Anthony Romero: American Voters Oppose Torture

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Anthony D. Romero
American Voters Oppose Torture
Posted October 5, 2007 | 05:42 PM (EST)




Torture is un-American, ineffective, and illegal. That hasn't stopped President Bush, but the next president would be wise to adopt policies that not only adhere to the rule of law and U.S. treaty obligations, but also the strong views of the vast majority of Americans. "America stands against and will not tolerate torture," said President Bush in 2004. He was right about that, even if he didn't practice what he preached.

That fact is vividly demonstrated in a recent national poll of likely presidential election voters -- conducted for the ACLU by the Washington, D.C. firm of Belden Russonello & Stewart -- that documents a broad, bipartisan consensus on the issue of torture: Americans are against it, pure and simple.

The poll shows that 81 percent of Americans -- including 80 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of independents -- believe the U.S. should obey the law and oppose the use of torture. These strongly-held views underscore the pernicious deceit of the Bush administration's secret torture policies -- as revealed in this week's New York Times article.

The Times reported that just a few months after the Bush administration publicly declared in December 2004 that, "Torture is abhorrent both to American law and values and to international norms," it secretly and explicitly authorized the combined use of brutal physical and psychological techniques -- torture techniques -- on detainees in U.S. custody. As I recounted yesterday, l Alberto R. Gonzales' Justice Department endorsed the most barbaric interrogation practices ever used by the CIA and wrote another secret memo in an attempt to shield interrogators who tortured people in U.S. custody from criminal liability.

It's not a surprise that these memos were adopted and carried out in secret. Apparently even the Bush administration knew it was doing something terribly wrong, something it felt it needed to hide. And it remained hidden for over two years (the 2005 opinions are still in effect today), until this week's revelations. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-d-romero/american-voters-oppose-to_b_67375.html