Torture
Today, President Obama released the Bush administration Justice Department memos that condoned the use of torture. The memos make for horrifying reading. Among the things the Justice Department permitted were putting a man in a box and releasing insects into it to exploit his fears, shoving him against a wall repeatedly, slapping him in the face--only meant, by the way, as a violation of his personal space, not to hurt him, or anything like that. But, President Obama says:
In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution. The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world. Their accomplishments are unsung and their names unknown, but because of their sacrifices, every single American is safer. We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs.
His rationale makes sense to me, but I'm glad it's not a call I have to make. In my time covering personnel policy in the intelligence community, I haven't dealt with folks who were doing interrogations, since they're not usually simultaneously running personnel policy. But my reporting has given me a sense of some of the stresses the IC faces--I actually wrote my column this week on how work-life balance programs have been extended across ODNI to help employees cope with stress. I can't imagine what it's like getting orders to beat someone to get information out of them, or how you run programs to help people cope with that part of their job. I don't know if at some point we'll hear stories about intelligence officers who refused to torture prisoners, and how that response was dealt with in the chain of command. It seems an important part of the story how orders were issued, and how people responded to them.
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"We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs." We will do this by publicizing some of the harsh interrogation methodalogies that had to be employed to make us safe, snug and warm in our beds. We'll make them think twice about ever going out on a limb to protect us again. Since returning veterans are also apparently considered a threat to our safety I can't help wondering when the first political re-education camps of the new gulag will be up and running. We are indeed deep into the age of double speak.
Paul D. Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 6:57 AM"horrifying reading"? Slapping in the face, pushed into a wall, insects? How are these horrifying? They are uncomfortable, inconvenient. Horrifying is having your head cut off for a video on the internet. Horrifying is being savagely beaten until all your teeth have fallen out. Horrifying is a lot of things, but not having your face slapped or being pushed into a wall. These are terrorists who would gladly have maimed and killed anyone they caught (Daniel Pearl anyone?,) really tortured them according to anyone's definition. It's bizarre to describe what was done in these interrogations as even torture, let along horrifying. People need to get a grip and realize how truly horrifying are the minds and intended deeds of the people we face.
Doug Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 7:31 AMWow, I'm horrified....I wonder where cutting off someones head is at on the horrifying scale? Oh well, back to my kool-aide.
rick Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 7:53 AMJust following orders, eh? I wonder why they didn't use that defense at Nuremberg. Oh, that's right. They did.
Jeff Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 7:59 AMHow Easy We Forget! As bad as the documents sound, we were and are at war with terror with people who killed over 3000 non-combatant American Citizens. These are the same people that cut the heads off captured American civilians and soldiers and broadcast it.
Not Again Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 8:49 AMSo we exploited their fears to get answers, we did not kill any of their prisoners. We did not make it public torture.
The media and the president act as is if the atrocities to the American Public (9/11) are less important than a few ruthless terrorists, bent on killing Americans. By releasing these documents the President is fanning the fire that the former President had started to put out. Does anyone think that this will foster a peaceful resolution? These Terroist didn't hate President Bush, they hated all Amercians and the fact that we have the freedom to just about anything we want, they want to kill all Americans.
In my 25 years in the Air Force we were explicitly taught "Thou shalt not torture!". The bad guys do that sh..! After all,our guys that had been residents of the Hanoi Hilton suffered greatly from it. My western culture had always taught, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." It was widley implied that we were superior because we practised this belief.
Rick Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 8:49 AMHowever, who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men?
What torture, what pain? No forced tooth extraction, breaking of bones, electrodes, only put in a small box with an insect, wow!Compare that to the traditonal stuff routinely done in Third World countries...Fact: we're NOT better than other peoples, just different (i.e. diversity). There is NO moral high ground when religious fanatics kill our citizens. Want a good example of torture, how about the next 3.5 years under Obama, our Socialist stodge?
ChristmasTree Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 9:00 AMSo we're back the the pre-911 mentality are we. There is no such thing as torture with the ravenous dogs of radical Islam. The PAPER TIGER is rearing it's pacifist paws again...
John Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 10:00 AMObama is so against torture, but he had no problem authorizing a bullet in the brain pan of the 3 Somali Pirates. Why didn't he 'talk' them in to giving back the Captain. He is so full of it - and full of himself too.
sam Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 10:05 AMWhy are so many of the commenters certain that these people interrogated (or tortured depending on your definition) were really terrorists. If one of our citizens is accused of terrorism, we're the first to deny it and accuse foreign governments of torture. There is as of yet no public evidence that these captives were really terrorists or bent on harming our country or citizens.
Pot Calls Kettle Black Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 11:32 AMEww, eww, a bug! Shreek! That's not torture...unless of course those bugs are beetles that seek out your ears so they can crawl inside and make their way to your brain and begin to feast. Don't worry, some day the spaceships will return and take you home...let's hope it is soon.
Alley Gator Posted Friday, April 17, 2009 2:31 PM