Interrogation Tactics Weren't Torture, American Officials Shouldn't Be Prosecuted
Putting a previous administration on trial would set a scary precedent. Besides, no lines were crossed
Updated on 5/18/09: An earlier headline for this article was replaced.
Instead of debating whether to punish those who helped prevent an attack on American soil for the past seven years, we ought to be debating how we can protect and defend ourselves for the next seven. Here's a suggestion: There are thousands of pages of research and ample data on interrogations. They should be studied by independent and disinterested experts with a simple mission: Tell President Obama which methods are effective. The president should then decide which of these methods we will not utilize, not even if that means innocent people will be murdered; which may be used only with his specific authorization; and which can be used by trained interrogators following clear guidelines under the authority of the director of central intelligence and the director of national intelligence.
And can we please—to echo a phrase—move on? Can we discontinue this odious trend of criminalizing policy differences? Do we really want to become the kind of country that imprisons people for their opinions? Can we not be clear-eyed enough to see how self-destructive that would be in the midst of a shadow war against fanatics who chant, "Death to America!" and have demonstrated that they mean it?
- Tell us what you think: Should those behind torture be prosecuted?
Reader Comments
prosecution
?? - Since you are part of America I believe that you should be prosecuted or should we just prosecute everyone that voted for the previous administration?
??
Well.. honestly.. I find it pathetic when you have to tell a little story just to persuade someone that your right, and you still didn't persuade me.
First off...
They torture to protect the Americans?
Yea, maybe so...
BUT
So did some other countries that were prosecuted!
It was torture and it is a violation of international law,
and even if we ARE America...
It's breaking international law and someone needs to be punished.
Robert
You see the things I don't understand is how ANY of you can say that torture doesn't work! Were you there? Did you see it? No just like the people who think it DOES work! You know I don't see how in anybody's mind that the government "tricked" us into going over to Iraq. At least I hope that people aren't dumb enough to believe we had a right to go over there. Just in case some of you think we should have, we shouldn't have, Bush has his wallet dipped in oil, so now that we "liberated" Iraq, he just sits back on retirement as his pockets fill up, and someone else cleans up HIS mess! Either way, personally, I believe if there is a proven link between a certain individual and a piece of information needed, then some harsh interrogation tactics would be justified. But to do it to someone who "might" know the answer is just bogus! If you are going to do it, you better damn well know he knows what you want to know. And none of this bull-crap suggestion stuff where we basically make someone confess to something despite the fact that he may not even know what the HELL they were doing just like Cheney's organization did (as stated in the comment above). And to one of the comments above, You bet your ass if my family was in trouble id be stomping ALL over the Geneva Convention to get some answers!
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