Torture idea is a terrorist victory

[struggle4progress]

New memos show the terrorists have done much greater damage to America than suspected. Top U.S. officials came to believe that, in fighting al-Qaida, they were not bound by the Geneva Conventions and federal anti-torture law.

The high-level articulation of such views represents a clearcut victory for terrorists in undermining America's conceptions of morality, international law and its own role as a beacon for human rights.

The harsh kind of treatment of prisoners seen in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay received expansive justification in a March 2003 memo prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The memo first revealed by The Wall Street Journal says the president is constitutionally able to order any interrogation methods.
<snip>

If President Bush is serious about the values he has espoused, he will finally fire Rumsfeld and many of those around him. The president also ought to look closely for any role by Vice President Dick Cheney, whose counsel was involved in studying the issues.
<snip>


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/176910_terrored.html