noted that the CIA operatives who committed torture should have been allowed to confront their accusers.
He is right. That is a constitutional right in the US. It is an innate right that we recognize as part of the basic rights that must be granted when we grant due process.
But due process including the right to face their accusers was precisely what the CIA and other torturers (military torturers and torturers in the rendition programs) refused to their captives, to their suspects. There were no trials. There were no lawyers. There was no protection against self-incrimination. No due process, no rights of prisoners at all, and above all, no protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
George Washington admonished his troops against torture although the British and especially the Hessian mercenaries tortured, cruelly tortured our American soldiers during the Revolution. This is established in the book, Washington's Crossing in which the author tells us that a surprising number of the Hessian soldiers who were our captives and our enemies during that war came to America to live. That we did not torture them although they tortured our soldiers may have won their respect and trust. We gained friends because we did not torture.
I suppose that the British viewed our revolutionaries as nothing more than terrorists. History has shown and our Constitution proves that they were idealists who wished more than anything to create in the new world a new society that recognized the inherent dignity in each person.
The torture program is a betrayal of George Washington's leadership in our honorable revolution. It is a betrayal of the due process guaranteed in our Constitution.
Republicans argue that due process need only be granted within the US. Due process is a fundamental right. It is the basis of liberty. We should show by example that due process and liberty are not just our rights but the rights of citizens the world over.
The Republicans, I suspect, will issue their own torture report once they are in charge in the Senate. I suppose it will be, like the arguments of Fred ..l... unsupported by evidence. Fred ...... could have cited one instance in which the torture actually revealed new facts. I believe that the report now out shows that the intelligence Fred . . . . cited such as the information about Bin Laden's whereabouts was not learned through torture although it may have been corroborated by torture.
I hope that the Republicans who justify and approve of the torture do not at the same time claim to be Christians. Jesus was very explicit: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
If we do not want others to torture our soldiers and our agents, we should not torture theirs.
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