After listening to the NPR broadcast telling the story of Orid Memarian, I feel both disheartened and enraged.I could not imagine how it would feel to be forced into giving a confession for something that I knew I had no part in.The part that I found to be most shocking was when Memerian explained how he was able to guess, almost word for word, what was going to be included in the confession of another tortured prisoner, “Maziar.” I am shocked that stories like Memarian’s are out in the media, yet forced confession is still a commonly used practice. I would think that if governments knew that they were being portrayed negatively in the media for forcing prisoners to confess to crimes they did not commit, they would be afraid to take any more false testimonies for the fear that they will lose their credibility.
All three of the readings have one commonality - that torture is bad. In today???s media it is hard to hear above the racket and tocsin of wrongdoing. Yet, what most people seem to be forgetting, the writers of the aforementioned articles included, is that, as the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. Is it justified to persecute the lawyer who performed his duties by interpreting the law? If so, I would say that judges, especially the Justices, keep one eye on their backs otherwise they might be sued for producing an unpopular interpretation of the law. Is it justified for a nation who yearned for the blood of its attackers to punish the creature they breathed into life via their encouragement and war cries? Surely, this last point cannot be argued against to any real extent due to such examples as what happened to the Dixie Chicks, multiple songs praising the war, and attacks on Muslim-Americans in the days following September 11th. America was in a state of shock, fear, and quite possibly resentment; for the US mainland had been struck by an enemy attack for the first time since Pearl Harbor. The quondam attitudes of Americans vis-??-vis suspected terrorists tacitly endorsed the implementation of the tactics in question in the aforesaid articles. So if America is a government by the people for the people, then it would seem to me that the dearth of resistance or objection prior to Bush's second term was essentially "the general will" at work. Thus, how can a government be penalized for manifesting the will of the people? Now, I think it prudent to add a caveat of my own; that is, I personally do not believe that torture should have been employed. However, I thought it would be fun to play devil's advocate and change up the arguments and postings a little.
-David Wright
Hearing what happened at Bagram is truly disheartening. It is hard to believe that these types of practices were carried out by American soldiers when we pride ourselves on being such a great country. I think it is great that reporters, such as the New York Times columnist who investigated this situation, expose these types of stories because it shows Americans what is really going on overseas. The methods used to "control" the prisoners are disturbing and could have been prevented if the Military Police's superiors had created a clearer outline of proper detainment procedures. Instead, it just seemed to be a "blame game."
-Jasmin Freeman
In Response to Taxi to the Dark Side
While I find this movie to be very informative in the importance of American???s being aware of the activities occurring in our military prisons abroad, as well as being an important piece on human rights, I???m not sure if it truly aides in the debate on ???enhanced interrogation techniques,??? basically on torture. I feel that this shows one far end of the spectrum, where you have an innocent man, Dilwar, who is murdered by American soldiers who had no right to harm him. We shouldn???t beat innocent people to death, this is obvious. But proponents of enhanced interrogation methods, such as water boarding, aren???t suggesting we go around bludgeoning innocent civilians, they???re pushing for these harsh methods to be used on these terrorists that are set to destroy America and democracy (nevermind that these prisoners are not being charged, tried, or convicted of these accusations, suspicion is enough probable cause). In fact, its fascinating to hear the arguments made by proponents of programs such as water boarding justify their action- ???these aren???t soldiers for a certain nation, so the Geneva convention doesn???t apply,??? or ???the protection from cruel and unusual punishment is reserved for American citizens.??? Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has stated that ???torture??? doesn???t violate the 8th amendment because torture isn???t ???punishment,??? its just information extraction. Former Orange County Sheriff Kevin Berry has recently returned from training police in Afghanistan, and is openly criticizing the media for being harsh on troops who are using abrasive techniques, when these troops are facing some of the most hateful people in the world.And this film shows that there is clearly a grey area when understanding what is morally acceptable treatment for other human beings, so the human rights issue is fuzzy as well.
Instead of focusing on broad ends of the spectrum (murdering innocents versus enhanced interrogations of blood thirsty criminals set on destroying America), enhanced interrogation techniques should be placed under a microscope with three key focuses. 1) Over 90% of the information we have received from people who have been waterboarded has turned out to be false. In fact, most of the accurate information was received prior to the implementation of these techniques on these prisoners, so what was received after was wasting valuable resources. And lets face it, innocent people are being held, who will probably do or say anything to make any form of coercion stop, or at least I would. 2) Enhanced interrogation opens a can of worms. What if we allow water boarding, but it doesn???t ???work fast enough??? or get ???enough information???? Then what? Move to something even more aggressive? The United States executed Japanese interrogators for using water boarding on US POWs following WWII. Which leads to issue 3. Are we prepared, as Americans, to have our soldiers placed under these methods of torture. Because I can guarantee, if we are committing torture, our captured soldiers behind enemy lines will be facing just as harsh of interrogations, if not worse.
-Ashley Taylor Caldwell
Thursday, September 10, 2009
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