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politics

Debate over Interrogation Tactics Continues

Kaitlynn Riely

Posted: Apr 21st 2009 8:43AM

Filed under: Politics, News, Notre Dame

President Obama is making a mistake by not pursuing any prosecutions for those responsible for the harsh interrogation techniques that were used during the Bush administration.

Last week, I posted a blog piece about the legal memos released by the Justice Department that detailed the interrogation techniques used by the United States on people suspected of involvement in terrorist acts or planning. Obama reportedly agonized over the release of the memos, weighing whether their release was necessary for transparency of government or whether releasing the memos would compromise the security of the United States.

When he did release them, he announced that those who had carried out the torture, believing their actions were lawful, would not be subject to prosecution.

George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's "This Week," asked White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Sunday whether the president also ruled out prosecution for the officials who devised the torture polices.

Emanuel responded: "He believes that people in good faith were operating with the guidance they were provided."

Stephanopoulos followed up with the same question.

"Yeah, but those who devised the policy, he believes that they were, should not be prosecuted either," Emanuel said.

Obama visited the Central Intelligence Agency Monday to thank agents for their service and to offer reassurance about the after effects of the release of the memos.

"Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes," Obama said. "That's how we learn. But the fact that we are willing to acknowledge them and then move forward, that is precisely why I am proud to be President of the United States, and that's why you should be proud to be members of the CIA."

If the policy in place before was a mistake, if it was wrong, if it was torture, how can we just "move forward" without anyone facing retribution for their actions, or for what they allowed to happen?

If there's no penalty for breaking the U.S. law against torture, the law will be hard to enforce in the future. News sources have reported that two captured al Qaeda operatives were subjected to waterboarding 266 times. If waterboarding is torture, then the law has been broken, and someone, or multiple people, must face the consequences.

A day after Emanuel's interview, The New York Times reported that White House aides did not rule out legal sanctions for the Bush-era lawyers who legally justified using the harsh interrogation techniques.

The change to U.S. interrogation policy is a good step forward, but if Obama allows those who developed the interrogation policy used under the Bush administration to go unpunished, then the United States' past mistakes will not be fully corrected, and our moral standing in the world will be questionable.

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mayabelle1107

9:36AM 9:36AM Apr 21st 2009

Norman Mattoon Thomas (Nov. 20, 1884 - Dec. 19, 1968) was a leading socialist, pacifist, and six time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. In a 1944 speech explaining why he need not run for president anymore, he said this..."The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."....He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform."

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mahalapril

12:13PM 12:13PM Apr 21st 2009

Why won't the Obama Administration prosecute the tax cheaters in Obama's cabinet by waterboarding,sending to jail or beheading[Geithner,Sebelius,Daschle]. The corrupt democratic homo Frank and lying weasel Dodd.The anti-America ,anti-white and anti-military racists including Obama,Wright,Pfleger,Pelosi and Murtha.How about domestic terrorist Ayers,Blago,Acorn. Why worry about the illegal human rights of the islamic terrorists and ignore the suffering,torture and massacre of the 3,000 innocent American civilians on 9/11. Obama must be an islamic trojan horse trying to destroy our country from within economically because the islamic terrorists can't do it militarily.

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1:12PM 1:12PM Apr 21st 2009

You're suggesting we retroactively charge people with crimes when what they did was certainly not a crime at the time? Ugh! You can't be serious.

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mahalapril

2:02PM 2:02PM Apr 21st 2009

J - You must be very young.The earlier genrations of Americans were honest,honorable. During those times if any politician is caught cheating an immediate resignation would be demanded and they are forced to resign without exception. Tax cheaters go to jail. This is how our country has become now. You can lie without remorse. Remember Bill Clinton the womanizer denying having sex with Monica on national TV. Nixon at least had the honor of resigning as president after he was impeached during the watergate incident.Obama is a pathological liar, very cool under pressure even when lying without remorse. Can you count how many lies Obama made?

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Bob Balliet

1:01PM 1:01PM Apr 22nd 2009

If, as you say, "earlier generations of Americans were honest and honorable" how did they raise this generation so "corrupt and without morals" as you intimate?
Corruption and lack of morals did not begin with the current generation - for they must have learned those traits from those who raised them ... who then caused some of their peers to pick up on them. My point is, there are 'good' and 'bad' Americans in every generation - it's called being human.

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mahalapril

2:17PM 2:17PM Apr 21st 2009

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Mindy

3:09PM 3:09PM Apr 21st 2009

Waterboarding is not torture. They use it to train our soldiers how to resist when captured. Ask a NAVY SEAL. The USA is much weaker now thanks to Apprentice Obama. With these damn liberals in charge Uncle Sam should bend over and grab his ankles and wait for Osama and his boys to have their way. We are screwed.

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eyeswideopen911

3:42PM 3:42PM Apr 21st 2009

WOULD OTHER COUNTRYS GIVE UP SENSITIVE DATA I DON'T THINK SO, WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS GREAT COUNTRY? WE HAVE PEOPLE IN OFFICE WHO HATE AMERICA. THIS IS THE ONLY THING THESE CROOKS HAVE BEEN TRANSPARENT ABOUT, MAKES ME SICK TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY AMERICA.LETTING THE TERRORIST KNOW ARE WHAT WE ARE DOING. GOD HELP US , I THINK WE ARE IN THE TWILGHT ZONE.WAKE UP AMERICANS WE HAVE TO STOP THESE NUT BALLS BEFORE IT'S TO LATE. WE HAVE TO KEEP THE TEA PARTIES GOING .

