News

Today the BBC reported that "US and Iraqi forces have discovered a "torture complex" in an al-Qaeda safe haven near Muqdadiya in central Diyala province, the US military has said. " According to the report, this 'torture complex' was made up of three buildings and locals in the area had known that the facility was used for torture but did not go to Iraqi or US authorities. The discovery of this complex is quiet interesting in light of General Michael Hayden's confirmation that tapes of the interrogations of two inmates held in Guantanamo Bay have been destroyed by the CIA. The destruction of these interrogation tapes and this discovery of this torture complex bring several questions to mind. Some of these questions are: What constitutes as torture in our justice system? Should it be something kept under wraps? Is hiding the act of torture the only thing that is keeping it from being a legitimate tool in the interrogation process? Clearly, these reports only offer themselves as brief insights and thereby answers to these questions. Therefore, it really does not matter what constitutes as torture in our legal system because the CIA obviously thinks that those interrogations posed the threat of bringing negative attention to its standard operation procedures so they destroyed the tapes. This action can lead us to the belief that torture should be kept under wraps but not if our enemies are doing the same. Our "torture" which is not even considered torture on paper but clearly is on video tape does not pose a threat to the free world but THEIRS does. Overall, this can be construed as a double standard because our nation has the paper to back up these acts but THEY have no nation and no laws and therefore THEIR methods of interrogation are torture. Furthermore, this leads us to only one solution, being open about our interrogation procedures. If we truly have noting to hide, if we truly are legitimate in our cause then why destroy interrogation tapes. Why not put them on the eight o'clock news. Show water-boarding for what it is because if its not torture then there is no reason to hide it. If it is torture then show it anyways because acknowledgement of such an act is a better safeguard of our civil liberties than ignorance. Knowing what our government is doing behind closed doors is the only way to protect ourselves from future terrorist attacks and from our own government.