Nation's Self-Respect Demands Impeachment ("Torture does not stop terrorism, torture is terrorism.")

[Hissyspit]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/365233_boyd01.html?source=rss

Our nation's self-respect demands impeachment
By LINDA BOYD
GUEST COLUMNIST

I wept to see Sami al Haj embrace his young son for the first time after six years in Guantanamo prison. Sami al Haj, a Sudanese news cameraman, was seized in Pakistan while working for al Jazeera News. He was imprisoned, tortured and brutalized by Americans while there. Like most prisoners held at Guantanamo, al Haj was never tried or charged.

After his release, Sami al Haj arrived in Sudan and was immediately rushed to a hospital by ambulance, weakened by his 438-day hunger strike in Guantanamo. His message to our government:

The U.S. government evidence against him says, "He was trained in the use of cameras by al Jazeera News."

The American people have a choice ahead of them. They can continue to be shamed as a nation of torturers, or they can put a stop to this administration's ongoing crimes against humanity.

Abusing and terrorizing innocent people doesn't make us safer. Imprisoning people without due process doesn't make us safer. Violating our laws, treaties and values doesn't make us safer.

U.S. military and FBI interrogation experts affirm that testimony obtained under torture is inaccurate and unreliable. In May, the FBI issued a scathing 371-page report on torture and war crimes compiled from observations at Guantanamo. Even the CIA concluded in a 1963 study that coercion is "not very helpful outside the context of producing false propaganda."

George W. Bush said, "We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture."

Recently, Bush admitted that he knew top administration officials met repeatedly in the White House to discuss coercive interrogation techniques, including torture, and that he "approved them."

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top administration officials have in fact condoned torture, and violated domestic and international laws that ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of human beings.

These laws include the Geneva Conventions, the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture and the U.S. Constitution. These laws are not invalidated, as the Bush team alleges, if prisoners are not on U.S. soil.

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Being a rogue nation is not in our best interest and exposes our soldiers and citizens to grave danger. Why hasn't Congress stopped torture?

It is unconscionable to simply wait for the torture team to leave office while hapless individuals are imprisoned without due process and tortured. Sami al Haj spoke of the many prisoners languishing in Guantanamo. In despair, many have tried to commit suicide.

Taking impeachment off the table means there is no limit to the Bush team's depravity, and that torture will continue in our name.

The administration is already expanding prisons around the world, where the abuse of human rights will continue. A new 40-acre prison is under construction in Afghanistan.

While Guantanamo's prison population is shrinking, prisoners from around the world are being redirected to U.S. prisons in Iraq, where they'll be more hidden from the public eye. Particularly disturbing are reports of children imprisoned by the U.S. in the Middle East and Guantanamo.

Eventually, some of our highest officials will be tried for war crimes in a court of international law.

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[n2doc]

1. K and R n/t

[Lugnut]

2. K&R n/t

[omega minimo]

3. Our nation's SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT demands impeachment

:eyes:

[Hissyspit]

4. .

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[lonestarnot]

6. K & R