Evidently, CIA director Michael Hayden decided that Super Tuesday was a good day to bury bad news, and he wasn’t far from wrong. Yesterday Director Hayden admitted that the US Government has used waterboarding on at least 3 people. This is the first such clear admission by the Bush Administration.
Let’s be clear. Waterboarding is torture and torture is a crime.
- The Anti-Torture Act criminalizes the use of torture;
- Article 3 of the Geneva Convention prohibits cruel treatment, torture and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
- The War Crimes Act criminalizes the use of torture and abuse against detainees protected by the Geneva Conventions, which includes terrorist suspects;
- The U.S.-ratified Convention Against Torture prohibits all torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment;
- The McCain Amendment of the Detainee Treatment Act reaffirms the prohibition of torture in the Convention Against Torture;
- General criminal laws such as federal statutes criminalize conduct such as assaults by or against Americans in federal facilities.
I like to think that on any other day, an admission by the Director of the CIA that employees of the federal government violated international and federal laws would be a headline. I’d like to think that people would notice. However, after the litany of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Bush Administration, the public has grown too weary to care. And with the feeding frenzy of the election to replace Bush, the press hardly noticed.
Are we still a good and decent people? Do we still care if our government violated the law? If we are, then don’t let this be buried. Don’t let this issue die. Write a letter to the editor. Blog about it. Tell everyone you know about it. We can’t let the head of the CIA go to Congress and admit that the US violated laws without consequences.