[Peace-discuss] CIA torturers get off

[John W.]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>wrote:

Disgusting!  Obama today announced that CIA torturers who used waterboarding
> would not be prosecuted.  Punishment, in general, is not something I like to
> advocate, but it's also important that nobody be above the law.  The very
> idea that you can get six years for giving the cops a false name and zippo
> for torture is nothing short of grotesque.
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/torture_memos
>
> Ricky
>

For what it's worth, I think any punishment should be meted out to the
higher-ups who ORDERED the waterboarding and other violations of law, and
justified them with speeches and memos and legal briefs and so on.  I don't
like to see low-level grunts take the fall for the big fish, which is what
almost always happens.

I've actually been in a position where I was ordered to do something of
questionable legality/morality, with firing for insubordination the
alternative to obeying the order, and I can assure you that it's not that
easy to discern what's "right".  You have a gut feeling about it, but not
necessarily enough to put your livelihood in jeopardy.   Sometimes the
rightness or wrongness of a situation becomes clearer to you later on, when
you're not in the heat of the moment.

John Wason
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