Torture is not just an evil in itself. That it is. But it -- or more accurately, the culture and mindset from which it springs -- also has the unhappy quality of corroding everything around it. Our values, of course. Our commitment to democracy, free speech, due process, tolerance of dissenting opinions. Our humanity. And even our language.
Yesterday, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of the torture compromise legislation, a former Bush lawyer even implied that detainees and the lawyers who assist them are committing "aggression" against the United States by seeking habeas review. If so, they fit the definition of "unlawful combatant" in the McCain-Bush Torture Authorization Act of 2006.
I shit you not. Read on.
Mr. Bradford Berenson (the third? the Great?), current partner at Sidley Austin LLP and former Associate Counsel to the President from January 2001 to January 2003, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. You can read his full statement
here to get a flavor of the type of animal that inhabits the putrid moral and intellectual swamp that is the Bush administration.
I just want to highlight one little snippet, however.
We thus found ourselves after [the recent Supreme Court decision in] Rasul with hundreds of our nation's most vicious enemies suing our military and civilian commanders in federal court seeking writs of habeas corpus. Indeed, now that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda mastermind of 9/11, has been transferred to Guantanamo, it may not be long before he, too, can continue his aggression against the United States, this time through our own court system.
Lawyers of America, you have been warned.