Story Assignment: Implications of Torture

FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC ACCURACY:

Friday, July 18, 2008

Implications of Torture

Interviews Available

RICK SHENKMAN, editor@hnn.us, http://hnn.us
Editor of the History News Network, Shenkman is author of the
just-released book "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the
American Voter."
He said today: "Despite Watergate, Republicans have never given up
their belief in an imperial presidency. If the president does something,
it's not illegal, was Nixon's line of defense. It might as well be
Bush's and Cheney's, though they are careful never to admit it publicly.
President Bush violated the law numerous times during his presidency
without once expressing remorse at having done so. Violate the law by
going around the FISA court? No problem. Torture terrorist suspects by
waterboarding them? No problem (even as his own attorney general
designate opined that torture is illegal under the Constitution as a
violation of the 14th Amendment)."

LISA HAJJAR, lhajjar@lawso.ucsb.edu,
Hajjar, a professor in the Law and Society Program at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Hajjar said today: "The problem-ridden and
illegitimate military commissions at Guantanamo offer one among many
examples of the adverse consequences of using torture on prisoners. The
fact that the U.S. has adopted a policy of torture is now beyond
dispute, as is the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of totally
innocent people have been subjected to officially sanctioned torture
and abuse. However, supporters of the administration are arguing that if
some 'errors' were made, they were done with good intentions to benefit
American security, and they produced invaluable information. There
evidence that any good intelligence was produced through torture;
people knowledgeable about the interrogations of KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed]
and Abu Zubaydah, for example, have said that any information they
provided came during non-coercive interrogations. But because they were
tortured, the use of this information for their prosecutions becomes
problematic. To understand why the U.S. got to this place, it is
important to appreciate that Cheney and other top officials were
motivated by the goal to roll back the legal constraints on the
executive branch instituted in the wake of Watergate, and to repudiate
international law as ostensibly 'unAmerican.' ...
"Torture is a crime. Now is the time for 'law and order' types to
'get tough on crime' and demand special prosecutors and prosecutions
for those who have authorized the illegal policies of torture that have
destroyed America's reputation and the very institutions responsible
for keeping us safe."
Hajjar is author of the book "Courting Conflict" and co-editor of
"Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Political Science."