Bush’s Veto of Anti-Torture Legislation and Its Damage to America

By Brigitte L. Nacos
In today’s radio address President Bush revealed that he had vetoed legislation that would have prohibited the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics. He justified his veto by stating that the prohibitions "would take away one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror." And he added, "This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.” In other words, torture continues to be allowed in Mr. Bush’s “war on terrorism.”
Besides prohibiting torture altogether, the vetoed bill would have banned the following:

Forcing a prisoner to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner.
Placing hoods or sacks over the head of a prisoner, and using duct tape over the eyes.
Waterboarding.
Using military working dogs.
Inducing hypothermia or heat injury.
Depriving a prisoner of necessary food, water or medical care.

Even after America and the world saw the horrible visuals of Abu Ghraib and learned of “harsh interrogation” methods in other American-run facilities, the administration denied that detainees were being or had been tortured. After the U.S. Congress adopted and the president signed a bill with anti-torture provisions in October 2006, Bush insisted in his signing statement that is was the president’s prerogative to decide what methods CIA interrogators were allowed to use. But in the same breath, he continued to tell Americans and the rest of the world, “The United States does not torture. It’s against our laws and it’s against our values. I have not authorized it.” Similarly, right after Vice President Richard Cheney stated in a radio interview the “dunk in water” (meaning waterboarding) in the interrogation of detainees was a “no-brainer” he added, “We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in.”

The White House clung to the “we-do-not-torture” line after CIA director Michael V. Hayden admitted earlier this year that waterboarding had been used during the interrogations of three leading al-Qaeda figures, Abavdah, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. But at the same time, a White House spokesperson said that President Bush would “authorize waterboarding future terrorism suspects if certain criteria are met.” And Vice-President Cheney defended the use of harsh interrogation techniques on a few suspected terrorists, saying that the methods made up “a tougher program, for tougher customers.”
It is clear that neither the president nor vice-president consider waterboarding or the other harsh interrogation techniques listed above to be torture.

Several months after 9/11, in an interview with al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden said, “The values of this Western civilization and under the leadership of America have been destroyed. Those awesome symbolic towers that speak of liberty, human rights, and humanity have been destroyed. They have gone up in smoke.”
Unfortunately, bin Laden is more right on the “value thing” today than when he made the cited statement. And although much was wrong with the U.S.A. PATRIOT ACT and a host of other overt and covert so-called counterterrorism measures, nothing has been more devastating to our ability to take the moral high ground on human rights than President George W. Bush’s and his administration’s stance on terrorism.

Comments

[anonymous]

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Community under ground communications different color tints represent once become hoaxed translucent to solid impersonates Silent physical personal ID’s body language outside race both sexes Selected liquor stores strip clubs jail penitentiaries gain inside outside communications experienced in the hole Empty rental house all black tinted windows satellite dishes restrained by law Public gambling form mug shots Informants one field condoned marijuana sales control stronger substances Made incoherent blacked out seconds dangerous alterations ball caps subliminal vehicle messages Punched back of heads hair hides wife kept hidden self face down Wood bonding company Unknown Sony greyhound spoke nervous Italian attempted detour truck stop impersonated fake English style accent in one ways scrambles identity Cellular lap top Through the people Police etc judge in one ways unknown Caucasian female tail inside outside communication yelling scrambles identity. 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[anonymous]

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called court from the hole "you should of been out." One probation visit 3 fake urine analysis
proven negative hospital.

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[lord rev dyjuan d barnes YAHWEH]

BUSH AND HIS SUPPORTERS ALL CONTINUE TO DESTROY THE USA ALL OF THEM ARE JACKASSES THAT I WOULD NOT TRUST TO CLEAN UP THE ANIMAL SHIT IN MY YARD THEY ARE THE DEVILS SEED AND THUS THE CHILDREN OF THE ANTICHRIST AND ARE IN TOTAL VIOLATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT NUMBER 8 AND EVEN 14 SEC 1 I THOUGHT THAT BUSH TOOK AN OATH TO DEFEND TO PROTECT AND TO UPHOLD THE US CONSTITUTION BUT BOTH BUSH AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE DISRESPECTED THE US CONSTITUTION WITH THEIR NEO NAZI CONSERVETISM

[USpace]

.
I bet you also don't believe that Islamofascists want to enslave the Earth under Sharia law. Violating human rights, especially women's and gay's.

