"I was horrified..."

One of the deepest, most profound and indeed, most damaging and damning aspects of U.S. policy since 2001 is the embrace of the "dark side" when it comes to fighting terrorism. Despite a long history of using criminal justice, both in the U.S. and around the world, to defeat those who use violent measures to solve their political problems, the U.S. walked into what can only be described as a "twilight zone" in its use of imprisonment and torture against those who fall into its hands. Even today, I can hardly believe that the country established upon the "Rule of Law" so easily abandoned its principles, its morals, and its role as a global leader when it turned its back on the Geneva Convention, international laws against cruelty and its own national laws against torture.

America's treatment of those it has captured on the global "battlefield" in the so-called "War on Terror" is perhaps the single greatest failure of policy made by the Bush Administration.

Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine recently highlighted the documentary Torturing Democracy. This important film, which was produced for PBS and available for airing since this past May, only recently started airing on a few PBS affiliated stations since the network could find "no time slot could be found for the documentary before January 21, 2009."

And no wonder. In a little less than an hour of concise, revelatory and compelling journalism, Torturing Democracy makes clear that the most senior officials of the U.S. government, including the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense and Attorney General, demanded and approved of interrogations that at a minimum were cruel and almost certainly violated U.S. and international laws. Even more, they broke these fundemental laws all the while asserting that their policies were legal and those performing torture were immunized by President Bush's orders.

We once tried some folks who defended their actions using the very same arguments. It was called the Nuremberg Trials and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. More than a few of those defendants were hung as a punishment for their crimes.

President-elect Obama repeatedly campaigned on a promise to end the use of torture by the United States. But, he has advising him on intelligence issues, folks that themselves have a questionable commitment to ending this illegal and immoral practice. Nevertheless, President-elect Obama reiterated this commitment in Sunday evening's 60 Minutes interview:

I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.

Please, please, please. Watch the documentary. Read the documents. Review the sworn testimony given to the Senate in the past few months. And LEARN what has been done in all our names over the past several years.

Finally, THINK about what happens when our Soldiers are captured, your loved one is "rendered" or your neighbor disappears into a "black site."

Then ACT to hold accountable our officials for their actions, because, if we fail to act, we citizens must hold ourselves accountable for what has been done - in our name.

(Title words spoken by Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the U.S. Navy)
(Image from McClatchy News Service)