[Mb-civic] Bob Herbert

[Mike Blaxill]

    Who Isn't against Torture? 
    By Bob Herbert 
    The New York Times

    Monday 10 October 2005

    Some people get it. Some don't.

    Senator John McCain, one of the strongest
supporters of the war in Iraq, has sponsored a
legislative amendment that would prohibit the
"cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of
prisoners in the custody of the US military. Last
week the Senate approved the amendment by the
overwhelming vote of 90 to 9.

    This was not a matter of Democrats vs.
Republicans, or left against right. Joining
Senator McCain in his push for clear and
unequivocal language banning the abusive
treatment of prisoners were Senator John Warner
of Virginia, the Republican chairman of the Armed
Services Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina, a former military lawyer who is
also a Republican and an influential member of
the committee. Both are hawks on the war.

    Also lining up in support were more than two
dozen retired senior military officers, including
two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Colin Powell and John Shalikashvili.

    So who would you expect to remain out of step
with this important march toward sanity, the rule
of law and the continuation of a longstanding
American commitment to humane values?

    Did you say President Bush? Well, that would
be correct.

    The president, who has trouble getting
anything right, is trying to block this effort to
outlaw the abusive treatment of prisoners.

    Senator McCain's proposal is an amendment to
the huge defense authorization bill. The White
House has sent out signals that Mr. Bush might
veto the entire bill if that's what it takes to
defeat the amendment.

    The Washington Post summed the matter up in
an editorial that said:

    "Let's be clear: Mr. Bush is proposing to use
the first veto of his presidency on a defense
bill needed to fund military operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan so that he can preserve the
prerogative to subject detainees to cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment. In effect, he
threatens to declare to the world his
administration's moral bankruptcy."

    Last Wednesday, Senator McCain rose on the
Senate floor and said:

    "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted in 1948, states simply that 'No one shall
be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.' The
International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, to which the US is a signatory, states
the same. The binding Convention Against Torture,
negotiated by the Reagan administration and
ratified by the Senate, prohibits cruel, inhuman
and degrading treatment.

    "On last year's [Department of Defense]
authorization bill, the Senate passed a
bipartisan amendment reaffirming that no detainee
in US custody can be subject to torture or cruel
treatment, as the US has long defined those
terms. All of this seems to be common sense, in
accordance with longstanding American values.

    "But since last year's [defense] bill, a
strange legal determination was made that the
prohibition in the Convention Against Torture
against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
does not legally apply to foreigners held outside
the US They can, apparently, be treated
inhumanely. This is the [Bush] administration's
position, even though Judge Abe Sofaer, who
negotiated the Convention Against Torture for
President Reagan, said in a recent letter that
the Reagan administration never intended the
prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment to apply only on US soil."

    The McCain amendment would end the confusion
and the perverse hunt for loopholes in the laws
that could somehow be interpreted as allowing the
sadistic treatment of human beings in US custody.

    Senator McCain met last week with Capt. Ian
Fishback, a West Point graduate who was one of
three former members of the 82nd Airborne
Division to come forward with allegations, first
publicly disclosed in a report by Human Rights
Watch, that members of their battalion had
routinely beaten and otherwise abused prisoners
in Iraq. In a letter that he sent to the senator
before the meeting, Captain Fishback wrote:

    "Some argue that since our actions are not as
horrifying as al-Qaida's, we should not be
concerned. When did al-Qaida become any type of
standard by which we measure the morality of the
United States? We are America, and our actions
should be held to a higher standard, the ideals
expressed in documents such as the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution."

    Senator McCain and Captain Fishback get it.
Some people still don't.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101005Q.shtml