Tortured Language
Dear BBC: No, waterboarding is not a "controversial" nor a "harsh" "interrogation technique". It is torture, both legally and morally. This is not a partisan position, so who exactly are you attempting to mollify by avoiding the correct words? Neither is it "simulated" drowning: water enters the victim's lungs. It is actual drowning - "controlled" drowning, perhaps, but not "simulated".
It is, of course, sickening for President Obama to say that the CIA's torturers won't be prosecuted. The US has ratified the conventions on torture and therefore has a legal obligation to prosecute them, as does every other signatory country if the US fails to do so. Neither is claiming that "they thought it was legal" a defence. As the Nuremberg tribunals laid down, it makes no difference whether a government tells you that ripping someone's nails off is legal; as an independent moral agent, you have a moral duty to refuse to do so. (Indeed, I'm pretty sure that the act of claiming that torture is legal is itself a crime - and I wish the Spanish authorities all the best in attempting to prosecute Bush's former lawyers for doing so.) However, in the end the actual torturers are insignificant. The true criminals are Bush, Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo and their co-conspirators who planned and authorised the whole malevolent enterprise. Sadly, I have no faith that Obama will allow any efforts to prosecute them either. Which means it's up to every other nation in the world to hope that any of them plans to take a foreign holiday sometime soon...
It is, of course, sickening for President Obama to say that the CIA's torturers won't be prosecuted. The US has ratified the conventions on torture and therefore has a legal obligation to prosecute them, as does every other signatory country if the US fails to do so. Neither is claiming that "they thought it was legal" a defence. As the Nuremberg tribunals laid down, it makes no difference whether a government tells you that ripping someone's nails off is legal; as an independent moral agent, you have a moral duty to refuse to do so. (Indeed, I'm pretty sure that the act of claiming that torture is legal is itself a crime - and I wish the Spanish authorities all the best in attempting to prosecute Bush's former lawyers for doing so.) However, in the end the actual torturers are insignificant. The true criminals are Bush, Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo and their co-conspirators who planned and authorised the whole malevolent enterprise. Sadly, I have no faith that Obama will allow any efforts to prosecute them either. Which means it's up to every other nation in the world to hope that any of them plans to take a foreign holiday sometime soon...