John Whitehead's Commentary
Torturing Detainees: Getting After the Devil
Alarm bells rang out loud and clear in the spring of 2004 when the Abu Ghraib prison photographs first became public. There, for all the world to see, were smiling American military personnel standing next to prisoners in twisted, obscene and contorted positions. These photographs should have signaled that something was very seriously wrong. The images alone, not to mention the actions it took to create them, should have been enough to cause the U.S. government to mount an immediate, full-scale public investigation. But that was not to be.
Following this spectacle, allegations of abuse began surfacing in connection with prisoners detained by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. In fact, FBI agents have expressed shock at the techniques used on detainees. In one e-mail, an agent wrote: "On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18, 24 hours or more." Stories of electric shock treatments on prisoners, hanging detainees by their thumbs from the ceiling or burying them in grave-like tombs abound. Many of these same detainees have now been released because they were innocent.
The repulsive nature of such treatment of human beings has been denounced by virtually every human rights group, both domestic and international. Most recently, Amnesty International officials speaking at a press conference held for the release of the group's annual report said that if the Bush Administration fails to conduct a truly independent investigation of U.S. abuse against detainees, foreign governments should investigate and prosecute those U.S. officials who bear the ultimate responsibility for such mistreatment.
One of the more sensible suggestions is the Constitution Project's call for a bipartisan commission to examine allegations of prisoner abuse and establish guidelines on how detainees should be treated while in custody. Such a commission could, like the 9/11 Commission, examine the evidence and hopefully correct such atrocious behavior.
Guidelines are certainly needed on how prisoners are treated. The 9/11 Commission recognized this when it found that allegations of prisoner abuse by the U.S. had impeded American efforts to build the kind of diplomatic, political and military alliances with world powers needed to effectively prevent terrorism. The Commission recommended that the U.S. draw principles from such international declarations as the Geneva Convention on the law of armed conflict.
However, the most detailed investigations and guidelines will not ultimately solve the problem. Indeed, the fundamental issue of "why" no human being should be treated inhumanely must be addressed in any equation on prisoner abuse. Moreover, U.S. officials, both high and low, must be trained to understand why abuse should never be perpetrated on any human being.
The underlying premise of the American form of government is that all human beings possess an inherent worth and dignity that cannot be violated. This principle was clearly stated in the founding documents, but most succinctly in the Declaration of Independence. All people, Thomas Jefferson wrote, are created equal and "they are endowed by their Creator" with certain absolute rights--such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No government or agent has any authority or right to mistreat what those who founded America considered God's pinnacle of creation--human beings.
There is, therefore, right and wrong, which is found in the older Judeo-Christian tradition. It is what we used to call absolute moral values--the teaching of which is denied to our public schoolchildren and is no longer taught in our universities. One of those absolutes is that human beings are to be restrained from mistreating one another.
There can be no shortcuts or rationalizations that undermine this basic principle. This is true even if the goals appear to be worthy--such as the rationale that such barbarous torture might lead to information to aid in the so-called war on terror.
Such thinking will lead to the destruction of the fundamental principles of American democracy. Playwright Robert Bolt poses the dilemma in A Man for All Seasons:
SIR THOMAS MOORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
SIR THOMAS MOORE: ... Oh? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you--where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? ... This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--man's laws, not God's--and if you cut them down ... d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? ... Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
Sir Thomas Moore's logic applies very well when the "Devil" is racism, bigotry or the inhumane treatment of other human beings. America is currently cutting great roads through its basic foundations to get after modern devils, and this is the heart of the problem.
Following this spectacle, allegations of abuse began surfacing in connection with prisoners detained by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. In fact, FBI agents have expressed shock at the techniques used on detainees. In one e-mail, an agent wrote: "On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18, 24 hours or more." Stories of electric shock treatments on prisoners, hanging detainees by their thumbs from the ceiling or burying them in grave-like tombs abound. Many of these same detainees have now been released because they were innocent.
The repulsive nature of such treatment of human beings has been denounced by virtually every human rights group, both domestic and international. Most recently, Amnesty International officials speaking at a press conference held for the release of the group's annual report said that if the Bush Administration fails to conduct a truly independent investigation of U.S. abuse against detainees, foreign governments should investigate and prosecute those U.S. officials who bear the ultimate responsibility for such mistreatment.
One of the more sensible suggestions is the Constitution Project's call for a bipartisan commission to examine allegations of prisoner abuse and establish guidelines on how detainees should be treated while in custody. Such a commission could, like the 9/11 Commission, examine the evidence and hopefully correct such atrocious behavior.
Guidelines are certainly needed on how prisoners are treated. The 9/11 Commission recognized this when it found that allegations of prisoner abuse by the U.S. had impeded American efforts to build the kind of diplomatic, political and military alliances with world powers needed to effectively prevent terrorism. The Commission recommended that the U.S. draw principles from such international declarations as the Geneva Convention on the law of armed conflict.
However, the most detailed investigations and guidelines will not ultimately solve the problem. Indeed, the fundamental issue of "why" no human being should be treated inhumanely must be addressed in any equation on prisoner abuse. Moreover, U.S. officials, both high and low, must be trained to understand why abuse should never be perpetrated on any human being.
The underlying premise of the American form of government is that all human beings possess an inherent worth and dignity that cannot be violated. This principle was clearly stated in the founding documents, but most succinctly in the Declaration of Independence. All people, Thomas Jefferson wrote, are created equal and "they are endowed by their Creator" with certain absolute rights--such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No government or agent has any authority or right to mistreat what those who founded America considered God's pinnacle of creation--human beings.
There is, therefore, right and wrong, which is found in the older Judeo-Christian tradition. It is what we used to call absolute moral values--the teaching of which is denied to our public schoolchildren and is no longer taught in our universities. One of those absolutes is that human beings are to be restrained from mistreating one another.
There can be no shortcuts or rationalizations that undermine this basic principle. This is true even if the goals appear to be worthy--such as the rationale that such barbarous torture might lead to information to aid in the so-called war on terror.
Such thinking will lead to the destruction of the fundamental principles of American democracy. Playwright Robert Bolt poses the dilemma in A Man for All Seasons:
SIR THOMAS MOORE: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
SIR THOMAS MOORE: ... Oh? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you--where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? ... This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--man's laws, not God's--and if you cut them down ... d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? ... Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
Sir Thomas Moore's logic applies very well when the "Devil" is racism, bigotry or the inhumane treatment of other human beings. America is currently cutting great roads through its basic foundations to get after modern devils, and this is the heart of the problem.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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