One of the problems with denying information is that eventually, the information will come out. Ford had the Pinto memo (a cost-benefit analysis comparing the price of paying wrongful death claims for the Pinto against the cost of fixing the defect). Nixon had the Pentagon Papers.
The current executive branch, or what's left of the leadership from 2002, has its own information - such as the advice of a CIA lawyer advising that "if the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong," or that torture is a "matter of perception."
My understanding, as I was taught during Basic Training, was that if it was torture, we didn't do it. Torture was something "they" did. We were above it. We didn't interrogate outside the accepted practices of international law or try to find loopholes in the Geneva Conventions, because we were better than that. We were the standard bearer, the shining example for the world to follow.
There was no perception. There was no tipping point for right or wrong based on survival rate. But that was before detainees were guilty by suspicion, before civil liberties and the Constitution could be put on hold in the name of "security." Before Bush and company.
I wonder, will any of these individuals go to jail like Lynndie England? Or has the scapegoating already taken place?
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