The Washington Post weighs in against use of torture on captured "enemy combatants."

The use of torture carries deep dangers for American society. Its use corrodes democratic values and governance. The administration's failure to instill confidence that it is not using torture augments the perception of American hypocrisy abroad: How can this country urge democratization in the Arab world if it simultaneously uses abusive Arab security services to manhandle its prisoners? Torturing enemy combatants also threatens American troops abroad by eroding the international norms of treatment for captured enemy soldiers. It would be naive to expect that intelligence interrogations overseas will comport with the rules that govern law enforcement here at home. But the United States has signed international treaties forbidding torture, and forswearing such brutality is as fundamental a commitment of civilized government as exists. It is incumbent on the administration to clarify that the war on terrorism is not inducing barbarism of its own.

Update: Atrios weighs in as well.

We are not living in the world of '24' or a James Bond movie. There is never going to be a situation in which the noble CIA agent knows that the red digits on the timer of the nuclear bomb are counting backwards and he has 90 minutes to determine the location and disarm the thing before Los Angeles blows up. However, if there is such a situation no law enforcement agency or court in the country will prosecute Kiefer Sutherland for saving us all by whatever means necessary, and he would have my full blessing to pull out the thumb screws and go to work. What we're talking about is torturing innocent people based on what they maybe possibly might be able to tell us. Innocent people? Yes. Last time I checked people were innocent until proven guilty, and frankly our intelligence agencies haven't exactly proven their ability to perform their stated job description, let alone assume the role of judge and jury too.

"In testimony before Congress this month, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said law enforcement officials have been tracking "hundreds and hundreds of suspected terrorists" in the United States in recent months. In some cases, the focus of the government's attention has become clear -- from the conviction of shoe bomber Richard Reid in Boston last year to the arrests and pending trials of alleged cell leaders in cities from Buffalo, N.Y., to Portland, Ore."

"But who are the others? Is the country really infiltrated by legions of terrorists? If so, why isn't the government arresting more of them?"

"Interviews with law enforcement officials, federal prosecutors, defense lawyers and civil liberties groups reveal the breadth of the government's efforts."

Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California have confirmed that they will "shoot to kill" trespassing protesters who infiltrate the military complex once war starts.

Military police will use their ``judgment, experience and training'' to determine if lethal force is necessary" according to an official.

Somehow, we do not find that reassuring. In any event, the planned protesters say they are not scared off by the threat. Peter Lumsdaine of the Vandenberg Action Coalition, one of the organizers of the planned trespassing, said, "I think it does underline that people in the nonviolent resistance movement are willing to take some risks.''

Arthur Silber over at The Light of Reason is back on top of the torture issue--with observations of his own and of Hannah Arendt .

Arthur points out, rightly so in our opinion, that "the grant of any government power will always grow, including the grant of the power to use torture to elicit information."

That's one of the reasons we so oppose giving up our civil liberties and constitutional rights. Once you give up a little, it becomes easier for the Government to reach for more the next time around. Taken in little bits and pieces, whether it be surveillance cameras at traffic intersections or the Superbowl, or a national id card, the encroachments don't seem so bad. But such measures are not that many steps from other, very objectionable proposals now being tossed about--for example CAPSII and color-coding airline passengers and doing credit checks before allowing those designated a certain color to fly.

Back to torture, go over and read Arthur, he's put a great deal of thought into the subject, and today analyzes the linkage between torture and totalitarianism, in part relying upon the works of Hannah Arendt, including her "monumental work," The Origins of Totalitarianism.

From MoveOn:

Sunday, March 16, 7PM
Global Candlelight Vigil

MoveOn.org and the Win Without War coalition, together with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and many faith-based organizations, are calling this vigil, and we need your help. Beginning in New Zealand, this will be a rolling wave of candlelight gatherings that will quickly cross the globe.

Join with millions of others around the globe and in your community. Join or schedule a candlelight vigil for peace in your city. Here's how.

From Patriot Watch:

On March 11th, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights released a new report entitled “Imbalance of Powers.” The report outlines the steady erosion of human rights protections and civil liberties in the 18 months since the Sept. 11 attacks. One of the issues addressed in the report is the recent allegations in the news media that U.S. military officials are employing illegal interrogation techniques to elicit information from detainees in the U.S. and abroad. Some of these techniques include hooding and sleep deprivation and physical beatings. The Lawyers Committee has urged Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to address these allegations by making clear the unambiguous U.S. prohibition against all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. Go here to take action.

