Some snippets from editorials on torture

[struggle4progress]

The best test of a person's character -- or a nation's character -- comes in times of trouble. Under duress, do you have the inner strength to live by the values that you honored in easier times? Or do you let fear drive you to abandon those rules?
On the question of torture, the United States has failed that test of character -- at least so far.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0610-06.htm

Even if no smoking gun is ever found to directly link American officials to the crimes, they could still find themselves in serious jeopardy under international law. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, officials can be held accountable for war crimes committed by their subordinates even if they did not order them - so long as they had control over the perpetrators, had reason to know about the crimes and did not stop them or punish the criminals.
This doctrine is the product of an American initiative. Devised by allied judges and prosecutors at the Nuremberg tribunals, it was a means to impute responsibility for wartime atrocities to Nazi leaders, who often communicated indirectly and avoided leaving a paper trail.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/commentary/story/0,4386,255620,00.html

The Bush administration assures the country, and the world, that it is complying with U.S. and international laws banning torture and maltreatment of prisoners.
But, breaking with a practice of openness that had lasted for decades, it has classified as secret and refused to disclose the techniques of interrogation it is using on foreign detainees at U.S. prisons at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This is a matter of grave concern because the use of some of the methods that have been reported in the press is regarded by independent experts as well as some of the Pentagon's legal professionals as illegal. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1086819009742&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

Ashcroft refused demands from several senators that he release the Justice Department memo, only adding to suspicions that he is trying to cover up the Bush administration's true intent. Considering the Abu Ghraib scandal and other legal gymnastics the administration has played as part of the war on terrorism, that skepticism is not unwarranted.
Ashcroft should release the memo so that Congress, and the American people can decide for themselves if he and his boss, President Bush, are telling the truth about torture.
http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2004/06/09/1086839760.02632.7381.6524.html;COXnetJSessionID=AJM029U3sJutuRPCkWOcnkZfVJUKc7g2mdkBbiliQJbKZSzSWfWd!-1035769970?urac=n&urvf=10869340684070.5768682067717088

This new, national black eye cries out for congressional investigation, but if the administration has its way Congress won't get one. By extension, the American public won't learn what it is the administration is doing in its name.
http://www.kypost.com/2004/06/09/keditb060904.html

Even if we go only by what the administration has itself revealed and confirmed, it is quite clear that everything we see in those pictures was OK’d as a matter of policy at the highest levels or, at a minimum, permitted to take place on an ongoing basis.
http://www.thehill.com/marshall/061004.aspx

What happened in the prison was bad, but what is worse is the subdued reaction it has received from the American public. For long, one has been saying that a difference should always be maintained between the American state and the American public. The State is known to be predatory towards others states, but the people are good. Now, one is increasingly being made to question that. There has been no strong reaction that has come out of the US public against these acts. In fact, the message coming over is that majority of the US citizens think that some nations have to be treated this way in order to ensure American security.
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en67565&F_catID=&f_type=source

The Bush Administration is committing war crimes and other serious violations of international law in Iraq as a matter of routine policy, according to a report released today by the Center for Economic and Social Rights. The report, Beyond Torture: U.S. Violations of Occupation Law in Iraq, documents ten categories of war crimes and rights violations regularly committed by U.S. forces. The report can be downloaded here. The Executive Summary can be downloaded here.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=1315

The memo makes it hard to escape the conclusion that, early on, the Bush administration was looking for a ruling on how much torture was legally defensible.
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/06/09/news/opinion/1ed9.txt


The Administration pigs deserve to have this ground in their faces.