Thursday, March 13, 2008
Editorial: A failure of U.S. ideals
President Bush won a political victory by blocking a ban on torture by the CIA but at great expense to the country and its standing in the world.
From the RoundTable blog
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When the U.S. House on Tuesday failed to override President Bush's veto of a bill that would ban the CIA from torturing detainees, it surrendered America's strongest weapon against terrorism: the idea that human rights are inviolate.
Whatever tactical advantage Bush and his supporters claim to have gained in gleaning information about terrorist plots must be weighed against the nation's loss of moral standing.
It is a grave strategic error in a global battle not for territory but for hearts and minds.
It is an error rooted in fear and sold to the nation with false promises of security in a war against a radical ideology. Every U.S. abuse of human rights wins converts for the enemy.
Bush said Saturday he was vetoing intelligence reauthorization legislation that would have required the CIA to comply with Army interrogation rules that forbid physical force. The restriction, he said, would have taken away tools intelligence officers need "to stop the terrorists."
He claimed, as he has in the past, that the CIA's interrogation program has averted terrorist attacks against U.S. targets.
Sen. John Rockefeller debunked the claim. "As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee," he said in a statement, "I have heard nothing to suggest that information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques has prevented an imminent terrorist attack.
"And I have heard nothing that makes me think the information obtained from these techniques could not have been obtained through traditional interrogation methods used by military and law enforcement interrogators."
Indeed, experts outside the CIA say harsh treatment is unnecessary and worse than useless. One of several who weighed in over the past week is retired Lt. Gen. Harry Soyster, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who said: "Torture is counterproductive on all fronts. It produces bad intelligence. It ruins the subject, makes them useless for further interrogation. And it damages our credibility around the world."
Rockefeller is a Democrat, and the House vote on overriding the veto broke down generally along party lines. Among Virginia's representatives, Democrat Rick Boucher voted for the override. To their discredit, Republicans Bob Goodlatte and Virgil Goode voted against.
But the issue should not be a partisan one. With his veto, Bush has reasserted a claim of executive authority to condone human rights abuses incompatible with American ideals. What is at stake is greater than transitory political power.
It is the idea of America itself.
