Op-Ed: The Torture Debate - The Missing Voices

Photos

IMG_5090

see larger image

uploaded by carlosdeve

Citing the April 2009 release of the International Committee of the Red Cross' (ICRC) report on the abuse of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the recently released torture memos, which circulated between the Bush administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as expanding the public's knowledge of the events involving what was referred to, by the Bush administration, as "enhanced interrogation techniques", this New York Times editorial notes the absence of the voices of those detained, due to a refusal to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information from the ACLU and gag orders imposed on attorneys representing Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

The editorial also calls upon the current head of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Attorney General Eric Holder, to "repudiate" both practices.

An excerpt from the editorial, The Torture Debate - The Missing Voices :

Destruction of the C.I.A.’s interrogation videos has eliminated crucial evidence of the horrors heaped on key detainees. It is unclear exactly when the torture began, and whether the procedures followed stayed within the limits set forth by the Bush legal team. That makes it all the more important for the Obama administration to let detainees’ voices be heard.

While such accounts are suppressed, culpable ex-officials are busily trying to rewrite history. Consider a recent chat at a college reception between a student and Condoleezza Rice, who as White House national security adviser was deeply involved in the development of the authorization of brutality and torture.      

Click here to read the original article.