Torture in America: ‘Just Following Orders’ – Der Tageszeitung, Germany

According to Bettina Gaus of Germany’s Die Tageszeitung, if President Obama obtains a candid and unsparing assessment of the policies of his predecessor by granting immunity to CIA operatives, then it’s an exercise worth doing. But if granting immunity is simply for the purpose of not antagonizing government agencies and the military – then according to Gaus, the confidence that the world has placed in him will have well and truly been squandered.

Gaus writes in part:

“Clearly this is unsatisfactory. The longing for criminals to be punished somewhere, sometime, is the source of all desire for justice and all religious ideas of hell. But since we now live on earth and not in the hereafter: how is one to evaluate the decision of Barack Obama, the most powerful man in the world?”

“If Obama’s only intention is to avoid antagonizing government agencies and the military, then he has thrown away a good deal of the confidence that the world has placed in him. … The claim of just following orders can be validly made only by those living under a dictatorship. … But if by offering immunity to the perpetrators, Obama has prepared the ground for an unsparing assessment of Bush’s policy, then Obama will be thoroughly vindicated.”

In addition, in an article headlined Poverty and Torture: Bush Has Company in Europe Rafeal Barbosa of Portugal’s Jornal de Noticias writes in part:

“This was a chapter led by Bush and that counted on the political compliance of some European leaders, such as Blair, [ex-Spanish Prime Minister] Aznar and even [ex-Portugal Prime Minister] Durão Barroso. The only one that still holds a political position and remains relevant is the latter. Does it make sense for him to continue?”

Commentary By Bettina Gaus

Translated By Jonathan Lobsien

April 21, 2009

Germany – Die Tageszeitung – Original Article (German)

The more that the gruesome details of the incidents are known, the easier it becomes to sympathize with the victims. One hundred eighty three times, suspected terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was subjected to so-called waterboarding and made to suffer the fear of death by drowning. If we had only known! There was an apparent system to the crimes of the Bush Administration. It wasn’t just a matter of obtaining confessions and information relevant to security – it was also about breaking people. So should this raise the level of revulsion over such practices? No. It need not and should not.

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