasp, where cooperation and joint efforts are now mandated for the based and most practical reason – we cannot afford to go it alone anymore – don’t we want to be a nation that encourages other nations to work with us? Dennis Blair: “The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world… The damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.” Now what do we do with the lawyers who wrote the opinions that “legitimized” this process. Remember Watergate? If you don’t, Google it!

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.