Torture is a crime against humanity and people torturing prisoners should be prosecuted and punished. Following orders to use torture is no excuse. Nazi torturers didn't get away by blaming higher authorities. Everyone should know that torturing other people is a crime they will have to answer for.
Now President Obama says that CIA interrogators having used torturing methods won't be prosecuted. That's wrong, they should be. It's not enough to say that they did so following official guidelines, or that these methods won't be used any more. According to released documents waterboarding, which simulates drowning, has been performed on one prisoner 183 times! I agree with Norman Geras who questions Obama's decision and argues that all people, everywhere, have a both legal and moral duty not to torture.
There's a good movie, A Few Good Men, where in the end both those ordering torture and those carrying out those orders are punished. You would hope the US government stood up for these principles, too.
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From a BBC interview, 19 October 2011, the BBC commentary concludes:
ReplyDelete"Former FBI agent Ali Soufan has denied claims that waterboarding produced important intelligence results, saying he believes President Bush was not told the truth when he claimed it had saved lives."
See the interview here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9618660.stm