A rchive Date
[ 13-06-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2004/06/13/498164.html
U.S. honour ambushed
By Eric Margolis -- Contributing Foreign Editor
Sun, June 13, 2004
Ronald Reagan was a great leader and great American who personified his nation's finest qualities. Though this column sometimes criticized his policies, it always admired and respected him.
Reagan's death reminds us that none of his successors has proven worthy of the nation's highest office. Particularly so George W. Bush, who desperately keeps trying to wrap himself in Reagan's mantle.
This contrast became even sharper last week, after U.S. media revealed more shocking evidence linking senior officials of the Bush administration to abuse and torture of captives.
The scandal began by the leak of a 56-page legal memo commissioned by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that sought to justify torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Further legal memos were revealed from the White House, Pentagon, justice department and CIA sanctioning torture and seeking ways to evade the 1996 U.S. War Crimes Act, which carries the death penalty, and the Geneva Conventions banning mistreatment, degradation or torture of prisoners.
National security
Administration lawyers claimed that because the nation's security was at risk, President Bush had authority, as commander-in-chief, to approve torture or "severe interrogation," and to order U.S. and international laws be ignored.
The justice department, which is supposed to uphold the law, actually sent a memo worthy of the Nazi legal system explaining why the Geneva Conventions and U.S. laws did not apply to "terrorism suspects." Any American may apparently be arrested as a "terrorism suspect," and tortured, according to justice lawyers. Replace "terrorism suspect" with "enemy of the people" and you have Stalin's Soviet tyranny.
At first, the right to torture applied only to the Guantanamo gulag. Then, to Afghanistan. Then to Bush's so-called war on terror in Iraq. Torture and/or brutal mistreatment of Muslim captives suspected of "terrorism" now seems common in U.S.-run prisons abroad and, increasingly, at home.
History shows once a regime authorizes torture, it comes to be widely used against all sorts of suspects -- criminal as well as political. Recall up to 90% of all those arrested by the U.S. as "terrorism suspects" turned out to be completely innocent.
When legal and moral constraints are removed, or undermined, states run rampant over their people's rights. Both Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union embarked on their monstrous crimes after co-operative lawyers set the legal stage for their actions.
Grave violations
Lawyers who collaborate in subverting laws and human rights are as much criminals as those who commit torture and rights abuses. They should be disbarred and prosecuted. The New York bar has rightly protested the disgraceful actions of administration lawyers.
As a former U.S. Army regular, I am outraged by the Bush administration's grave violations of the Geneva Conventions, actions sure to encourage brutal mistreatment of captured U.S. military personnel. Bush and Rumsfeld claim Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are not covered by the laws of war. But what about the 20,000 American mercenaries ("civilian contractors") now in Iraq, or non-uniformed U.S. Special Forces and CIA teams?
This scandal is the direct result of Bush's contempt for international law. No wonder he rejected the newly created international war crimes tribunal. Human rights groups are now calling for war crimes charges to be brought against members of his administration.
Behind all this is an even more disturbing message being pushed by Bush's entourage: National security is expressed through the leader's will, trumping all other concerns, justifying all actions, no matter how illegal. We have heard this sinister argument before in fascist Italy and Germany.
I'm sickened to see the nation I grew up to love, which I held to be the world's torch bearer of democracy and human rights, advocating legalized torture. I cannot imagine Ronald Reagan ever befouling his own or his nation's honour by advocating such crimes.
The dots have been connected. They lead from grinning Pte. Lynndie England and her naked Iraqi prisoner on a leash at Abu Gharib prison right up to the White House and the Pentagon.
Eric can be reached by e-mail at: margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com Letters to the editor should be sent to: editor@tor.sunpub.com Home Page
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