Stoning adulterers and women who have been raped and make the mistake of complaining.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

The moonbats on the Left are insane. If they want to know what torture is
they should take a look at the Al Qaeda torture manual that was found by troops in Iraq,
or what their Communist friends in China do to dissidents and the Falun Gong.

absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
let yourself be tortured

have water poured on you
or have fingernails torn out

absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
never use torture

even to save millions
allow them all to die

http://www.faluninfo.net/torturemethods2/

http://haltterrorism.com/
.

[Brigitte]

Bruno:
You are right. As as I wrote in my reply to Eric, without people with high moral standards in the U.S. military, the truth about Abu Ghraib would not have come out. And, yes, part of the military's opposition to torturing "unlawful combatants" or prisoners of war is precisely the certainty that this will encourage the torture of American soldiers and others who fall into the hands of enemies.

[Bruno]

Hold on guys, people who think like Eric Chen will not be swayed by what you're saying. It is arguably, "too abstract". So let me remind Mr. Chen that torture DOES NOT WORK. This is well-know, even by the US Army who Mr. Chen just stops short of implying its views he represents. Many millions of people have been tortured through history, most of them, obviously, innocent. There really is no argument.

[Brigitte]

Tony:
Yes, I also want to point to Albert Bendura's concept of "moral disengagement" and the stages that allow terrorists to perpetrate violence against civilians. This same concept, including the dehumanization of the enemy, is applicable to those able to torture--in the context we discuss terrorists and, mostly, alleged terrorists.
My work on this shows precisely that the same justifications are at work here.
And, again, we do not want to get down to the level of terrorists.

[Brigitte]

Eric:

There are many issues on which reasonable people can disagree on.
Torture is not one of those issues.
If we are abandoning our values, we will become just as the terrorists.
You write about your military and law enforcement background. Well, without people in the military who stood by the domestic and international prohibitions against torture, we would not have learned about what happened at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Moreover, well respected and high ranking military officers have voiced their opposition to torture.
Most of the detainees characterized as "enemy combatants" have not been terrorists. But even those who are should be treated according to our laws.
If we abandon our laws and values, we will become like terrorists.

[Tony]

Ha ha ha. That's like saying we had to destroy the village to save it, or Peace Through War, and other Orwellian newspeak. I don't remember discussions of "torture," "preemptive war," or these other fundamentalist terms in my study of Rousseau. As far as a Social Contract exists, it cannot possibly apply to dealings with a foreign state with different values. But I look no further than D Hume to find a learned critic of SC Theory. Dr Nacos, I sincerely believe that your position is the correct one, and that the previous poster might acquaint himself with the work of Lawrence Kohlberg and the stages of moral development. There is intelligent life beyond Stages Four and Five. Tony Out.

[Eric Chen]

Professor,

"High ground" is a good way to describe it.

Protecting the lives and the security of our society by defeating dedicated - and proven successful - mass-murdering terrorists is not on the "high ground" of human rights. Rather, what President Bush advocates is in the essential infrastructure that our ideology of human rights requires at its foundation in order they attain (or retain) real-life function and application.

In other words, the security measures championed by President Bush are not the diametric opposite of the human rights you defend. Rather, security is the unnegotiable prerequisite, the sequential predecessor, for our ideology of human rights. The Social Contract must come first. That's the hard lesson that idealistic Western, Iraqi, and Afghani peace-builders have learned from the same terrorists whom President Bush intends for us to defeat. For you to imply that the old lessons re-learned today 'over there' somehow don't apply to the rest of us is arrogant indeed.

As an American, I believe that, of course, we should continue to strive toward the moral high ground and advance our ideology of human rights. But President Bush, better than you, hits the mark for what's needed in order for us to do so. The priority is to strengthen the foundation on which our society is built, especially when the foundation is under attack, and defeat a dedicated, capable enemy.

Admittedly, my point of view is colored because I have some military and law enforcement in my background, in addition to my Columbia Poli-Sci/IR BA. But I've also walked the utilitarian tunnels under the beautiful classical architecture of our campus and worked enough with our security and maintenance staffs to know that the fundamentals still apply even for our Ivory Tower.