[Peace-discuss] We Don't Torture. . . But Torture Does Work

[E. Wayne Johnson]

*We Don't Torture. . . But Torture Does Work*
By Jacob Hornberger
Published 05/09/09   - Campaign for Liberty - 
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=73

John Ashcroft, who served as U.S. attorney general from 2001 to 2005, 
has an op-ed in the /New York Times/ 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/opinion/05ashcroft.html> where he 
exclaims, "The government must hold accountable any individuals who 
acted illegally in the financial meltdown...."

Oh? And why is that, Mr. Ashcroft? Why not simply "move on"? Why not let 
bygones be bygones? Why not just schedule a financial-meltdown truth 
commission? How about just some promises that the wrongdoing will never 
happen again? Why must you be so vengeful? Why do you want retribution? 
Why not just leave the malefactors alone? Why would you want to tear the 
country apart with criminal prosecutions?

After all, isn't this what people are saying about the torturers and 
those who authorized and ordered the torture? What's the difference?

Torture advocates claim that torture is justified because it produces 
valuable information that helps save people's lives. But if that's the 
case, then why even have the Geneva Conventions, which another U.S. 
attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, described as "quaint"? Don't POWs 
taken captive almost always possess information about enemy troop 
positions, movements, plans, and strategy? Wouldn't acquiring that 
information help save the lives of U.S. soldiers? Aren't the lives of 
the troops as valuable as the lives of civilians? Why not scotch that 
quaint Geneva Convention and just treat enemy POWs in the same way that 
suspected terrorists are treated?

What also befuddles me is why torture advocates limit themselves to 
"enhanced interrogation techniques" or what they might call "soft 
torture," such as waterboarding, walling, beating, sleep deprivation, 
sex abuse, prolonged standing, sensory deprivation, cold water, 
temperature extremes, and isolation. If acquiring valuable information 
is the goal, why not go all the way? Why not employ the stuff that 
really works, such as thumbscrews, the rack, sawing a person in half, 
pulling fingernails, or rape? Isn't that what government officials 
throughout history have done to acquire information?

Of course, I cannot help but wonder how the CIA and the Pentagon's use 
of "soft torture" brought about the deaths of several people in their 
custody. Wouldn't it be nice to at least know how and why those people 
were killed? Alas, we live in an era in which the murder of a few 
detainees produces nothing more than a ho-hum, lackadaisical, 
let's-move-on reaction from public officials.

President Obama continues to steadfastly oppose criminal prosecutions 
for those who violated the torture statutes. He also opposes public 
investigations into the scandal. Apparently he takes the position that 
because he has repeated President Bush's mantra, "We don't torture," the 
matter has been put to rest.

However, let's think back to the Pentagon's infamous School of the 
Americas torture manuals 
<http://www.amazon.com/School-Americas-Political-Encounters-Interactions/dp/0822333929/campaforliber-20> 
that the school was using to teach torture to Latin American military 
brutes. When those torture manuals came to light in 1996, weren't the 
American people treated to the same sort of pronouncements that we're 
being treated to today? Didn't U.S. officials express the same sorts of 
regrets and promises that we hear today?

Yet, did any of the regrets and promises arising from the disclosure of 
the School of the America's torture manuals dissuade U.S. military 
officials and CIA officials from employing the torture tactics described 
in those manuals some 15 years later as part of President Bush's war on 
terrorism?

No.

So, in the absence of criminal prosecutions, why should anyone believe 
that the current set of expressions of regret and promises will produce 
a different result?

Could the reason that so many U.S. officials oppose accountability in 
the torture scandal be that they know that accountability might reveal 
that the torture scandal has been going on for decades rather than just 
a few years?


/Copyright © 2009 Future of Freedom Foundation/
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