Leahy: We also know the past can be prologue unless we set things right. Next Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will explore this...
At Last... and long long last! Justice may finally begin to be served.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse laid it out eloquently:
WHITEHOUSE: We also have to brace ourselves for the realistic possibility that as some of this conduct is exposed, we and the wold will find it shameful; revolting. We may have to face the prospect of looking on with horror at our own counties deeds.
We are optimists, we Americans. We are proud of our country. Contrition comes hard to us. But the path back from the dark side may lead us down some unfamiliar valleys of remorse and repugnance before we can return to the light. We may have to face our fellow Americans saying to us, “No. Please. Tell us that we did not do that. Tell us that American did not do that.” And we will have to explain, somehow. This is no small thing. And not easy. This will not be comfortable, or proud. But somehow, it must be done.
For those who continue to claim that "America did what was neccesary" - people like the Bush speech writer Rick Theissen (clearly an expert on counter-terrorism) who claims that our "Torturers" should be called "Heroes".
THIESSEN: The CIA developed these alternative interrogation techniques, and all of a sudden he started talking. Zubaydah’s information led us to Ramsey bin al Shibh, who was was one of the 9/11 hijackers. Together, they gave us the information that led the capture of KSM. Then, KSM gave us information about another al Qaeda operative, Majid Khan, who was in CIA custody. He told us that Majid Khan had been tasked to give $50,000 to an operative named Zubair, who was developing plots with a Southeast Asian group called JI.
But the question remains, was resorting to these methods the only POSSIBLE WAY that these goals could have been met? If there was another way, a better way - possibly even a faster way - wouldn't that make Thiessen "Heroes" claim on it's head?
Then former Special Forces Interrogator Matthew Alexander might just make Mr. Tiessen do some handstand.
I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. ... It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me — unless you don’t count American soldiers as Americans.
More from Alexanders appearance on Countdown.
So not only may we have disgraced ourselves as a nation by employing these techniques, we also COST AMERICAN LIVES doing it.
It's well past time that the non-politically wonky American Public finally began to realize the real price we've paid for George Bush's Ridiculous Cowboy/Tough-guy mentality.
Vyan
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