Former military interrogator says torture cost hundreds ‘if not thousands’ of American lives

[babsbunny]

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/05/26/military-interrogator-torture-american-lives/

By John Byrne

Published: May 26, 2009
Updated 4 hours ago


A 14-year military interrogator has undercut one of the key arguments posited by Vice President Dick Cheney in favor of the Bush Administration’s torture techniques and alleged that the use of torture has cost “hundreds if not thousands” of American lives.

The interrogator, who uses the name “Matthew Alexander,” says he oversaw more than 1,000 interrogations, conducting more than 300 in Iraq personally. His statements are captured in a new video by Brave New Films (below).

“Torture does not save lives,” Alexander said in his interview. “And the reason why is that our enemies use it, number one, as a recruiting tool…These same foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight because of torture and abuse….literally cost us hundreds if not thousands of American lives.”

[Wednesdays]

1. K&R

:kick:

[Senator]

2. Only Prosecution Makes Us Non-Torturers.

Not scapegoating a few "bad apples."

Nor pretty speeches about how "wrong" the "policy" was.

Nor claiming the authority to "ban" (hence, also to "unban") what was always a war crime.

Nor creating a legal or geographical diaspora of the tortured, so that we can sanitize the soul-sore that is gitmo.

Nor creating "http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/22/preventive_detention/index.html">special purpose entities/vehicles" (like Enron or the Banksters) to try to limit our moral/legal responsibilities and liabilities.

Non-torturers confront the torturers among us. They don't whine about the "mess," they clean it up. They don't euphemize about "unique challenges," they meet the challenge of abiding by and enforcing our laws and treaty obligations, as they have been handed down by our greater generations who fought and died to forge them.

And FWIW, they certainly don't http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE53H1Y020090418">begin by immunizing the torturers who cost us this many of brave young men and women.

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