Sparring Opinions: Prosecuting Torture

Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate whether harsh treatment of suspected terrorists by CIA interrogators constituted illegal torture. Holder's move came in conjunction with the release of a CIA report (pdf) on the agency's interrogation program from 2001-2003. In today's Sparring Opinions, we're comparing two blog posts that take opposite views on this issue.

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald quoted extensively from the CIA report to make the case that the Department of Justice should prosecute both interrogators and their superiors who abused detainees. "As stomach-turning as these individual acts of sadism are," he said, "it is far worse to consider that only low-level interrogators will suffer consequences while those who were truly responsible -- the criminally depraved leaders and lawyers who ordered and authorized it -- will be protected."

Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard, however, used quotes from the same report to show that the CIA's harsh interrogations provided valuable information that helped prevent terrorist attacks. "Reasonable people can – and do – disagree about the morality of using [enhanced interrogation techniques]. But only the most accomplished resister could continue to claim that they were not effective."

Which of these Sparring Opinions is more compelling? Weigh in by adding your review to these two stories:

What every American should be made to learn about the IG torture report - Salon

Did they work? - Weekly Standard


-- Derek Hawkins

Comments

[Timothy Dolan]

Prosecute at both "interrogators" and their superiors for anything less would be a miscarriage of justice. It's positively hypocritical for the same voices who criticized now Justice Sotomejor invoking even-handed, blind justice as a standard for all now equivocate on the point of those who carried out the agenda of Neo-Con idealism. Please square that twisted knot Weekly Standard editorialists. Such a feat would be worthy of Circe de Soleir.