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eyeswideopen911

3:57PM 3:57PM Apr 21st 2009

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT OUR PRESIDENT WOULD GIVE UP SENSITIVE DATA TO OUR ENEMYS,WHAT OTHER COUNTRY WOULD DO THIS, NOT ONE THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME. ALL I CAN THINK IS THAT WE HAVE PEOPLE RUNNING THE SHOW WHO HATE AMERICA. THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT THEY HAVE MADE TRANSPARENT. THEY HAVE TO GO. WE THE PEOPLE HAVE TO STOP THEM BEFORE THERE IS NO MORE AMERICA. LETS KEEP THE TEA PARTIES GOING MORE THAN EVER NOW.

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mayabelle1107

6:13PM 6:13PM Apr 21st 2009

SANITY: Capturing battlefield combatants that have declared jihad on every US citizen and detaining them in a non-US location. Then, interrogating them with all resources available, less severe bodily injury or death, in order to retrieve information that leads to thousands of civilian and innocent lives being saved......INSANITY: Closing said location for political gain and potentially releasing psychotic muslim extremists onto the streets of USA. Pandering to rogue dictators that have denied the Holocaust and sworn death to all Americas. Bowing to saudi kings that funded the training of 17 terrorists that killed more than 3000 Americans. The seizing of banks, corporations and soon to be transit...............You figure it out. Bizarro world....

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sweettea2u

11:40AM 11:40AM Apr 22nd 2009

Just because the prison is closed does not mean the men will be released, they will just be sent to different countries.

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BUBBA

7:00PM 7:00PM Apr 21st 2009

WHEN IT COMES TO PROTECTING AMERICAN LIVES FROM THESE TOWEL HEAD MUSLIM TERRORISTS, I SAY ANYTHING GOES!!

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David T. Jump

8:34PM 8:34PM Apr 21st 2009

We're at war, people. You capture an enemy combatant, you rigorously interrogate.

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delphinias

10:46PM 10:46PM Apr 21st 2009

Heady debate here at Anything But "Bright Hall."

Plenty o' fascists out posting from their basement bomb shelters.

Hatred seems to be in plentiful supply here in the Land O' The Free. How is it again? How are we expected to Lead the World when the only thing they are certain of is the Vigor of their Hatred?

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Allenb

3:01PM 3:01PM Apr 23rd 2009

I think anyone planning another 9/11 should be certain of the vigor of our hatred.

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SAM

5:26AM 5:26AM Apr 22nd 2009

WE NEED TO EXPAND THESE POWERS TO INCLUDE DOMESTIC TERRORIST. AN DEMESTIC TERR. DEFINITION NEEDS TO BE EXPICH ANDED TO INCLUDED ANY ALL PEOPLE OR CORPORATION WHICH HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS PEOPLE AND SHOULD BE SUBJECT TO THE SAME LEGAL ACTIONS. ANY AMERICAN OR AMERICAN COMPANY WHICH KNOWING PHYSICAL, MENTAL OR ECONOMIC HARM TO FELLOW AMERICAN SHOULD BE TREATED AS A ENEMY OF OUR REPUBLIC AND THEY SHOULD BE DEALT WITH THE SAME TATICS THAT ARE USED ON VIOLENT TERRORESTS. END OF STORY.

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chris

11:03AM 11:03AM Apr 22nd 2009

hey torture advocates:

before, if you were the supportive spouse of someone who committed themselves to service in our military and your loved one was captured and waterboarded and kept in coffin like spaces and held in other stress positions for days and denied sleep and subjected to extremes of heat and cold and maybe hauled around hooded and naked after that while being barked at by dogs and then maybe lying on the floor in a puddle while someone shoved things into their rectum,
you could say:

"HEY !!! my loved one was tortured by our evil enemy. forces of justice in the world should rally around our cause to defeat them before they torture more people, because we all know torture is wrong."

but now all i guess you could say about that was, all's fair in war. just a a normal interrogation, too bad my loved one got caught.

still, i think if you ask someone who has actually been tortured, say john mcain, if all that stuff is torture he would say yes and if you ask him if the u.s. should be torturing people he would say no.

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sweettea2u

11:40AM 11:40AM Apr 22nd 2009

Whether waterboarding is illegal is probalby the least of what was done to people. In a chat room, a year before the pictures were released of naked men piled up together, with other men holding dogs, I saw those pictures and they were disgusting. I was told that those pictures were nothing, that the men carried out in body bags that were tortured to death was what was bad, and that many pictures would never be released because it would so inflame the American people. The war heroes of world war 1 and world war 2 would tell you torture is wrong. That is why the Geneva convention rules were implemented. Therefore, anyone torturing our troops or anyone else could be convicted of war crimes. If we, a moral nation, become immoral, then is evil all that is left?

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Clay

2:37PM 2:37PM Apr 22nd 2009

What Debate? Theres nothing to debate! It was wrong then, and its wrong now! Cheney decides to fart and all the Repubs want to smell it?LOL!

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Clay

11:48PM 11:48PM Apr 22nd 2009

What debate? Theres no debate at all! Its WRONG!, end of story! LOL! We're talking about interrogation techniques on people from a country we NEVER should have been in, in the first place! Bush used Iraq as a tool to spend us into this debacle to take us over, but it didn't quite work, did it? In 2004 Bush put himself in a position to become military dictator, but it failed before he could complete it!Shades of Adolf Hitler!

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