Urge Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to address these issues personally and publicly by making clear the unambiguous U.S. prohibition against all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

[Ed. permalink to Patriot Org. didn't work so we changed the link to their homepage]

Bump and Update: This from Iranian Radio:

In an interview with the Iranian Tehran radio, the deputy leader of the Islamic Awamy Tahrik Party the Pakistani National Islamic Movement Party , Murtaza Poyia names phonetic , has confirmed the arrest of the leader of the Al-Qa'idah network, Usamah Bin-Ladin. Quoting reliable sources, he added that Usamah Bin-Ladin is being held by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence ISI and US troops at present.

Answering a question about why Usamah's arrest has not been announced, Murtaza Poyia said that it had been decided to announce his capture a few hours after America's attack on Iraq.

A high-ranking ISI official said some time ago that the information extracted from Khalid Sheikh Mohammad recently captured alleged Al-Qa'idah operative had brought them ISI and the USA closer to Usamah Bin-Ladin's capture .

Friends, the detailed interview with Murtaza Poyia will be broadcast later in this programme.

Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran External Service, Tehran, in Pashto 1230 gmt 12 Mar 03; Available on Lexis.Com

Original post, 11:00 am Atrios reports the U.S. and Pakistan are that denying Bin Laden has been captured. He thinks the denial may be a lie.

If he's in custody, great. If they're holding back the announcement as this guy claims - not great. In fact - pathetic, despicable, disgusting, horrendous. Pooya said he heard of bin Laden's arrest from credible sources "who I have reasons to believe have never given me wrong information." He added he believed news of the arrest was being held back to coincide with the start of military action against Iraq . "All I know is that one of the things under consideration is when the announcement should come -- it's supposed to be timed with the apprehended attack between the 17th and the 18th (of March)."

Here is more from Reuters.

Here are some comments from another lawyer who was at the scene of the University of Idaho raids we wrote about here:

The FBI anticipated that the Saudi students would refuse to answer their questions, which they have the right to do. Instead, they invoked a federal statute which allows immediate deportation if you refuse to answer INS questions relating to your immigration status. For each interrogation, the actual questions were asked by an INS officer, with an FBI agent and a member of the local task force on terrorism present. I was one of only two attorneys who got there in time to participate in the interrogation; most of the students were unrepresented.

Many of the questions were clearly not aimed at status but were instead attempts to gain information to use against the one student who was arrested. The indictment alleged visa fraud ... the visa application said that he was here strictly to go to school, and the fraud was the fact that he also set up a website, which they see as outside the scope of the disclosure in the application even though the student is working on his masters in computer science. The website is alleged to contain information designed to promote violence against the U.S. He is also charged with raising funds for the "Help the Needy" charity, which the FBI alleges is a front for terrorist organizations.

The questions they asked these students (who were justifiably terrified)
were unanswerable - things like :

- do you know of anyone capable of or willing to commit acts of violence against the U.S.?
- do you know of anyone advocating acts of violence against the U.S.?
- do you know of anyone who raises money for any purpose, charitable, religious or otherwise?
- have you every donated money to any organization, charitable, religious or otherwise?

It was a scary situation. Many of the students are wanting to leave the U.S. immediately, education be damned. Who could blame them?

Here's more from today's Denver Post.

We're shocked that this hasn't gotten more coverage. We are outraged. The CIA has acknowledged that last September, the seven and nine year old sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, arrested last week and alleged to be a "mastermind" of the 9/11 attacks, were seized by Pakistani authorites, and that this weekend, the kids were turned over to the CIA and then flown to America so that the young boys could be interrogated in an undisclosed location about their father's activities and used to get their father to talk.

Yousef al-Khalid, 9, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, 7, were taken into custody in Pakistan in September when intelligence officers raided an apartment in Karachi where their father had been hiding.

He fled just hours before the raid, but his two young sons, along with another senior al Qaeda member, were found cowering behind a clothes closet in the apartment.

The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities, but this weekend they were flown to America, where they will be questioned about their father.

CIA interrogators confirmed last night that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities.... [Mohammed] has been told that his sons are being held and is being encouraged to divulge future attacks against the West and talk about the location of Osama bin Laden, officials said.

"His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him."

