We Don't Condone Torture, We Just Choreograph It

We Don't Condone Torture, We Just Choreograph It

In an April 11th interview with ABC News this past week, President Bush admitted that he knew his top national security advisers, including Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who chaired these meetings, discussed and approved details about how the CIA would interrogate so-called “high value” al Qaeda suspects. Bush told White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "[Y]es, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved," (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/Story?id=4635175).

This interview was a follow-up to an ABC News report on April 8^th which alleged that, “a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding. The high-level discussions about these 'enhanced interrogation techniques' were so detailed, sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic,” (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4583256&page=1).

You can call it “enhanced interrogation,” but I strongly suspect that if these same techniques were used against American citizens or soldiers by other governments, our leaders would be protesting loud and clear that they were being “tortured.”

Given the Bush Administration's credibility gap on its pre-war information, it is also disheartening to find out that these same “top advisors” like Condoleeza Rice have repeatedly testified to Congress under oath that the Bush Administration does not use or condone torture, even as she chaired meetings where the scripts for torture sessions were being prepared and then passed on to the CIA.

In our legal system, we hold people accountable for being accessories to crime just as much we those who actually commit the crime in question. If you drive a bank robber to the bank that person then holds up, you are subject to prosecution just as much as the person who robbed the bank.

Should we not then hold Secretary Rice and these other top advisors as both legally and morally culpable for their participation in torture practices that are specifically proscribed under our legal system?

It is time for the American people to decide what kind of nation we really are. How do we want the rest of the world to see us? Do we believe in the rule of law? And do we believe that our leaders should be held accountable for following the laws of our land?

Those who argue in favor of retaining torture for “pragmatic” reasons, even as a a hypothetical “last resort” to frighten potential terrorists, always turn to the “ticking bomb” example.

In this scenario, a terrorist has a device – explosive, maybe nuclear – that will kill thousands of people, and we can get the code to turn it off in time, if only we're willing and able to use torture. If this sounds like a bad Hollywood cliff-hanger, it should, because it only happens on TV.

What should shock us out of our complacency about this idea that we would only use torture in this kind of a worst-case scenario is that we now have solid evidence that torture has been used and approved by our leaders again and again, not only against “high value” Al Qaeda suspects, but also against innocent bystanders who have been “rendered” for torture to cooperating nations because they happened to pass through a U.S. airport or had a name similar to that of an alleged terrorists. None of these instances involved a “ticking bomb” or any imminent threat to U.S. citizens.

President Bush can call it “connecting the dots” as he did in his ABC interview, and claim that he is just protecting the American people, but the fact is that Bush and his advisors repeatedly have told the American people that they do not condone or practice torture, when they were not only authorizing torture but planning it out to the last detail.

It is time for Americans to reject the use of torture absolutely and unequivocally. We should demand that our leaders adhere to the definition of torture outlined under the Geneva Conventions, and we should demand the resignation of those top advisers who not only advocated torture but choreographed its application to those held in U.S. custody.

We can begin by calling for the resignation of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who chaired these meetings and allegedly told the CIA to “go for it.”

You can see the Secretary's repeated testimony under oath as well as ABC news report allegations and a videotape of an unidentified victim experiencing waterboarding in a new film, “Condi Must GO!” (http://bravenewfilms.org/watch/19970507/35714?utm_source=rgemail ) along with a petition calling for the Secretary's immediate resignation.

Americans need to hold this administration accountable not only for its illegal use of torture but also for its hypocrisy in saying that it rejects torture even as it employs these abhorrent practices under another name.