CHENEY CROSSES THE LINE

HIDDEN BETWEEN THE LINES in Dick Cheney’s defense of torture is an idea unfriendly to good international relations and a threat to the balance of powers in our government as well as a threat to the rights reserved to the people, the sovereign rulers of the United States.  A great division now cleaves the Bush administration on torture now as well. [story]

Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt declined to comment on the vice president's interventions or to elaborate on his positions. "The vice president's views are certainly reflected in the administration's policy," he said.
Increasingly, however, Cheney's positions are being opposed by other administration officials, including Cabinet members, political appointees and Republican lawmakers who once stood firmly behind the administration on all matters concerning terrorism.

WHAT IS THE VALUE of evidence acquired through torture?  We are sunk without a moral anchor.  But the president needs “options.”

Cheney's camp says the United States does not torture captives, but believes the president needs nearly unfettered power to deal with terrorists to protect Americans. To preserve the president's flexibility, any measure that might impose constraints should be resisted.

WE BELIEVE OUR IDEALS define us as an exceptional  nation in this world.  Cheney who thinks he is an exception to all rules separates us from morality and the world.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
THE TORTURE MYTH [Anne Applebaum] Given the overwhelmingly negative evidence, the really interesting question is not whether torture works but why so many people in our society want to believe that it works. At the moment, there is a myth in circulation, a fable that goes something like this: Radical terrorists will take advantage of our fussy legality, so we may have to suspend it to beat them. Radical terrorists mock our namby-pamby prisons, so we must make them tougher. Radical terrorists are nasty, so to defeat them we have to be nastier.

THE HERETIK SUSPECTS appeals to torture appeal to those who believe we have lost control.  Our world appears to be on the edge of the abyss. Somehow we must get control back.  Having lost “control,” we may lose our grip on our humanity.  Studies consistently show the most effective way to get information from a prisoner is through rapport, not a rap on the head.  Short cuts short circuit the best results and sell short our best selves .

BACKGROUND Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment here

Comments

[Linkmeister]

I submit that it's also (I'm not kidding here, either) reading spy fiction and watching spy movies. Think about it. The good guy always escapes without talking, but the bad guy always gives up the information after a little slapping around, toothpicks under fingernails, etc. There's a disconnect between what the proponents think torture will do after their exposure to that stuff and what really happens.