News is breaking that Obama's national intelligence adviser, Admiral Dennis Blair, did release a memo the day of Obama's disclosure of the OPC memos that we had gained valuable information through torture. Drudge is pushing this and it's going to be primary meme of the Right going forward, but what shouldn't be lost is that the Admiral did not condone torture, and we should not accept rhetoric that "we are safer", so "torture is okay", as if we're cowards or something (cue Ben Franklin).
"The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means," Admiral Blair said in a written statement issued last night. "The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."
Even if torture elicited information that was essential to our national security, there is no excuse for torture. Let's face it, 9-11 was small-time compared to what went on in WWII, yet we're going to say that the threat of a loose, tiny organization like Al Qaeda, who have literally not done us much harm at all, in the overall perspective of the last century, are worthy of erasing the very precedents we created after the most brutal enemy and war of all in WWII?
Damn, we are not cowards, and I'm sick of these cowardly lion leaders, people like Hayden, teaching our people to be cowards.
Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency under Mr. Bush, said on Fox News Sunday last weekend that "the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work." Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a separate interview with Fox, endorsed that conclusion and said he has asked the C.I.A. to declassify memos detailing the gains from the harsh interrogations.
Honestly, it shames me that this man even became a general, because it makes me confront the reality that our fighting men and women are led by cowards.
Torture is not okay, never okay, there is no Jack Bauer exception to be made except in the most dire circumstances possibly imaginable, which we never reached, and even then it's clearly still illegal, we're dealing with pardons at that point, not distorting the law.
I'm glad we're having this debate, because through self-justification we're smoking the cowards out of their hiding spots, and this is going to be one classic beatdown before it's all said and done.
At what point do we draw the line when it comes to our safety? Do we actually commit crimes against humanity, like Nuremberg? Where's the line? That we didn't kill or maim people, just otherwise tortured them?
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
In his new book, Washington's Crossing, historian David Hackett Fischer recounts how humane treatment of prisoners was literally invented by George Washington on the battlefield in late 1776...American leaders resolved that the War of Independence would be conducted with respect for human rights, even of the enemy. This idea grew stronger during the campaign of 1776-77, not weaker as is commonly the case.