Let it be known

Kourosh Abascal

Professor Brown

English 1B

8 May 2013

Let it be known

            “Nearly a decade after the last Al Qaeda detainee was waterboarded, Americans still know little about what the CIA did to its prisoners, or whether it worked” (Dilanian). The Obama administration outlawed the use of waterboarding in 2009 but had since decided that any use of it before will not be punished. As fair as that sounds, it’s not how the government should be run. The Bush administration blatantly disregarded basic human rights and civil liberties and there had to be someone responsible. “Waterboarding is torture. When we use their techniques, the terrorists win. Our reputation is besmirched; our civil liberties endangered” (Kelly). In situations like waterboarding, which has definitely been dubbed as torture, actions must be taken to ensure those responsible are to take responsibility and for the public to be informed on what took place because doing taking these actions is just and an act of hope for the U.S to be able to move on.

            When Obama took office, people expected an independent torture investigation since his platform was ran based on civil liberties. Waterboarding “has long been defined as torture by both U.S. and international law, and by Obama himself. Torture, in turn, has long been defined as a war crime, and the United States is under treaty obligation to investigate and prosecute such crime” (Turley). An outright disregard for these simple rules does not help the United States’ image. Instead of running an investigation, Obama had made a promise that no CIA officer will be prosecuted for waterboarding that had been taken place.

“Though the White House denied the stories, Obama later gave his controversial speech at the CIA headquarters and did precisely that. In the speech, he effectively embraced the defense of befehl ist befehl ("an order is an order") and, in so doing, eviscerated one of the most important of the Nuremburg principles. Obama assured the CIA that employees would not be prosecuted for carrying out orders by superiors. This was later affirmed by Holder's Justice Department, which decided that employees carrying out torture were protected because they followed orders. The administration then decided that those who gave the orders were protected because they secured facially flawed legal opinions from the Justice Department. Finally, the Justice Department decided not to charge its own lawyers who gave those opinions because they were their ... well ...opinions” (Turley)

This all seems like a blame game that end with no one taking responsibility based on a technicality. Someone needs to take the blame and it should be the person highest in command that made the decisions to do such dastardly deeds.

            The public also has a right to know what does go on in our government. Especially when it is things like waterboarding that affects us all as a country. The world views the U.S as a role model and anything we do that can tarnish the United States reputation should be made clear and investigated. There’s a report that was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee that reviews the treatment of the Al-Qaeda prisoners. “After the committee voted 9 to 6 in a closed meeting, mostly along party lines, the Democratic chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, issued a statement saying the long-awaited 6,000-page report “uncovers startling details about the C.I.A. detention and interrogation program and raises critical questions about intelligence operations and oversight”” (Shane). Even Senator John McCain agrees that information regarding these events should be made public. “Mr. McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and has been an outspoken critic of the C.I.A.’s former methods, wrote Intelligence Committee members urging them to “finalize and declassify this report, so that all Americans can see the record for themselves, which I believe will finally close this painful chapter for our country”” (Shane).

The wrongs that we’ve encountered as a country can always be learned from. The public must be informed for the country to move forward. The report that is to be released is a must and will help people really know what is going on in their country. The more we know about our history, the less mistakes we can make in the future. “The report compares the torture of detainees to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. “What was once generally taken to be understandable and justifiable behavior,” the report says, “can later become a case of historical regret”” (Shane).