Ban Torture

News

President Bush vetoed a bill to require the CIA to limit interrogation methods to those outlined in the Army manual. Congress failed to override the veto on a party-line vote. Father Jonathan Morris (Fox News) argues that President Bush’s intentions are good, but not his philosophy.

President Bush has referred to these specialized procedures as “efficient,” “necessary,” “legal,” and “safe.” The problem here is that none of his adjectives get to the heart of what’s wrong with torture. Efficiency and necessity are purely pragmatic concepts. Under their banner, the world has witnessed every sort of evil. And legality and safety are equally unconvincing justifications. Does making something legal make it right? And safety? The twisted suggestion that some torture is safe obfuscates the horrid nature of torture, a degradation of human dignity and liberty.

The U.N. investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, was denied access to U.S.-run jails in Iraq. The British government has agreed to allow him to visit their detainees in Iraq. Reuters, March 11

The Pentagon discovered nearly 50 tapes documenting interrogations of two suspects. The tapes do not appear to reveal any unlawful treatment. The New York Times, March 11

The first U.S. war tribunals since World War II are underway. An Afghan prisoner on trial for throwing a grenade in Afghanistan when he was 16 compared U.S. forces to the Taliban government that imprisoned and killed people without trial. He claims he was tortured. Reuters, March 12

President Bush stripped the independent Intelligence Oversight Board of its authority to refer matters to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. The Boston Globe, March 14

The week ended with the House holding a rare secret session to discuss non-secret material, and the start of a four-day protest by hundreds of veterans and active-duty soldiers of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at a gathering called Winter Solder (interview at Democracy Now!).

International

The use of waterboarding by the United States affected a case in Canada against two suspected Al Qaeda operatives. Canada threw out evidence obtained through the CIA’s waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah, stating that “torture is morally repugnant and not particularly reliable” and that Canada “does not knowingly use information which has been obtained through torture.” Tainted Evidence by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, March 5. NPR interview.

CIA extraordinary rendition jets keep popping up. Four landed at the Shannon airport recently. The Limerick Leader, March 10

Afghan detainees are not covered by Canada’s bill of rights, a Canadian judge ruled. Canadians had halted transfers of Taliban insurgency prisoners to Afghan authorities after evidence of torture. Transfers will resume. International Herald Tribune, March 12

Opinion

The current issue of the Washington Monthly includes 37 essays advocating an end to torture. No More: No Torture. No Exceptions.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviewed Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Democracy:

“July 21st, a bunch of guys got on buses in London with bombs, and they escaped. The British police got them all in ten days, and the break in the case came when the parents of Muktar Said Ibrahim, loyal British Muslims, turned in their son when they saw the security video. Would they have turned him if they knew their son was going to be tortured? The answer is: obviously not. Right? We know the kinds of things that work in policing. The FBI knows it. This is a standard practice. And the more we torture, the less it is that people will surrender to us.”

Scott Shane wrote in The New York Times about the challenge of bringing scientific rigor to the art of interrogation. (March 9)

William Safire reviewed the history of the word “waterboarding” and reviews the use of the term and technique in U.S. history. (March 9)

Out-of-Context Quote of the Week

“We undertake this work because we believe that every human being bears the image of our maker. That’s why we’re doing this. No one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave.” President Bush, speaking to the National Religious Broadcasters convention (March 11)