2008 Woodie Awards
CIA denies torture
Chase Becicka
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Most will agree that torture is bad and hurting people is bad. I would hope that everyone agrees on that point but when I sit down and watch my small dose of news in the evenings, occasionally I hear little snippets about secret prisons and the United States okaying severe interrogation techniques.
At this point I tend to look up in confusion and scratch my head trying to remember those countless tests I took in high school over the whole World War thing. Then it hits me: The Geneva Conventions and the Hague Convention. Weren't those supposed to stop people from committing acts of torture?
In the most recent news story, Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey claims that the President doesn't have the authority to use torture techniques against terrorism suspects. However, I can understand why our government sees the need to torture people. We're afraid of terrorist attacks.Although when you think about it, will torture really give intelligence agencies a leg up? Can the information from people we are hurting really be trusted as accurate? Aren't we, as citizens of the United States, supposed to stand against inhumane acts like torture and stand up for human rights?
Maybe citizens go along with it because they are afraid of another terrorist attack but by allowing torturing or aggressive interrogations to take place we're falling below the good guy status. As a country, shouldn't we be above that?
Maybe right now we're not but hopefully we will start to play by the rules again. Then maybe we can keep our good guy image and prove to the rest of the world that we are a country that does not stand for this kind of inhumane punishment.
At this point I tend to look up in confusion and scratch my head trying to remember those countless tests I took in high school over the whole World War thing. Then it hits me: The Geneva Conventions and the Hague Convention. Weren't those supposed to stop people from committing acts of torture?
In the most recent news story, Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey claims that the President doesn't have the authority to use torture techniques against terrorism suspects. However, I can understand why our government sees the need to torture people. We're afraid of terrorist attacks.Although when you think about it, will torture really give intelligence agencies a leg up? Can the information from people we are hurting really be trusted as accurate? Aren't we, as citizens of the United States, supposed to stand against inhumane acts like torture and stand up for human rights?
Maybe citizens go along with it because they are afraid of another terrorist attack but by allowing torturing or aggressive interrogations to take place we're falling below the good guy status. As a country, shouldn't we be above that?
Maybe right now we're not but hopefully we will start to play by the rules again. Then maybe we can keep our good guy image and prove to the rest of the world that we are a country that does not stand for this kind of inhumane punishment.
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