The capture of 15 British sailors and subsequent confessions aired on Iranian television, demonstrates the complete fallacy and danger in our own policy of condoning torture and allowing confessions obtained during torture. The Guantanamo detainees recently tried under the Military Commission Act, have all recanted, claiming they were tortured or coerced into making confessions. The British government and our own Administration are hardly in a position to criticize Iran when the Iranians can claim they were merely adopting the ‘American way’ of extracting confessions.
All forms of torture must be abolished. The Military Commission Act, which allows the President to decide what interrogations techniques constitute torture, must also be abolished. For example, President Bush has refused to outlaw “water boarding”, an extremely cruel method of torture that produces an overwhelming sense of drowning. The U.S. sentenced a Japanese officer to 15 years of hard labor for water boarding American servicemen during World War 11. If Congress fails to act, our government will continue sending prisoners to countries that practice torture. Torture produces lasting physical, psychic and emotional scars on the victim, perpetrators and society at large. Human Rights Watch has conducted considerable research on the victims of torture and conclusively states that torture does not yield a shred of useful information. It is totally ineffective and violates all norms of civilized conduct. It is time for the American people to raise their collective voices to condemn this hideous assault on human life.
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