NYTimes Editorial on Torture: "Is this really who we are?"

Earlier this week, Senator Dodd responded to the revelations about new memos coming out of the Justice Department and the Office of Legal Counsel approving the use of torture, contrary to US law and international standards of decency. Dodd said:

"The law is crystal clear - torture is illegal. It is 'abhorrent' that the Bush Administration would publicly disavow torture, while its Office of Legal Counsel is secretly interpreting settled law to reach the opposite conclusion. It is imperative we understand the extent of this deception. The Office of Legal Counsel must release how many other secret opinions they have produced during the Bush Administration that justified violations of the Constitution, federal statutes, the laws of war, and international human rights.

"Congress's Constitutional authority is the power of the purse. And should the Justice Department not comply, I intend to use that authority by drafting legislation defunding the Office of Legal Counsel."

Today the New York Times has an editorial on the Bush administration condoning torture. It shows the same outrage as Senator Dodd.

For the rest of the nation, there is an immediate question: Is this really who we are?

Is this the country whose president declared, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," and then managed the collapse of Communism with minimum bloodshed and maximum dignity in the twilight of the 20th century? Or is this a nation that tortures human beings and then concocts legal sophistries to confuse the world and avoid accountability before American voters?

Truly banning the use of torture would not jeopardize American lives; experts in these matters generally agree that torture produces false confessions. Restoring the rule of law to Guantánamo Bay would not set terrorists free; the truly guilty could be tried for their crimes in a way that does not mock American values.

Clinging to the administration's policies will only cause further harm to America's global image and to our legal system. It also will add immeasurably to the risk facing any man or woman captured while wearing America's uniform or serving in its intelligence forces.

This is an easy choice.

Chris Dodd has said the first thing he will do when he takes office - in the first hour, no less - is restore the Constitution of the United States. That means he'll restore habeas corpus and due process and commit the executive branch to following laws passed by Congress. It means that we will once again honor treaties like the Geneva Convention, which clearly set out what we can and cannot do to our prisoners and which, as a duly ratified treaty is law in the United States.

To make things even clearer, Chris Dodd signed the American Freedom Campaign's pledge this past August, which reads:

"We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people's phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power.

"I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from assault by any President."

America demands leadership that is honest, that respects the rule of law, and that does not torture. Chris Dodd is offering that leadership and he's making clear what we will get in a Dodd administration.

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