Spanish Inquisition comes to the White House

By Dan Ehl
DAILY IOWEGIAN (AND AD EXPRESS) (CENTERVILLE, Iowa)

Sat, May 17 2008

— Sen. Charles Grassley was at Rotary recently and he was asked about the House of Representatives blocking an extension of a warrantless eavesdropping program.
Grassley replied there were the ACLU types who didn’t want to see any wiretapping or spying on emails in the so-called war on terrorism.
That’s not quite correct. The Democrats holding it up just happen to care about the Constitution and its ban on unreasonable searches - “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”
As a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin says, “Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve neither security nor liberty.”
There is already in place a system for intelligence officials to secure warrants from a secret court. And in emergencies, they can wiretap first and seek the warrant later. This system prevents political abuses and protects our Fourth Amendment rights that many of our forefathers died for.
So why are the megalomaniacs in the White House so bent on undermining our liberties? It’s called arrogance and a thirst for power - which Dick Cheney and his ilk have become more and more addicted to during the past eight years.
William O. Douglas, justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, said it well, “As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air however slight lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”
It’s these same thugs who are opposing Congressional efforts to outlaw torture. The degree to which many conservatives are opposed to any limits on interrogation methods is appalling.
They even turn on their own - such as Senator and ex-pow John McCain, who has said, “Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us - every single one of us - knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”
He’s also said, “There are much better and more effective ways to get information. You torture someone long enough, he’ll tell whatever he thinks you want to know.”
Under pressure to appease the right wing loonies in his presidential bid, McCain did a shameful about-face during the recent Senate passage of a bill banning torture and waterboarding. It passed 51 to 45, with McCain voting against it.
For those who don’t think waterboarding is torture, ask Japanese officer Yukio Asano. In 1947, he was tried as a war criminal and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for waterboarding American prisoners during World War II.
A number of other Japanese prison guards were also convicted of war crimes for waterboarding.
Waterboarding was a favorite technique during the Spanish Inquisition and used by the Nazis - so the White House is in great company.
For those who don’t know what waterboarding is, it is when a person has his or her head inclined downward with water poured over the face and breathing passages. This elicits the gag reflex and the victim experiences the feeling of drowning and imminent death.
Waterboarding usually leaves no lasting physical damage, but there is the danger of lung and brain damage and broken bones due to struggling against restraints. Death can also result. The psychological trauma from waterboarding can last for years.
Douglas’ warning about the twilight that leads to darkness is now, and yet those defending our Constitution and human rights are accused of aiding the enemy.
“We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights,” warned Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter.
In a letter signed by 11 senior CIA officials to the Senate, they stated, “Our nation was created in response to the abuses visited on our ancestors by the King of England, who claimed the right to enter their homes, to levy taxes at whim, and to jail those perceived as a threat without allowing them to be confronted by their accusers. Now, 230 years later, we find our own President claiming the right to put people in detention centers without legal recourse and to employ interrogation methods that, by any reasonable legal standard, are categorized as torture.
“We ask that the Senate lead the way in upholding the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and affirmed in the Geneva Conventions regarding the rights of individuals and the obligations of governing authorities towards those in their power. We believe it is important to combat the hatred and vitriol espoused by Islamic extremists, but not at the expense of being viewed as a nation who justifies or excuses torture and incarceration without recourse to a judicial procedure.”
Those who deny civil liberties and human rights to even supposed enemies are not patriots - “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.” - Thomas Paine.

Dan Ehl writes for Daily Iowegian in Centerville, Iowa.

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