ThinkProgress points out how torture doesn't just hurt the victim, and doesn't just destroy our national soul. It also keeps terrorists from being prosecuted:
Susan Crawford, the “top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial,” tells Bob Woodward in today’s Washington Post that the United States military tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani, one of the planners of the 9/11 attacks. As a result, Crawford decided the U.S. could not prosecute Qahtani.
Crawford, the convening authority for the military commissions trying detainees at Guantanamo, explained that she refused to bring Mohammed al-Qahtani to trial precisely because he was tortured, and even when charges were offered based on evidence allegedly not obtained through torture, Crawford didn't feel confident bringing charges.
"He’s a very dangerous man,” Crawford said. “What do you do with him now if you don’t charge him and try him?”
Conservatives claim that torture makes us safer, but in fact it makes us weaker. It undermines our moral authority in the world at large, it prevents us from prosecuting people who plotted to wage war against us.
- Log in to post comments
It is really unfair to imply most conservatives claim torture makes us safer, I've never heard that one before. Most conservatives I know are dead-set against it. The full story of exactly what Qahtani did, and what was done to him over a period of months at Guantanamo Bay, is discussed at length in a new book titled "Inside Gitmo." The author has posted all of his source documents (charge sheets, government reports, articles, transcripts, and more) at a companion website at http://www.insidegitmo.com so you might want to take the time to look at it.
When I first heard that story I wondered, were they talking about Gitmo or morning radio?
If given the chance that very same terrorist that you feel bad for would chop your head off and feed it to the fish. Liberals are delusional with their set of utopian like ideals. This is the real world and evil people do not share our moral values. By default they forfeit any regard or respect that we would give to 99.9 percent of others. You and anybody else who thinks that this weakens America suffer from stupiditis. If a terrorist has been deatined for knowledge of an attack but you wont do what is necessary to save hundreds or thousands of lives that makes you the weak and the pitiful. Those that have the heart to do what is necessary are real Americans.
Steve, did you actually read the original post?