In 2005, after the US Justice department declared torture abhorrent in December 2004, the Bush/Cheney administration obtained from the Attorney General an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. That secret opinion provides explicit authorisation to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures. Then, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion declaring that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard. With these two documents the White House has succeeded in preserving the broadest possible legal latitude for harsh tactics.
It is perhaps not surprising to read that the Bush/Cheney administration has done this, and in secret. And it is consistent with other primitive cultural practices of America, like capital punishment and life without parole for 13 year olds. The majority of Americans do not condone this behaviour and the law must be changed to bring American ethics up to modern standards. Otherwise we are just deceiving to ourselves.
Comments