Editorial: Bush wrongly leaves door open for torture
President George W. Bush likes to keep his options open. On Saturday, Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the CIA from using "waterboarding" and other coercive interrogation methods to extract information from suspected terrorists.
Oh, but it's not just his own options he is protecting. Bush is looking out for the next administration and those that follow, too. He wouldn't want the next president's - Republican or Democrat - hands tied as the war on terror escalates. Gee, thanks, Mr. President.
In defense of his veto, Bush said such tactics as waterboarding - simulated drowning - have helped to thwart terrorist plots against the United States. Well, if torture is an effective means of extracting information from the bad guys, let's authorize the police to use it against suspected murderers and rapists. Better yet, let's pull some suspected drug dealers into the station house and pull out a few fingernails until they give up their connections. Do the ends really justify the means? We think not.
"This president had the chance to end the torture debate for good, yet he chose instead to leave the door open to use torture in the future," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California. Feinstein said Bush ignored the advice of 43 retired generals and admirals and 18 national security experts, including former secretaries of state and national security advisers, who supported the bill.
The bill would have limited the CIA's catalog of interrogation techniques to those used by the military. The agency prohibited waterboarding in 2006 but has admitted to using the technique on three suspected terrorists in 2003. Who knows if they've upheld their prohibition since then. Secrecy is, after all, key to their game. And that's just what the president wanted to protect with his veto. According to the Associated Press, Bush said in his radio address Saturday that it is important for the CIA to have a classified interrogation program separate from the military.
That program, he said, helps avert schemes against a Marine camp in Djibouti and the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, and others against civilian targets in the U.S. and Britain.
Well, if torture techniques are valuable in preventing terrorist plots that might injure or kill hundreds or thousands of Americans, certainly they would prove invaluable in fighting the deadly influence of illicit drugs and street crimes that harm thousands upon thousands of people every year. After all, we're already under attack from those forces. Come on, Mr. President, why not open the CIA interrogation book to local police departments to curtail the crime that already affects Americans on a daily basis?
That playbook can't be opened to law enforcement because it is illegal and morally wrong. It's not right in a civilian setting and it should not be permitted at the CIA or in any other government agency.
"Torture is a black mark against the United States," Feinstein said. And yet, our president wouldn't move to erase it.
The Register-Mail