Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

Matthew Dulin         Geronimo Rodriguez        Shaun Salnave          Cara Sarelli

Hypocrisy hurts

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the al-Qaida commander expected of devising the Sept. 11 attacks, remains captive in Pakistan and is subjected to extensive interrogation by Pakistani officials and the CIA. But fishing for valuable information may come at a price far more painful than through previously used methods of sleep deprivation, tiny meals or scorching spotlights.

America rejoiced in the capture of one of its most despised terrorists. It questioned its morality when the use torture methods to get quick and accurate information became the media's hottest topic.

Proponents of torture say that harsh interrogation practices are necessary to extract information from Mohammed's brain. 

"Put him under a mechanical respirator ... paralyze his lungs ... give him an injection of a paralytic drug," says Jack Wheeler, president of the Freedom Research Foundation. Attach a brain-scanning device; "you know when he's telling the truth."

Government interrogation specialists, on the other hand, say that torture is ineffective and immoral, legally and practically. Many suggest that physically tormenting prisoners leads to false information; detainees will tell you anything after submitting to grotesque treatment and horrific pain ? anything to make it stop.

"Other means ? like psychological manipulations ? are more effective," Chris Whitcomb, who taught interrogation techniques at an FBI Academy, told MSNBC.

Pakistan, under the dictatorship of Gen. Musharraf, has no law pertaining to anti-torture measures and continues to practice prisoner excruciation. The release of valuable information is optional.

Cruel and unusual punishment is against U.S. law, but the United States opposed an international treaty aimed at eliminating torture in 2002. So as long as a prisoner of the United States is held in Pakistan, U.S. Intelligence may perform methods of legal Pakistani torture. These include electrocution of the genitalia and other sensitive body parts and face-first submersion into barrels of bile and puke until near suffocation ? until the prisoner breaks.

Such acts of atrocity by the Bush administration would reveal a hypocrisy that ignores human rights, morality and progress.

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