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Several retired military leaders, including Veterans for Common Sense director Brigadier General Evelyn Foote and advisor Brigadier General David Irvine, are urging Congress to reject Senate-passed legislation that would nullify a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that gives detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to challenge their imprisonment.

Torture is about acts: the blow to the head, the scream in the ear, the scar-free injuries whose diagnosis has become an international medical subspecialty. But torture is also very much about words: the whispered or shouted questions of the interrogator; the muddled confession of the prisoner; the too rarely tested language of laws protecting prisoners from “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment.

a march to visit the prisoners of Guantanamo

Marchers to Reach Guantánamo Tomorrow

Friday, 7pm – After camping out last night, today the marchers continued their trek through the Santiago de Cuba Province — the second most populated province in the island of Cuba. Tonight they are staying in a hotel in Niceto Pérez. Tomorrow, International Human Rights Day, the marchers plan to arrive in the city of Guantánamo, about 12 miles from the detention centers.

Here is important news that should impact how free people and free nations should treat captured enemy prisoners of war — Britain’s highest court thrust itself into the middle of a roiling international debate on Thursday, declaring that evidence obtained through torture – no matter by whom – was not admissible in British courts. It also said Britain had a “positive obligation” to uphold antitorture principles abroad as well as at home.

There are many reasons why Americans should not torture prisoners, but here is one that may help those who are still not moved by the fact that it is morally wrong and illegal, damages the nation’s image, and puts American soldiers who are taken prisoner in mortal peril: It usually doesn’t work.

Anthony Lewis writes one of the best essays of the year describing the deep involvement of the current administration in the issue of torture. Yes, there must be “command responsibility” and command accountability for the on-going advocacy of torture by the current administration.