This was originally posted, by RockRichard, to the VetVoice blog, February 14 2008
Kudos to the United States Senate who yesterday passed a bill which binds all American interrogators to the Army Field Manual which bars the use of physical force, to include the torture technique known as waterboarding. Waterboarding is a torture technique that, earlier this month, CIA director Michael Hayden admitted his agency has used on occasion since 2001. The bill passed by the Senate would prevent the CIA and any other federal agency from using such torture techniques. The government-wide directive to use the Army Field Manual was previously introduced in legislation by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in October of 2005.
The bill passed with a simple majority vote of 51-45, mostly upon party lines. Voting across party lines against the bill were Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). Republicans voting for the bill were Susan Collins (R-ME), Charles Hagel (R-NE), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Do you notice a name conspicuously missing for that list?
John McCain, the likely Republican Presidential nominee, who was tortured and held as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for six years voted against a bill that would bar American interrogators from engaging in torture. This is the same John McCain that introduced the same legislation in 2005. This is the same John McCain who said the following:
"Anyone who knows what waterboarding is could not be unsure. It is a horrible torture technique used by Pol Pot and being used on Buddhist monks as we speak."
"...the United States is not like the terrorists. We have no grief for them, but what we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behavior and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are."
Of presidential candidates like Mr. Giuliani, who say that they are unsure whether waterboarding is torture, Mr. McCain said: "They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture."
Well, then you would have to advocate that we withdraw from the Geneva Conventions, which were for the treatment of people who were held prisoners, whether they be illegal combatants or regular prisoners of war. Because it's clear the definition of torture. It's in violation of laws we have passed.
I covered the implications U.S. torture policies can have on American troops here. To restate, it is true our enemies do not always abide by the Law of War. However, it is still beneficial that we do so. An enemy is more likely to surrender to American forces if he is confident he will be treated humanely, rather than tortured.
By this logic, which I feel is sound, torturing detainees can only be detrimental to our own forces. An enemy who would otherwise surrender will continue to fight and kill Americans, realizing that the fate he faces upon surrender is not necessarily preferable to death. I won't even begin to discuss the human rights issues and the effects torture has on the moral leadership the United States once held within the International Community.
One thing I didn't touch in that piece was the intelligence gathered through torture. In repeated studies, intelligence acquired through coercion has proven unreliable. A study conducted by Roger Koppl of Fairleigh Dickinson University made the following key findings:
Torture is not an effective means to gather information.
Torturers do not know the truth when they hear it. Torture victims understand this fact and therefore hide the truth.
Torturers cannot make a believable promise to stop torture when they hear the truth. Torture victims understand this fact and therefore hide the truth.
The study is further corroborated by recent experience in Iraq. After the revelation of the Abu Ghraib scandal, techniques such as hooding, stripping and sleep deprivation were banned there. In the six months that followed, American interrogators received as much as 50 percent more high-value intelligence. Major General Geoffery Miller, the American commander in charge of interrogations and detentions at the time submitted the following assessment:
In my opinion, a rapport-based interrogation that recognizes respect and dignity, and having very well-trained interrogators, is the basis by which you develop intelligence rapidly and increase the validity of that intelligence.
Take all of this into account and it is obvious that John McCain has no excuse for his vote yesterday. John McCain served his country honorably as a Navy Officer and, for 6 years, was submitted to horrible and terrifying torture techniques. John McCain knows what torture is, and has repeatedly stated that the U.S. should not engage in waterboarding, which even he admits is torture, or torture in general. In spite of this, the likely Republican Presidential Nominee and the man the media has errantly awarded the title of favorite candidate of the American military voted against the outlaw of torture. I believe ThinkProgress sums it up best: "John McCain: He was against waterboarding before he was for it."
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