A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on April 16th, 2009 in US News

I simply cannot go along with this:

Seeking to move beyond what he calls a “a dark and painful chapter in our history,” President Barack Obama said Thursday that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted. The government also released four memos long held secret by the Bush administration in which its lawyers approved in extensive and often graphic detail the tough interrogation methods used against 28 terror suspects, the fullest and now complete government accounting of the techniques.

The rough tactics range from waterboarding — simulated drowning — to using a plastic neck collar to slam detainees into walls.

This is torture, plain and simple. These are techniques that would result in criminal charges being filed against any civilian law enforcement agent who used them. They are illegal, immoral, and they have no place being used by any American.

When I served in the United States Navy, I was taught that I had the responsibility – not the option, but the responsibility – to refuse any illegal order. Any order that required me to break international treaties and federal laws was, by very definition, illegal. The people who work for the CIA are in exactly the same situation. Yeah, the CIA conducts covert operations that exist in gray areas in the laws – but there is no gray area about torture.

It isn’t about us – the people of the United States – moving on. I’d bet dollars to donuts that the people of the United States have already moved on. It’s about the Constitution of the United States being a document that applies to the entire government of the United States. A document created to limit the power of government simply cannot have any meaning if it is interpreted as not applying to everything the government does. The US Constitution moves with the US flag. Or neither have any real meaning.

I understand the politics behind the decision. But I can’t support it.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, torture

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