Disturbing

I just was reading a few news items before getting ready for work and I came across a Reuters article entitled " Obama more successful on terrorism-security adviser." The blurb accompanying the link was:

WASHINGTON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The United States is having more success fighting terrorism under President Barack Obama partly because of his "radically different" approach to foreign policy, National security adviser Jim Jones said on Monday."

How disturbing I found the article goes beyond from how wrong I find it for a "reporter" to lead with a quote from a government instead of giving us facts. Instead of engaging in fact-finding and analysis, the mainstream media has become accustomed to telling us "X said this" and "Y said that," giving the impression that each have equal weight. That is not objectivity, that is laziness. So we have what National Security Advisor Jim Jones thinks and what Cheney thinks. One particularly surreal paragraph:

Jones did not, however, counter Cheney's argument that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to investigate suspected CIA prisoner abuses could have a chilling effect on the work of the intelligence agency.

WHAT???

1. This is not a debate between the administration and Cheney. The man, who had more power than a vp should have in the first place, is now out of office--how is it that what he thinks still makes news?
   
2. There needs to be a chilling effect on the "work" of an intelligence agency that tortures human beings. Credible intelligence does not come from torture; we should not strive to be people who value life so little; and abusing people does nothing to convince them we are human as they are and really gives terrorists an excellent bit of propaganda.

Jones's definition of "success" in "fighting terrorism" is captured by "We are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders." Given our history, I'm wondering what kind of evidence and what kind of judicial process is in place before we carry out these executions.

On a related note, Mohammed Jawad--an Afghani teenager who had been held in Guantanamo for seven years without any evidence to make a case against him--was released last week. His confession was thrown out by a military judge who ruled that he confessed because interrogators threatened to kill him and his family if he did not. Definitely there needs to be a "chilling effect."

Torture = Wrong

It seems quite clear to me.

In an interview on Fox News, General Petraeus stated that we need to "live our values" and that we as a nation have been rightly criticized when we have violated the Geneva Conventions (see video clip on John Amato's blog). He further stated that the techniques in the Army Field Manual work.

I'm not sure what more people (such as a certain former vice-president) need.

Making America Less Safe

The White House has decided to reverse course and attempt to block release of photographs that show U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq (see reports from AlterNet, MSNBC, and Huffington Post).

No, President Obama, releasing pictures documenting the torture does not make Americans less safe. Being a nation that tortured and abused human beings is what inflames anti-American sentiment and makes us less safe--in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and here at home.

It appears to me that the real issue is that the president would like to avoid having a truth commission and accountability. With that his domestic agenda would surely be sidetracked. And while I want universal health care, I don't believe that we can afford to ignore the question of what type of nation we seek to be. Hiding the photos will not quell the rage against what we, as a nation, have done. In fact, not releasing them seems to show that we plan to continue to allow the military a cloak of secrecy to conduct these operations. Restarting the military commissions at Guantanamo is not the act of a just nation. Giving individuals a reason to hate us does not make us safe.

If we want to be safe, we must "live our values," as General Petraeus said in an interview on Fox News. He also stated that we as a nation have been rightly criticized when we have violated the Geneva Conventions (see video clip on John Amato's blog). He further stated that the detainee treatment and interrogation techniques in the Army Field Manual work.