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Veteran Voices Make Solid Case Against All Excuses For Torture

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2008

Updated: 01/31/2008 08:55 pm

Most of us can easily picture a scene in which a villain is forced to talk by tough good guys who find out just in time how to stop a ticking bomb that would have destroyed a city.

But few of us know any more about the art of interrogation than we've seen in movies. Reality is much different, which is why 40 retired generals are campaigning hard to preserve the tradition of following honorable national and international standards of prisoner treatment.

They argue that excruciating techniques, including waterboarding, must be clearly outlawed for a number of reasons. At the top of the list is that torture does not yield reliable information, therefore doesn't make us safer.

Also, it is not consistent with U.S. values, puts U.S. troops and agents at risk of criminal charges and creates new enemies. The generals believe it also causes psychological damage to both those being tortured and those inflicting it.

They can't understand why White House lawyers under President Bush have expanded the gray area between illegal torture and painful interrogation, and neither can we.

Asked recently about waterboarding, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey continues to dance around the issue, responding, "There are some circumstances where current law would appear clearly to prohibit the use of waterboarding. Other circumstances would present a far closer question."

That's not how the generals, forming a group called Human Rights First, see it. Three of them - Army Brig. Gen. David R. Irvine, Marine Major Gen. Fred E. Haynes, and Army Lt. Gen. Harry E. Soyster - visited our office last week on their tour to educate the public and all candidates for president.

The only candidate not needing help is John McCain, who understands torture and is firmly opposed to it.

Under federal law, torture has a clear definition, says Irvine. It is any act that causes severe pain, either physical or psychological. Under the new definition, which is merely a legal opinion, you could inflict heavy pain, short of death, he says, such as pulling out fingernails and forcing water into lungs.

Irvine knows how vital it is to have clear rules. He is a lawyer who for 18 years taught soldiers how to interrogate prisoners. The new rules were made by people lacking deep experience in law enforcement, combat or military law.

Soyster says some techniques given the legal OK in recent years are illegal, immoral and ineffectual. His opinion carries weight because he is a former head of the Army Intelligence and Security Command and also a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Haynes points out that throughout history, humane treatment of prisoners has produced good information that has saved thousands of lives. He tells the story of a prisoner captured on Iwo Jima who was treated with dignity and who helped the United States crack secret Japanese codes.

Haynes is no bleeding heart. As a Marine captain, he won a Bronze Star fighting on Iwo Jima. His regiment raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi in 1945. Later he served as a combat intelligence officer and led Marines in wars in Korea and Vietnam.

The generals also urge Bush to close the prison at Guantanamo and give those held there either trials or freedom. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, agrees. He recently acknowledged that the prison has damaged America's international reputation.

Supporters of torture and defenders of offshore prisons say dangerous times require difficult decisions. They're right. It is difficult to remember that constitutional protections are never more important than when the temptation is greatest to evade them.

America must never allow the war on terror to become a war of terror.

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