First, let's translate. The operative and missing word from that last sentence is "safe." As in what Mohammed is really being told is that something awful will befall his sons if he doesn't cooperate. Legal? Probably. It's also morally bankrupt. But let's leave the father out of this for the moment. Our concern is the kids.

Isn't this kidnapping? How about a human rights violation? What kind of precedent does this set? Seven and nine years old -- has this Administration lost its mind?

We didn't realize that enemy combatant status was hereditary. A lawyer and a guardian ad litem should be appointed for these kids immediately. The kids should be returned home without delay to whatever family they have left. This is taking "sins of the father" to an unprecedented and unconscionable level.

Bump and Update:

Erdogan won the election. In a television interview today, he says he is not in a hurry for a re-vote and that the U.S. is to blame for the outcome of the last vote.

Erdogan said he wants assurances Turkey will be protected in a post-war Iraq. One of his aides said he doubts a vote will occur before March 19, two days after the U.S. deadline, unless the U.S. acts quickly to provide the assurances Turkey is seeking.

In the interview, Erdogan blamed the United States for rushing him to go to parliament last week before he had gathered enough support, and for alienating the Turkish public with statements that cast their resistance to the U.S. deployment as a bargaining ploy for more economic aid. Now, he said, the Bush administration would have to wait for these bad feelings to ease.

"I shouldn't give a definite date right now, but the U.S. has to take certain steps," he said. "As long as these steps are not taken, it is difficult for us to soften this climate in Turkey."

Erdogan named two issues he wanted the Bush administration to address. He asked for stronger guarantees that ethnic Turkmens in Iraq -- a population of 2 million to 3 million that Turkey says traces its roots to the same ancestors as the Turkish people -- would be fairly represented in a postwar Iraqi government. And he asked the United States to clarify what role Turkey would have in shaping Iraq's future, an apparent reference to Turkish concerns that an independent Kurdish state could be established in northern Iraq.

The Turkish government believes that a Kurdish state would encourage Turkey's own Kurdish population to make similar demands for autonomy, and perhaps lead to a renewal of the fighting between Kurdish separatists and the Turkish military that battered the nation for much of the past two decades.

"We talk about a political approach, so what will Turkey's role be in the end? If Turkey will not have any role, why is it sharing such a risk? This is not clear. It has to be clarified," Erdogan said.

Original Post--3/9/03 9:00 am The polls are closed in Turkey and counting of the votes has begun. It is expected that Recep Tayyip Erdogan will become the Turkish Prime Minister.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been the main power behind the scenes since his Islamic-rooted party formed a government after November elections, but he was barred from political office until a recent constitutional change. Erdogan is running for a seat in parliament in the southeastern province of Siirt. If he wins, he is expected to replace Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and form a new Cabinet within days - possibly removing ministers who have opposed the U.S. deployment."

Our prior post on Turkey and what our Turkish-American friends have told us is here.

Maureen Dowd comes out swinging in her New York Times column today, The Xanax Cowboy.

The president wants to avenge his father, and please his base by changing the historical ellipsis on the Persian Gulf war to a period. Donald Rumsfeld wants to exorcise the post-Vietnam focus on American imperfections and limitations. Dick Cheney wants to establish America's primacy as the sole superpower. Richard Perle wants to liberate Iraq and remove a mortal threat to Israel. After Desert Storm, Paul Wolfowitz posited that containment is a relic, and that America must aggressively pre-empt nuclear threats. ....Saddam would be the squealing guinea pig proving America could impose its will on the world.

Former Senator Gary Hart has an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post titled A Detour From the War on Terrorism . Here's the beginning, go read the whole thing.

The urgent necessity to disband terrorist networks abroad and to secure the American homeland has been replaced by the Bush administration's puzzling preoccupation with Saddam Hussein. He has become George Bush's White Whale, an obsession that has cost us international solidarity in eradicating terrorism, the goodwill of tens of millions of people worldwide and the role of benign democratic world leader. While deploying divisions to the Middle East our government has not been training and equipping police, fire and emergency health responders in the United States. While splitting the United Nations and NATO, our government has not made our vulnerable ports safer. While paying tens of billions of (deficit) tax dollars to Turkey, Yemen and other countries for basing rights in the Middle East, our president is not preparing the United States to respond to the terrorist attacks the CIA has predicted will most probably occur as a response to our preemptive invasion of a sovereign Arab nation. It is difficult to imagine that the president seriously believes an invasion of Iraq will reduce the terrorist threat to the United States.