Bush says that harsh interrogation techniques used
to question detainees are not torture. Fine, says an editor with the
Washington Post, let's use those same interrogation techniques on the
president and see if he still thinks they're not torture.
The Bush administration's authorisation of the use of torture has returned
to the headlines of the American mainstream media in the past week after
the New York Times uncovered secret
Justice Department documents that clearly, comprehensively gave
authorisation to "a combination of painful physical and psychological
tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures."
While Bush constantly claims "America does not torture people",
the president refuses to go into detail about exactly what methods of
interrogation are used in American, Afghanistan and Iraqi prisons and
detainee centres.
(Article continues below)
From Raw
Story :
An associate editor and columnist for the Washington Post says that
until George W. Bush and others in his administration endure the "harsh"
treatment to which terrorism suspects are subjected, then Bush "will
be remembered as the president who tried to justify torture."
...the Post's Eugene Robinson says Bush should endure the same detainee
treatment he authorized, which "international conventions deem
torture."
"My proposal on torture is serious," Robinson wrote on
a washingtonpost.com discussion board Sunday. "...Bush administration
officials who claim the "harsh" interrogation techniques
being used on terrorism suspects are not torture should have to undergo
those same techniques. Personally. Repeatedly."
"Clearly, he is using a narrow
definition of torture: If we haven't actually put anybody on the rack
or pulled out his fingernails, we haven't committed torture," Robinson
writes.
"Until George W. Bush can say, 'Hey, I've been waterboarded, and
it wasn't so bad,' or Alberto Gonzales can say, 'To tell the truth,
spending those three days naked in a freezing-cold cell wasn't painful
or anything,' then I'll continue to believe that history will condemn
this administration for a shocking lapse of moral judgment. Bush will
be remembered as the president who tried to justify torture."
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