Torture Takes A Holiday

Here's a front-page story from today's Washington Post: CIA Puts Harsh Tactics On Hold. Dana Priest has a blockbuster.

There's something wrong when the goddamned FBI is the voice of reason:

[O]n Nov. 11, 2001, a senior al Qaeda operative who ran the Khaldan paramilitary camp in Afghanistan was captured by Pakistani forces and turned over to U.S. military forces in January 2002. The capture of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan, sparked the first real debate over interrogations. The CIA wanted to use a range of methods, including threatening his life and family.

But the FBI had never authorized such methods. The bureau wanted to preserve the purity of interrogations so they could be used as evidence in court cases.

That's right. The same FBI that once spied on the leaders of the Civil Rights movement didn't have the total disregard for humanity evidenced by the CIA (and, apparently, the Pentagon head and the White House). There's something seriously screwed up, folks.

It's kind of hard to claim that you're "fighting the barbarians" when you're doing things like this:

Abu Zubaida was shot in the groin during his apprehension in Pakistan. U.S. national security officials have suggested that painkillers were used selectively in the beginning of his captivity until he agreed to cooperate more fully.

Note that tactics such as these have made you, as an American, much less safe when you go abroad. Period. And god help any US soldiers who are taken prisoner. (For the record, one US Army trooper is listed as captured, and has been since April. He is likely long dead, but, since Pfc Maupin--a 20-year-old kid--was known to have been in enemy custody and alive at one point, his official status remains "captured.")

University of Miami law professor Michael Froomkin (Jon, I think we should add this guy to the links) has an excellent post about the Priest article.

UPDATE: Right on schedule, this story came out this afternoon. I'm not sure whether or not the threatened man is actually a US Marine or one of the interpreters that accompany US troops. In either case, his future doesn't look good.

UPDATE, THE SEQUEL: The kidnapped man is, in fact, a US Marine. Lord, I hope they get him back. The group holding him, according to the report cited, has made no threat of execution (unlike the people who kidnapped the Pakistani employee of KBR). But there seems to be a disturbing trend emerging on how to deal with prisoners in Iraq. He may, if he is a Muslim, be accorded some mercy. But I don't really feel that such will be the case. The Qur'an is quite clear that Muslims may not kill fellow Muslims, but that doesn't seem to be a particularly salient passage in Iraq these days, as the rash of bombings and attacks last week bears witness.

UPDATE III: The young Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, is Muslim. He's a Utah resident who was born in Lebanon. And I hope he gets to see his family again.