Progress Pond

Larry Johnson: Thanks for Making My Point

Isn’t this the kind of debate that viewers should see on Fox News (or for that matter, sigh, any U.S. TV news)?

In reply to his blog editor’s admonishment — “[W]here are the cries for relief from prisoners’ allies and ‘human rights activists’ at Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about the grotesque daily torture practiced routinely by the Iraqi terrorists?” — former CIA/State Dept. analyst Larry Johnson replies on the Counterterrorism Blog:

My friend and colleague Andy Cochran has tossed down the gauntlet (which I presume is a metal glove for smacking folks upside the head). … More below::


And, I’ll add: Mr. Cochran, where is your outrage over the regular, bone-breaking torture of Iraqis in Iraqi-run jails?

I think Andy shares my view that torture and abuse of unarmed opponents is bad. The abuse in Iraq of these non-combatants by insurgents is evil. However, when we appear to tolerate such behavior as long as we’re inflicting it on the “evil doers” we have lowered ourselves to their level. I prefer we construct a policy and approach that stipulates we will not behave as terrorists. We will not abuse unarmed terrorists who may deserve to die.


I propose we take a page from what Israel did with the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the author of the Final Solution. Eichmann sent millions of Jewish men, women and children to gas chambers. He did so without any pretense of a trial or due process. He did it because he could. When Israel seized the opportunity to snatch this beast from Argentina they resisted the urge to summarily execute him. Instead they put him on trial. They documented the facts substantiating his evil acts. But they also set the clear standard of what differentiated the civilized, lawful State of Israel from the jungle of savagery represented by Eichmann and his ilk.


In waging the war on terror we must maintain the moral high road and ensure that we never give our enemies the opening to argue that we are just like them.


Read Larry Johnson’s statement on Guantanamo that began the debate.


Read Cochran’s indignant reply.


Mr. Cochran — and Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, et al. — where is your outrage over this report? From Democracy Now! this morning:

Majority of Iraqi Prisoners Face Intimidation, Torture


The Los Angeles Times reported over the weekend that up to 60% of the estimated 12,000 prisoners being held in Iraq face intimidation, beatings or torture that leads to broken bones and sometimes death. The paper quotes officials from Iraq’s Ministry of Human Rights as well as international human rights groups and defense attorneys in the country. Saad Sultan who is head of a board overseeing the treatment of prisoners at the Human Rights Ministry told the paper “There are beatings, punching, electric shocks to the body, including sensitive areas, hanging prisoners upside down and beating them and dragging them on the ground.” He added that police and security forces attached to the Interior Ministry are responsible for most abuses.

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