[Peace-discuss] Torture is Evil Behavior by US Government, Authorized by the American People, That Radlcalizes People Against Us - Ron Paul

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Ron Paul
Infowars
May 26, 2009

While Congress is sidetracked by who said what to whom and when, our 
nation finds itself at a crossroads on the issue of torture. We are at a 
point where we must decide if torture is something that is now going to 
be considered justifiable and reasonable under certain circumstances, or 
is America better than that?

“Enhanced interrogation” as some prefer to call it, has been used 
throughout history, usually by despotic governments, to cruelly punish 
or to extract politically useful statements from prisoners. Governments 
that do these things invariably bring shame on themselves. The fact that 
our government engages in evil behavior under the auspices of the 
American people is what poses the greatest threat to the American people.

In addition, information obtained under duress is incredibly unreliable, 
which is why it is not admissible in a court of law. Legally valid 
information is freely given by someone of sound mind and body. Someone 
in excruciating pain, or brought close to death by some horrific 
procedure is not in any state of mind to give reliable information, and 
certainly no actions should be taken solely based upon it.

For these reasons, it is illegal in the United States and illegal under 
Geneva Conventions. Simulated drowning, or water boarding, was not 
considered an exception to these laws when it was used by the Japanese 
against US soldiers in World War II. In fact, we hanged Japanese 
officers for war crimes in 1945 for water boarding. Its status as 
torture has already been decided by our own courts under this precedent. 
To look the other way now, when Americans do it, is the very definition 
of hypocrisy.

Matthew Alexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist used non-torture 
methods of interrogation in Iraq with much success. In fact, one 
cooperative jihadist told him, "I thought you would torture me, and when 
you didn’t, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was 
wrong. That’s why I decided to cooperate." Alexander also found that in 
Iraq “the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the 
abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture 
was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq.” 
Alexander’s experiences unequivocally demonstrate that losing our 
humanity is not beneficial or necessary in fighting terror.

The current administration has reversed its position on releasing 
evidence of torture by the previous administration and we must ask why. 
A great and moral nation would have the courage to face the truth so it 
could abide by the rule of law. To look the other way necessarily 
implicates all of us and would of course further radicalize people 
against our troops on the ground. Instead, we have the chance to limit 
culpability for torture to those who were truly responsible for these 
crimes against humanity.

Not everyone who was given illegal orders obeyed them. Many FBI agents 
understood that an illegal order must be disobeyed and they did so. The 
others must be held accountable, so that all of us are not targeted for 
blowback for the complicity of some.

The government’s own actions and operations in torturing people, and in 
acting on illegally obtained and unreliable information to kill and 
capture, are the most radicalizing forces at work today, not any 
religion, nor the fact that we are rich and free. The fact that our 
government engages in evil behavior under the auspices of the American 
people is what poses the greatest threat to the American people, and it 
must not be allowed to stand.