White House Continues to Support Torture

Today the White House raised opposition to a House bill that would require all government interrogators to rely on the Army's field manual. The manual is based on Geneva Convention standards and was updated in 2006 to specifically prohibit the military from using aggressive interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.

The White House said in its statement that the Geneva Conventions shouldn't apply to "captured terrorists who openly flout that law."

Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions forbids murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture, and humiliating and degrading treatment. The US has followed the Geneva Conventions from its adoption until this war. Torture has been proven to be an ineffective method of gaining intelligence. Those who are tortured will say anything to get their torturers to stop. And if we, the United States of America, won't follow the Geneva Conventions, how can we ever expect our enemies to treat captured US soldiers fairly and humanely?

In 1999, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on the rights of prisoners accused of being terrorists or security threats. The court declared cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment illegal. "A democratic, freedom-loving society," the court wrote, "does not accept that investigators use any means for the purpose of uncovering truth. The rules pertaining to investigators are important to a democratic state. They reflect its character." What has become of our character?