gallery: [Impeach Bush] Editorial: A President Who Tortured (Washington Post)

Sabtu, 09 Februari 2008

[Impeach Bush] Editorial: A President Who Tortured (Washington Post)

Editorial: A President Who Tortured
Waterboarding will leave an indelible stain on the legacy of George W.
Bush. Friday, February 8, 2008; Page A18

"We do not torture."
-- President Bush, Nov. 7, 2005

" Waterboarding has been used on only three detainees. . . . We used
it against these three high-value detainees because of the
circumstances of the time."
-- CIA Director Michael V. Hayden,

Feb. 5, 2008
THE ADMISSION this week by CIA Director Michael V. Hayden that three
terrorism suspects were subjected to waterboarding in 2002 and 2003
puts to rest any doubt about whether President Bush authorized torture.

For centuries, civilized countries have considered waterboarding, or
simulated drowning, to be torture. The United States rightly condemned
as war criminals Japanese soldiers who employed the technique against
U.S. personnel during World War II. It prosecuted U.S. military
officers who waterboarded prisoners at the turn of the 20th century.
The practice, which causes its victims to feel that they are about to
die, is unquestionably cruel. Every administration prior to this one
has judged it to be prohibited by U.S. law and treaty obligations. It
is incontestably a blot on the reputation of this country and a breach
of the very values we claim to want to export to the rest of the world.

The administration says it has not used the technique for five years
and claims to have used it only on Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed and al-Qaeda operatives Abu Zubaida and Abd al-Rahim
al-Nashiri. The acknowledgment is, at least, a change from the
administration's previous refusal to answer questions about the
practice; it should end contentions by senior officials that they
cannot disclose which interrogation techniques are used. Yet in coming
clean about its practices, the administration continues to bob and
weave to justify the past -- and possibly future -- legality of
waterboarding. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell,
testifying alongside Gen. Hayden before the Senate intelligence
committee, declared waterboarding "a legal technique used in a
specific set of circumstances. You have to know the circumstances to
be able to make the judgment."

Mr. McConnell's statement echoed that of Attorney General Michael B.
Mukasey, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that in
deciding whether waterboarding is legal, the administration has to
weigh "the heinousness of doing it, the cruelty of doing it balanced
against the value . . . of what information you might get." Both men
are wrong, as any federal court that considered waterboarding would be
likely to rule. The legality of abusive treatment depends on "the
circumstances" only if the treatment falls short of torture, which is
illegal in all instances. Waterboarding is, and always has been, torture.

Gen. Hayden, who in 2006 prohibited waterboarding by CIA agents,
seemed to distance himself from the administration's defense of the
technique by suggesting that laws passed since 2005 raise doubts about
its legality. But even this falls far short of an assurance against
future use. Congress must act now to put an end to the continued
twisting of the law and fundamental American values. Lawmakers can do
so by passing legislation requiring all U.S. interrogators to abide by
the techniques authorized in the Army Field Manual, which military
officials have said allows them the flexibility they need to gather
intelligence. The administration has balked at this restriction, and
President Bush may well veto it. If he does, it will be but another
stain on his legacy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/07/AR2008020703593.html