Bush to Veto Anti-Torture Legislation

D. Cupples | The Washington Post reports:

"President Bush today will veto legislation meant to ban the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics and will argue that the agency needs to use tougher methods than the U.S. military to wrest information from terrorism suspects, administration officials said....

"'The bill would take away one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror: the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives,' White House spokesman tony Fratto said yesterday."

There are a couple of problems with what Mr. Fratto is saying on Mr. Bush's behalf.

For obvious reasons, there is great debate over whether torture even works, because desperate people facing the pain of torture and fear of imminent mutilation or death might actually lie to stop the pain.

In that case, torture can actually result in the extraction of false intelligence, which could cause problems for our boys.

Another issue: torture already is illegal under federal law (18 U.S.C 2340 & 2341).

Why should torture concern us ordinary citizens?  Because all anyone has to do  detain you for being a suspected terrorist (a political enemy or even just someone who made a mistake) -- and you could be subject to the horrors of pain and mutilation.

See the New York Times for other coverage of the veto.  See Memeorandum for commentary.

 

Related BN-Politics Posts:

* Retired Generals Agree with Laws Limiting Torture

* CIA Destroyed Evidence of Torture Sessions

* McCain Flip-Flops on Torture

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Comments

[technomist]

This veto should bother US citizens even if they don't expect to be victims themselves. Nuremberg legal principles will apply to the perpetrators and those who order its use who come into the hands of foreign governments: there will be no defense of 'only following orders' for US torturers. Make no mistake, waterboarding is recognized as torture under international law. Bush has taken your county further 'beyond the pale', isolating it from civilized world opinion.

[D. Cupples]

Technomist,

I AGREE with you re: the larger legal, foreign-policy-oriented and humanitarian issues. I was just trying to show that none of us is safe if we support bad policies.