I've not said much about the entire torture/interrogation debate. To be honest I've been struggling with what my thoughts were on the issue. I've come to some conclusions and it is time to post about them.
Let me begin by saying that my philosophy is important to me and adhering to it as best I can is a duty to which I attended myself long ago. I neither wish to be inconsistent in application of my philosophy, nor do I wish to become a hypocrite. At the root of this philosophy (
Objectivism) is both reason and ultimately liberty. While the United states is not an Objectivist nation by any stretch of the imagination, many of its founding principles (if not the application of those principles in practice) are rational and liberty oriented. If we are to live up to those ideals, things
like this cannot occur:
Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.
The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods.
The inquiry, which focused on the Canadian intelligence services, found that agents who were under pressure to find terrorists after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, falsely labeled an Ottawa computer consultant, Maher Arar, as a dangerous radical. They asked U.S. authorities to put him and his wife, a university economist, on the al-Qaeda "watchlist," without justification, the report said.
Arar was also listed as "an Islamic extremist individual" who was in the Washington area on Sept. 11. The report concluded that he had no involvement in Islamic extremism and was on business in San Diego that day, said the head of the inquiry commission, Ontario Justice Dennis O'Connor.
So, it was a mistake and regrettable, right? He was, what? Water-boarded and hazed? No.
He was held for questioning for 12 days [in the United States], then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.
O'Connor concluded "categorically there is no evidence" that Arar did anything wrong or was a security threat.
Although the report centered on Canadian actions, the counsel for the commission, Paul Cavalluzzo, said the results show that the U.S. practice of renditions "ought to be reviewed."
Reviewed? How about abolished.
One of my favorite books is Life and Death in Shanghai, which is the autobiography of Nien Cheng. From the Wiki entry on Mrs. Cheng:
Cheng endured six-and-a-half years of squalid and inhumane conditions in prison, all the while refusing to give any false confession. Her daughter Meiping Cheng, a prominent Shanghai film actress, was murdered by Maoists after the young woman refused to denounce her mother. Mrs. Cheng was rehabilitated after the Gang of Four was arrested, and she used the opportunity to leave for the United States, as she was still a constant target of surveillance by those who wished her ill.
Allow me to go into more detail. Arrested because she was the wife of someone who did business with capitalists, she was tortured and presented with false confessions to sign. At the bottom of the confessions would be a place for her name, and then the words "the criminal." She would sign under duress, but add "who has committed no crime." This woman's story is inspiring and her courage is amazing to me. And when I read her story many years ago, my hatred for the government that did this to her knew no bounds.
And now, I find my government is engaging in the same activities as Communist China. I do not believe we did not know about--and in fact didn't encourage--this man's torture in Syria.
Not only are we using an enemy to do are dirty work, we are becoming our own enemy by engaging in immoral acts.
It's one thing to say you want to turn off the heat in an interrogation cell, and I'm not really concerned about insulting a prisoner or making him feel uncomfortable. But sending innocent people to dungeons to be tortured? We cannot do this. We cannot allow this to happen under any guise or for any reason.
Not because there's a law that no one can enforce. Not because the same might happen to our people if they're captured by our enemies. But because it's morally wrong to initiate the use of physical force on an individual.
I'm not against raining hellfire down on our enemies, but we damn well better be certain who has actually wronged us and who has not. And that we have worked with a member of Bush's rightfully called Axis of Evil... what does that make us if we continue act in this way?
My government cannot do these things. My government cannot be a party to these things. I cannot stand for it, and I will not support those who agree to such immorality. It's not even about moral authority--it's just about being moral.
I want an investigation into who authorized this deportation of Mr. Arar to Syria. I want to know who knew about this. I want them put in jail for conspiracy to commit torture. And if this is a Bush policy, I want him impeached and removed from office. I don't give a shit about the political implications. I don't care if it means the liberals get into office for the next eight years and fuck up the war on terrorists.
Who's the terrorist in Mr. Arar's life? Where's the war on those who wronged him, and on which side will you fight?