Finally some GOOD news out of Guantanamo Bay... Today's MSNBC reports that honor and common sense have not been completely lost in the case of Gitmo. We find that senior U.S. law enforcement investigators have been struggling against inhumanity, indecency, and FOR interrogations and punishments that will actually be effective in our battle to defend ourselves from terrorists and get some real intelligence.
In part one of a two part series, MSNBC investigates how these brave men have fought for their country in order to live up to their duties in the best way possible. They have set aside the tactics of Soviet style brutality ala Rumsfeld/Gonzales that only hurts America and inspires more hate against us all from the rest of the world.
Gitmo Report
EXCERPT:
[...]
former leaders of the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigation Task Force said they repeatedly warned senior Pentagon officials beginning in early 2002 that the harsh interrogation techniques used by a separate intelligence team would not produce reliable information, could constitute war crimes, and would embarrass the nation when they became public knowledge.
[...]
The law enforcement agents, who were building criminal cases against the detainees, also say that military prosecutors told them that abusive interrogations at Guantanamo compromised the chance to bring some suspected terrorists to trial. Among them, the agents say, is Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi whom the Pentagon has described as the intended 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"We were told by the Office of Military Commissions, based on what was done to him, it made his case unprosecutable," said Mark Fallon, the deputy commander and special agent in charge of the Criminal Investigation Task Force from 2002 to 2004. "It would taint any confession if obtained under coercion. They were unwilling to move forward with any prosecution of al-Qahtani."
[...]
It was two years before the photos emerged from Abu Ghraib, the Pentagon cops said, when they began arguing that coercive or abusive interrogations would not serve war-fighting or justice.
"No. 1, it’s not going to work," said Col. Brittain P. Mallow, the commander of the task force from 2002 to 2005. No. 2, if it does work, it’s not reliable. No. 3, it may not be legal, ethical or moral. No. 4, it’s going to hurt you when you have to prosecute these guys. No. 5, sooner or later, all of this stuff is going to come to light, and you’re going to be embarrassed."
I understand there is a knee jerk mentality to "Get Medieval" on their asses. But that's just ridiculous over-macho posturing. If we want to protect the United States, it MUST be done with honor, dignity, and morality. If you believe that torture works- you might want to google Chechnya and see how well its working for Putin. (It's not). Here's more on why torture doesn't work, why it hurts America and why it will result in more dead soldiers and civilians in the future -
Torture
The point is- MORE and MORE actual investigators and professionals are coming out of the woodwork, to repeat, louder and louder - that Torture doesn't work. Maybe you can believe them- and NOT just regular American citizens like me - as our nation's current sadistic leaders continue to offer the people who they are supposed to be serving, helpings of twisted bloody failures time and again.
I do worry quite a bit about my children growing up in a world that is starting to hate and disrespect Americans for the disrespectful and reprehensible actions of our current leadership.
EXCERPT
"We will not be a party to this'"
What makes me intensely proud of all these individuals was they said, ‘We will not be party to this, even if we're ordered to do so,’" said Alberto J. Mora, the former general counsel of the Navy, who ultimately got Secretary Rumsfeld to roll back permission for some of the harshest interrogation techniques. "They are heroes, and there's no other way to describe them. They demonstrated enormous personal courage and personal integrity in standing up for American values and the system we all live for."
Part Two of the MSNBC Report
Who do we want to be, as a country?
"It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives." Dorothy Thompson
"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." Goethe
The choice, to me, is a very easy one.
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