Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans For Peace
We Have Become the Enemy We Abhor
By Andrew Schoerke
Bennington Banner
Posted: 12/26/2014 01:04:38 PM EST
War brings civilized societies to the depths of human endeavor. Arguably, the most depraved depth of man's inhumanity to man is the torture of another human being. The recently released Senate Intelligence Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program shows that the United States, in spite of our self-proclaimed righteousness for the law and justice, is no different than the enemies we make war on. Our direct experience with torture came during the war in Vietnam when our airmen, captured by the North Vietnamese, were tortured at the prison known as "The Hanoi Hilton." Jeremiah Denton, then a Navy Commander, and later U.S. Senator from Alabama, poignantly relates their ordeal in his book "When Hell Was In Session." In it he describes how he was once brought from his cell to appear before a staged news conference for foreign reporters. During his "interview" he blinked his eyelids in Morse code to transmit the word T-O-R-T-U-R-E. When the interview was later televised around the world and his message revealed, his captors exacted their revenge on Cdr. Denton by inflicting additional sadistic tortures on him.
When wars are at last over, and a semblance of civilized behavior returns, governments of the world gather together and codify the rules, restrictions and laws by which they hope to control future wars. If agreed upon, these principles are formalized and, when signed and ratified by world governments, become binding treaties and covenants they are bound to abide by.
Three such treaties prohibiting torture are The United Nations Convention Against Torture, ratified by the United States in 1994; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the U.S. in 1966.
The UN Convention Against Torture contains specific prohibitive language and, under Article 1, defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession." Further, "It may be inflicted by or at the instigation of or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity."
International law also prohibits the mistreatment of prisoners. Some examples of mistreatment cited in International Law include being forced to stand spread-eagled against the wall; being subjected to bright lights or blindfolding; being subjected to continuous loud noise, being deprived of sleep, food or drink; being subjected to forced constant standing or crouching or violent shaking. In short, any form of physical treatment used to intimidate, coerce or "break" a person during an interrogation constitutes mistreatment.
In spite of these treaties, U.S. officials directly involved in the interrogation program — including the current Director of the CIA and the then vice president of the United States — insist that their actions were justified. They claim that the program was not torture but was, instead, "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," a term created by Mr. John Yoo, a lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel, of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Yoo, in his Aug. 1, 2002, memo to then President George W. Bush, authored a marvel of legal acrobatics in which the meaning of torture became "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques."
With this legal outrage in hand, President "I'm no lawyer" Bush authorized the CIA and the military to proceed with the torture of enemy prisoners. His action and the actions of his subordinates was a direct violation of Article VI of the Constitution of The United States which states: "This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be in Pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; ... "
If the United States of America is to remain free from the illegal machinations of future presidents, the supreme law of the land must be upheld or we will descend into the laws of vigilante justice and the end justifies any means. The perpetrators of systemic torture must be held accountable; to do otherwise will ensure that we have become the enemy we abhor.
Andrew Schoerke, of Shaftsbury, is a member of Will Miller Green Mountain Chapter of Veterans For Peace.