Category Archives: Torture

USA – Still better than North Vietnam. Just less so.

Center for American Progress, Fool Me Twice: The letter of the Conventions was certainly preserved: the bill refuses the president’s demand that Congress rewrite the law to reinterpret U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

But their integrity and spirit is another matter.

Instead of reinterpreting the Conventions directly, the bill does so indirectly, granting the president the authority to issue his own interpretations and making them virtually unchallengeable in court. The bill strips detainees of the ability to challenge the factual and legal basis for their confinement. And it confers retroactive immunity on government officials responsible for serious human rights violations by permitting prosecutions under the War Crimes Act of only the grossest abuses.

What this means is that instead of curbing the secret detention and abuse of terrorist suspects, the bill would authorize the president to continue these practices. While certain “grave breaches”� of the Geneva Conventions would be outlawed, the bill leaves ambiguous which of the catalogue of “alternative interrogation procedures” employed by the CIA would be prohibited.

And, of course, Marty Lederman, Oh, Well, That Explains It:

Courtesy of the New York Times, here’s your very own handy-dandy pocket-sized flow chart for understanding what the “compromise” legislation would, and would not, prohibit.

And now, just for kicks, compare that to this alternative description of what the law forbids:

“[T]he following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to [detainees]: violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.”

Which statement of the law is more “vague” and ambiguous?

Trainwreck in slow motion. Right before your eyes.

We have to do something — but what?

I am too thoroughly depressed by recent events to post anything about the capitulation of the power centers of the Senate to the administration’s program of lawlessness, torture, with the undermining of one of the great success stories of international legality thrown in for garnish.

Fortunately, others are made of sterner stuff.

Marty Lederman, The Torture Chorus

Marty Lederman, Senators Snatch Defeat From Jaws of Victory: U.S. to be First Nation to Authorize Violations of Geneva

Marty Lederman, Three of the Most Significant Problems with the “Compromise”

Stanford Levinson, Legal Realism 101 and the McCain Capitulation

The Carpetbagger Report, McCain, Warner, and Graham cut and ran

The Democrats, having until now largely chosen to stay quiet on grounds of political expediency, now face a moral choice about how hard to fight the destruction of habeas corpus and the ratification of de facto unreviewable power to torture.

First option, block this horror — filibuster if needed — and risk paying a political price: For a taste of the ‘vote for us or die‘ campaign that’s in the works, see this utterly repulsive ad already being run by Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT). And recall that Johnson is supposedly one of the nicer Republicans (and a new friend of Sen. Lieberman’s).

Second option, do the usual infective stuff and pay a different political price (the base will turn on you, as will anyone else with some decency). Plus earn a black spot in history.

Someone gets it: The National Council of Churches takes out a big ad in the New York Times to say that Torture is a Moral Issue. President Carter is one of the signatories.

Amazing that it needs saying.

Even more amazing that a House committee just voted (on second try) to authorize the government to torture away…

And spot all the euphemisms running around: “harsh interrogation techniques,” “enhanced questioning” or “aggressive methods”. It is nothing less than horrible.

The headline of today’s editorial in the Washington Post says almost all of it: A Defining Moment for America – The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture.

Here’s the political snapshot: the house has fallen into line and has voted to give the president unreviewable authority to torture. The Senate has balked, and has voted an alternative bill that is merely very very bad rather than despicable. Senator Reid, the Democratic minority leader, has indicated that Bush’s version would be filibustered if it made it to the floor. President Bush has vowed to veto the Senate bill if it gets to his desk (but I personally predict this is a hollow threat). There have been some heavyweight letters on all sides which I haven’t the time to summarize while at these meetings.

No bill at all would be the best outcome, and there’s at least some hope of it. But I’m not hopeful yet.

Kevin Drum asks (rhetorically), Torture?:

President Bush announced yesterday that 14 “high value detainees” would be transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay. ABC News describes the interrogation techniques that have been used on on them:

The first — the attention grab, involving the rough shaking of a prisoner.

Second — the attention slap, an open-handed slap to the face.

Third — belly slap, meant to cause temporary pain, but no internal injuries.

Fourth —long-term standing and sleep deprivation, 40 hours at least, described as the most effective technique.

Fifth — the cold room. Prisoners left naked in cells kept in the 50s and frequently doused with cold water.

The CIA sources say the sixth, and harshest, technique was called “water boarding,” in which a prisoner’s face was covered with cellophane, and water is poured over it (pictured above) — meant to trigger an unbearable gag reflex.

Is this torture?

I can’t see how anyone can call waterboarding anything other than torture. I’d also include some of the others on this list — even “open” or “belly” slapping prisoners sounds like a milder form of torture and, whatever you call it, is banned by both the Geneva conventions and every code of practice we use domestically.

And it’s all wrong.