Wrong, Dangerous, Dumb
Australian Broadcasting leads with: Guantanamo interrogation ‘wrong, dangerous, dumb’
“If, in fact, we are treating prisoners this way, it’s not only wrong, but dangerous, and very dumb, and very short-sighted,” said Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on CNN’s Late Edition.
“I just think it’s a terrible mistake,” echoed Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
Senator Hagel, a veteran of the Vietnam war, warned a leadership vacuum at the top of the military hierarchy can end “in disaster for us and humility for this country”.
“If there’s a vacuum, something will fill that vacuum,” he said.
I realize these people are “shocked, shocked” that we are treating prisoners like this. It’s not as if Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the American Civil Liberties Union, retired military legal officers haven’t been pointing these things out for years. It’s not as if there aren’t memos authorizing these sorts of things out in the public arena. It’s not as if there isn’t a stack of depositions in court cases around the globe from people who have been held in American custody reporting these techniques. Nothing in that prisoner log is new or different. None are so blind as those who will not see.
The defense is that this individual is one of a very large number of people who were supposedly the mythical “20th highjacker” [as he is a Saudi, he is a better candidate than most for that fabled spot on the roster], and he gave important information on recruiting and logistics. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but if I were planning an attack on an enemy headquarters I wouldn’t be targeting the supply sergeant or the personnel clerk.
