In Europe and elsewhere, the revulsion over U.S. treatment of terrorist detainees shows little sign of abating, and, as this op-ed from Switzerland shows, neither does the self-loathing over the fact that European governments actively participated or turned a blind eye – or as Swiss columnist Francois Gross puts it, “allies of these Crusaders, worthy of their ancestors remained silent. The enablers of the masters of the world caged foreign detainees on their own soil.”
Gross continues in part, in regard to the Obama Administration’s release of CIA memos on ‘harsh interrogation techniques’:
“Their release was a remarkable act of civic courage and a risk of great magnitude, but does nothing to minimize this sickening outpouring. Lawyers – oh yes, lawyers! – cataloged this humiliating treatment and outlined how to implement it. They alerted the CIA tormentors of the limits that couldn’t be crossed. And all in the name of the triumph of good over evil. … Like historians who scrutinize the archives of the Third Reich, readers of these administrative documents were flabbergasted by their meticulousness. Senior officials at the Department of Justice, men and women trained in the science of law, reviewed the procedures of the inquisitors in the minutest detail – in order to provide them with a blank check. Without soiling their hands with the tasks of their subordinates, these meticulous case workers relieved the conscience of the torturers: ‘Go for it! You are contributing to the defense of Western civilization.’
By François Gross
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
May 2, 2009
Switzerland – Le Temps – Original Article (French)
Exemplary? Certainly. Edifying? Absolutely not. The publication by the White House of four memos that constitute a manual for “legal” torture has little precedent. The veil has been lifted on what was no longer a mystery to a large number of America’s partners – government and non-government alike.
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