Standing Behind a Ban on Torture by General James P Cullen

[ProSense]

Standing Behind a Ban on Torture

by General James P Cullen
Tue Jan 27, 2009 at 10:10:57 AM PST

Standing just behind President Obama in the Oval Office, I watched last week as the new President signed his name to three Executive Orders that will put our country in a stronger position to fight Al Qaeda.

I was one of 16 retired Generals and Admirals the White House invited to a signing ceremony of orders that ban torture, close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and end the CIA's use of secret prisons.

Just before the signing ceremony, sitting in the Roosevelt Room, our group spoke to President Obama and Vice President Biden about the impact his action would have on national security. The President spoke – without notes – for several minutes about why he thought that signing these orders was the right thing to do.

As Rear Admiral John Hutson told the New York Times afterwards, "President Obama gets it." He had an impressive understanding of the nuance and arguments (on both sides) relating to interrogation policy.

He noted that he would be criticized if the United States faced another terrorist attack. Yet, he said he was convinced that a clear anti-torture policy would make us safer. General Paul Kern – a four-star General who co-led an investigation into abuses at Abu Ghraib – told the President that our group of Generals and Admirals was there to support him precisely because humane interrogation tactics will put us in a stronger position to achieve our national security objectives.

When I first learned of the abuses at Abu Ghraib I never thought it would take a new administration and several executive orders to put a stop to practices that were so obviously wrong and not in the United States' interest.

In 2004, I started to talk to other military officers about abuses – not just at Abu Ghraib but in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and other parts of Iraq too. The officers I spoke to were universally opposed to the use of Gestapo tactics to get detainees to talk.

In my 27-year career, I had only met once with another four-star General. Now I was sitting in a room with several of them and all of us were opposed to the use of torture.

In the years that followed we worked with Human Rights First, lobbying the administration and Congress. We expanded our group as we encountered more and more Generals and Admirals who were willing to be outspoken about the need to ban torture.

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Thank you General Cullen.

h/t DUer TayTay for link.

[TayTay]

1. General Cullen is the definition of a patriot

Someone who puts the interests of the country above other concerns.

What an incredible post.