H.D.S. Greenway: A tortured stance on torture

[Eugene]

Source: Boston Globe

H.D.S. GREENWAY

A tortured stance on torture

By H.D.S. Greenway | October 9, 2007

IN HALF a century of reporting around the world, I have
found that there was usually a feeling that the United
States stood for standards of liberty, human rights,
and the dignity of mankind. The Bush administration has
taken us off that gold standard and drained away much
of that reservoir of respect. The horrors of Abu Ghraib
and Guantanamo have eaten away at America's
credibility and moral standing, dismaying our friends
and empowering our enemies.

Washington shuddered last week when The New York
Times revealed that the Justice Department, under the
direction of Alberto Gonzales, had undermined the will
of Congress, the Supreme Court, as well as hard-won
national and international standards with secret legal
opinions supporting torture. "Shocking" was the word
Republican Senator Arlen Specter used, and well he
should.

Men and women of good will may differ on how much
power the executive branch should have, and how much
of our privacy and civil liberties need to be curtailed in
an age of terrorism. As the former deputy attorney
general, James Comey, who tried to stem the tide of
the administration's malfeasance, said: there are
"agonizing collisions" between the law and the desire
to protect Americans. But no good will can be ascribed
to those who secretly sought to undermine the republic
by their underhanded advocacy of torture.

Instead of entering into an honest debate, the
administration spoke of its "abhorrence" of torture
while at the same time secretly promoting it. Not
surprisingly, the fine hand of Vice President Dick
Cheney and his counsel, David Addington, could be
discerned. Despite his bluster, President Bush, "the
decider," has turned out to be a weak president,
riddled with insecurities masked by stubbornness,
who has allowed his subordinates to gnaw away at
the Constitution.

-snip-

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