Coming clean about torture
Senator John McCain probably knows more than the rest of the US Senate put together about severe methods of interrogation, having been on the receiving end himself when he was a prisoner of war. He described the interrogation methods used by the CIA and described in the recent Senate report as a stain on the honour of America.
Let's be clear about this - torture has no place in any stage of bringing the guilty to justice. And although there must be a temptation to use extreme methods in interrogating a prisoner who you believe might have information which could save many innocent lives, the evidence that torture actually works even in this case is extremely limited. No civilised country should use this sort of tactics or condone them - and I do wonder how much the Blair government knew about what was happening. There is a case for an inquiry into whether any British agencies were involved.
But I do think that the US system deserves some credit for the transparency with which the US Senate has conducted and published the results of their investigation.
I cannot think of another country in their world whose legislature would have openly published a report as embarrassing and damning as the one the US senate brought out this month concerning how suspected terrorists have been treated.
The fact that this report has been published will have an affect on how prisoners and suspects are treated in future, not just on suspects held by the USA and its' allies but around the world. There will be short-term damage to the reputation of the West caused by - entirely justified - horror at what has been going on. With regimes and organisations which treat people even worse being the first to point hypocritical fingers at the USA.
But when people see that the truth can come out, they will start to look over their shoulders. And in the long term, the decision of the US Senate to, borrowing the Iron Duke's words, "Publish and be damned" will do more damage to totalitarian regimes than it will to democracies.
Let's be clear about this - torture has no place in any stage of bringing the guilty to justice. And although there must be a temptation to use extreme methods in interrogating a prisoner who you believe might have information which could save many innocent lives, the evidence that torture actually works even in this case is extremely limited. No civilised country should use this sort of tactics or condone them - and I do wonder how much the Blair government knew about what was happening. There is a case for an inquiry into whether any British agencies were involved.
But I do think that the US system deserves some credit for the transparency with which the US Senate has conducted and published the results of their investigation.
I cannot think of another country in their world whose legislature would have openly published a report as embarrassing and damning as the one the US senate brought out this month concerning how suspected terrorists have been treated.
The fact that this report has been published will have an affect on how prisoners and suspects are treated in future, not just on suspects held by the USA and its' allies but around the world. There will be short-term damage to the reputation of the West caused by - entirely justified - horror at what has been going on. With regimes and organisations which treat people even worse being the first to point hypocritical fingers at the USA.
But when people see that the truth can come out, they will start to look over their shoulders. And in the long term, the decision of the US Senate to, borrowing the Iron Duke's words, "Publish and be damned" will do more damage to totalitarian regimes than it will to democracies.
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