New Book on U.S. Torture Memos

A significant new book, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, covering all of the administration memos placing the U.S. military and C.I.A. in a position that is absolutely antithetical to this nation's history, has been released by Cambridge University Press. The book was released in January, and I just found out about it in the last few days.

The most interesting aspects of these 'torture memos' are two-fold: (1) the absolute disallowal of torture by the U.S. military has its roots in our history with George Washington and continues throughout all military actions until approximately 2002 when it was countermanded by no less a figure than our new Attorney General; and (2) some of the most outspoken opponents of the Bush/Gonzales/Rumsfeld/Cheney new interpretation on the use of 'aggressive methods of interrogation' include Sen. John McCain (a POW in Vietnam, and a victim of torture), Sen. Chuck Hagel, and Sen. Lindsay Graham (a former Air Force JAG Colonel)--all conservative Republican legislators who have military experience and who understand the justification for the international ban on torture.

Unfortunately, it seems, the Chicken Hawks of the Bush administration have no direct understanding of the importance of forbidding torture for the purpose of protecting your own troops, let alone the moral implications that as a free nation, we much guarantee all civil rights to even the weakest citizens of the international community as well as to our own citizens. For some amazing reason, this administration sees the rights of enemies as non-existent; but it is the willingness of our nation to make all people's rights equal that sets us above those extremists who are willing to commit terrorist homocide. We must remember that "All men are created equal" and that all human beings have the same "inalienable rights" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

From Amazon.com's reviews of the book, here is the Product Description:

The Torture Papers document the so-called 'torture memos' and reports which US government officials wrote to prepare the way for, and to document, coercive
interrogation and torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib. These
documents present for the first time a compilation of materials that prior to
publication have existed only piecemeal in the public domain. The Bush
Administration, concerned about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques,
understood the need to establish a legally viable argument to justify such
procedures. The memos and reports document the systematic attempt of the US
Government to prepare the way for torture techniques and coercive interrogation
practices, forbidden under international law, with the express intent of evading
legal punishment in the aftermath of any discovery of these practices and
policies.

This book comes out at a time when so much information is coming into public consciousness about the actions of the Bush administration in its, perhaps, illegal methods for dealing with terrorist suspects. The Jane Mayer article in the February 14-21 double issue of The New Yorker magazine brought to light the administration's use of 'extraordinary rendition,' transporting certain terrorist suspects to allied countries that are more willing to conduct torturous interrogations. We learn that one of Colin Powell's key revelations about Iraq at the United Nations leading to the war came from a tortured high-level member of Al Qaeda. The suspect claimed that Saddam had offered two locations for Al Qaeda training camps in Iraq. He was later transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and recanted his statements. More recent evidence points to the fact that this suspect would have had no knowledge of any connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, even if it did exist.