Legalized Torture, Reloaded - New York Times

Legalized Torture, Reloaded - New York Times: "Legalized Torture, Reloaded


Published: October 26, 2005

Amid all the natural and political disasters it faces, the White House is certainly tireless in its effort to legalize torture. This week, Vice President Dick Cheney proposed a novel solution for the moral and legal problems raised by the use of American soldiers to abuse prisoners and the practice of turning captives over to governments willing to act as proxies in doing the torturing. Mr. Cheney wants to make it legal for the Central Intelligence Agency to do this wet work.

Mr. Cheney's proposal was made in secret to Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who won the votes of 89 other senators this month to require the civilized treatment of prisoners at camps run by America's military and intelligence agencies. Mr. McCain's legislation, an amendment to the Defense Department budget bill, would ban the 'cruel, inhuman and degrading' treatment of prisoners. In other words, it would impose age-old standards of democracy and decency on the new prisons."