Torture cannot
be dismissed
To the Editor:
We cannot sweep torture under the rug, even though President Obama has
said, ". . . At a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy
laying blame for the past." I believe he is terribly wrong. It is not a matter of laying blame but of assigning responsibility
for torture approved by and carried out by U.S. citizens.
It is clear that the kind of "enhanced interrogation" methods used in
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo violated the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law. The latter refers to Chapter 113C (Torture) under Part I (Crimes) under Title 18 (Crimes and Criminal Procedure)
of the federal code. Under this chapter, one reads:
"Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both,
and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for
any term of years or for life."
And, "A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section
shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the
commission of which was the object of the conspiracy." The law applies to any alleged offender who is a national of the United States, or to any alleged offender who is simply present in the United States.
High-ranking government officials deliberately and with premeditated
malice established a system of interrogation using brutal techniques that they knew were against the law. Hence the need for
the torture memos to give them legal cover.
Our prisons are full of people who have committed nonviolent drug offenses.
We must not fail to apply the law of the land equally to those guilty of a more serious crime just because they happen to
have been officials in a former administration.
Andrew C. Mills
Lower Gwynedd Township
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/363/2009/may/21/torture-cannot-be-dismissed.html
