Nightline 1/6: Torture and the next attorney general

[Bozita]

from their daily email:


THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT: Torture and the next attorney general

Jan. 6, 2005  

Alberto Gonzales is President Bush's choice for attorney general. While serving as Bush's chief White House counsel, his legal advice played a key role in the decisions to allow aggressive interrogations of terrorism detainees. Critics have said that those decisions opened the way for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and the resulting damage to the United States' worldwide reputation.


It is hard to imagine that Gonzales will not be approved by the Senate and go on to be the next attorney general. The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee know the numbers. They don't have the votes to stop it. But nevertheless they have spent most of today's hearing giving Gonzales a rough going-over, focusing on his role in the administration's controversial policies on torture.

Why bother? They know they will lose the political battle. In part, this is what the party in the minority does. But there is more than just political theater here. There is an underlying national debate that is most unsettled. What constitutes torture? When is it permissible?

If my children were being held hostage by two hostage takers -- and I had the opportunity to interrogate the third hostage taker, I know I'd be tempted to use torture. In fact, resisting torture would be very difficult. Maybe impossible. So in extreme circumstances should torture be permissible? If law enforcement had the 9/11 terrorists -- or the military had the Mosul dining tent terrorist under interrogation on the eve of those horrific events, what should be allowed that might, just might, lead to information that could avert those events?

Tonight ABC's Senior Correspondent Jim Wooten will look at the Gonzales hearing and the underlying debate about torture. And Ted Koppel will talk to a former CIA agent about the temptation to use torture during interrogations, and the training he underwent to learn how to resist torture if he is ever captured.

Today's political battle will be settled soon. But the country's position on torture is an ongoing and painful issue that is most certainly not being settled any time soon. As you consider your position on either side of that debate, we hope you'll join us.

Sara Just & The Nightline Staff
Senior Producer
Washington Bureau

[shance]

1. Media manipulation? The NEXT Attorney General? Has the vote happened?

n/t

[Bozita]

2. It's worth watching -- Koppel was asking some hard questions

Some of the answers weren't worth a damn.

IIRC, the beheadings didn't start until well after the Abu Graib story broke.

[Bozita]

3. leftcoast starting time is ... NOW