Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Maybe now they will listen

I would love to begin this post by saying that everybody now agreed that torture should never be used to get information out of prisoners, and that we has a nation had already come out strong against it and apologized for our previous use of it, however, that is only wishful thinking. Instead of a happy post about how we have righted our wrongs since the illegal detention and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar this post is once more hoping that this latest bit of information on the use of torture by the U.S. Government will open the eyes of those who have thus far continued to defend the use of torture as a means of interrogation.

This all started in 2002 when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police informed, incorrectly, the U.S. that Arar was on a watch list for possible links to al-Quida. In fact Arar was not under investigation, but had simply had brief contact with someone who was. This was a mistake on Canada's part, and they are taking responsibility for this mistake. As a matter of fact it was there investigation into the matter that showed that they were at fault in this manner. Had the mistake ended there however it would have been no problem. The U.S. would have kept a close eye on Arar while he was in the U.S. on vacation, seen nothing wrong, and let him return home without further issue. This is how it should have occurred. He should have been given his right to freedom the same way anyone else is until they are proven guilty of a crime. This, however, is not what happened.

What did happen was he was detained by the U.S. government and then sent to Syria where he was held and tortured for a year before he was released and his innocence was proven. The investigation by the Canadian government into this incident showed that not did he have no connection to al-Quida, but there was no evidence to suggest he did.

Now I know that there are some who are reading this and bursting to say, but Canada said he was under investigation for possible links and we just took there word on it, and if he was al-Quida torturing him might have stopped a terrorist attack so it was okay to try.

A few things wrong with that argument. First of all since when is suspicion, understand they had not proven a link, they were simply investigating a possible one, of a crime justify arrest and detention without a trial or that crime being proven in any way. I thought that our laws, heck our Constitution (sixth amendment for those who don't know), stated that a person had the right to a "fair and speedy trial" and that individuals could not be held without being charged of a crime. Of course the case of Jose Padilla proved that we don't extend that courtesy to our own citizens so why would we bother extending it to foreign visitors. Amazingly enought at the same time that we are doing such atrocities on our own soil we are condemning China for it's unlawful arrest of individuals...

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos condemned Chen's jailing on "questionable charges" and called on Beijing to release him and stop
harassing his family.
"We are concerned that Chen's arrest, the detention of his lawyers and the reported detention of another activist Gao Zhisheng appear part of a larger pattern of official harassment of individuals working to advocate for the legal rights of their fellow citizens," Gallegos told reporters.



First though let me clarify the other major issue with the argument that I know many will retort with. That is the part of that argument that states that "torturing him might have stopped a terrorist attack and then it would have been worth it." WRONG! I don't care what the circumstance, what the possible risk, or what the possible reward, torture IS NEVER ACCEPTABLE. Regardless of what information a person may have that could be used by us they are still a person, end of story. Humanity demands that we treat them with at least a shred of decency. Torture is such a horrid form of interrogation that every major country in the world agreed to outlaw it in the Geneva convention. Plus I seem to remember a few of the pro-war folks in the early days of the Iraqi war saying that one of the reasons we should be there is the inhumane way that Saddam treated his people, one of the reasons for this statement was that he tortured his people to get information from them and as punishment. So.....wrong for them, okay for us?

Even if we step back and forget about the inhumanity of torture, it's simply illogical as a form of interrogation. It has been proven that a person in a situation as painful and stressful as someone being tortured will say anything to get the pain to stop. ANYTHING. Not the truth, not information that will stop an attack, whatever pops into their mind that they think the interrogator will believe. They will indicate anyone, give false plans, whatever they have to do. Every time in history that torture has been used to gleam information from prisoners false information has been given. I am not saying that it always will be, you may get lucky and get some people to give real information, but the success rate if very low. Especially when you consider the fact that the people who would actually have the information a) are higher up and most likely not the ones we have and b) are fanatics who believe that they are suffering for a righteous cause and believe that if they last through that suffering without giving up God's plan they will be rewarded in death. Whether their belief is right or wrong (and trust me I believe it to be wrong) history has shown that this kind of belief will keep a person from cracking under the worst conditions.

Now to the most important part of this post. There is one other glaring problem with the unlawful detention and torture of citizens from other countries. We are quickly alienating ourselves from our allies. It is very hard for us to request that a country return a U.S. prisoner caught on their soil for some sort of crime to be tried in our courts when we do not extend the same courtesy to them. It is very hard for us to request the humane treatment of our captured soldiers when we torture the people that we capture, because like it or not the people we are fighting consider them soldiers and they will treat ours like we treat theirs. The point, if we wish to put our citizens and soldiers lives and well being at risk every time they are arrested or captured in another country the torturing is not an issue in this way. However, if we would like to guarantee the humane treatment of our citizens and soldiers we must first show that we are willing to do the same.

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