Tag: torture

Constitutional Amendment VIII

Post author By David
Post date May 28, 2009
8 Comments on Constitutional Amendment VIII

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Like the second amendment, the eighth Amendment leaves no room for exceptions.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

There are those who would argue that not all the rights in the Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to non-citizens. Depending on your definition of “rights” there may be room to make such an argument, but no definition of rights could be used to argue that this right does not apply to every person on earth and that our government should honor this right in all its actions.

This brings up the question of torture as a tool employed by our government. The amendment does not allow any room for any form of torture regardless of the existence of any Geneva convention or rules of war because torture is, by definition, cruel. The only argument that could be made is that, although cruel, torture is not used as punishment because it is administered not in retribution for crimes, but in search of information. I think it is obvious how flimsy such an argument would be.

On a related note, our current administration claims to forbid the use of torture (no way to verify those claims) but proclaims their intention to use indefinite detention on those they deem as threats but who cannot be convicted of any crime. This absolutely violates the fifth amendment right that “No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” While the relevant laws may vary between citizens and non-citizens, indefinite detention does not allow for that due process. If a person cannot be charged and convicted of a crime they should be released. If they are not a citizen they should be released to their country of citizenship.

Tags amendments, Bill of Rights, Constitution, documents, Elevated, history, torture

National

A Real American Hero

Lost in all the political bickering about the torture memos is are two significant questions. Does torture work? And is it compatible with American values? As an experienced interrogator who worked in Iraq Matthew Alexander has been speaking out on those two questions since at least November of 2008. I consider him a real hero because of his answers to those two questions and also because he is working so hard to advance this crucial debate so that our citizens may understand what is really at stake.

I really liked one quote from a Washington Post interview he did in November 2008:

My experiences have landed me in the middle of another war — one even more important than the Iraq conflict. The war after the war is a fight about who we are as Americans. Murderers like Zarqawi can kill us, but they can’t force us to change who we are. We can only do that to ourselves. One day, when my grandkids sit on my knee and ask me about the war, I’ll say to them, “Which one?”

By the way, his short answers to those two questions are “Not really” and “Absolutely not!” (My answers have always been “I have no experience with it but I suspect not” and “Absolutely not!”)

Tags Iraq, liberty, media, torture, values

life

Moving On

I’m getting tired of dwelling on being unsatisfied with my life. I’m going to make an effort to move on to other topics. Either they will be happier topics related to my life or else I will write about things that are outside of my life, like the fact that I found an interview discussing torture that aired on on NPR’s Talk of the Nation two days after I had posted on the subject.

After listening to that show today I realized that we must continue to address this issue until we get this administration to change their policy on torture to a policy that condemns torture outright. I hope that more people will take an absolute position similar to the one expressed by Ariel Dorfman (from the interview) and make it publicly known that we do not condone any torture as Americans.

Tags NPR, torture

General

Nugget of Truth

It is not often that I agree with Maureen Dowd more than grudgingly, but in her article about female interrogators torturing detainees in Iraq I found myself agreeing with her without reservation. She put the perfect perspective in one sentence: “However the Bush White House is redefining torture these days, the point is this: Such behavior degrades the women who are doing it, the men they are doing it to, and the country they are doing it for.”

There is no other point that could be made. It would be better in the long run to not have the intelligence gotten by such deplorable means then to stoop to such a level of depravity.

Tags Iraq, issues, New York Times, torture