Captured British soldiers 4-10-2007

10, April 2007 Captured British soldiers

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. As it turns out, the Iranian guards treated the captured Brits with a great deal of civility, allowing them to watch soccer games, play ping pong, chess and card games. They even gave them nice tailored suits on their release. The Brits readily admitted that they were spying and could have obtained much harsher treatment as ‘enemy combatants’ or spies. It is therefore the height of hypocrisy for the U.S. Administration and their British cousins, the Blair government, to accuse the Iranians of ‘inappropriate behavior’ when so many of their own detainees have been tortured and are rotting inside medieval dungeons around the world.  

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. I urge readers to call their representatives and demand an immediate repeal of the Military Commission Act and all forms of torture.