Torture

The Fafblog is pissed. It seems Congress wants to outsource torture. In the bill working its way through the House that implements a watered down version of the 9-11 Commission's recommendations, someone slipped an amendment that would allow deportation of prisoners to countries that allow torture with the intent that the prisoner be tortured.

International law forbids that, but we're all neo-cons now, so we don't care. At least, it seems that way sometimes. Luckily, there are good people like Ed Markey standing up against stupidity. He has an amendment that would reaffirm our nation's historical opposition to torture, and forbid such "extraordinary rendition."

The post that started this all points out that we already got in trouble for sending Maher Arar to Syria, where he was born, to be tortured and beaten for almost a year before being repatriated to Canada, where he is a citizen. Is it even worth pointing out that no evidence exists that he ever did anything wrong?

No, because torture is always bad. It never serves a purpose, and it lowers us to the level of thugs. I've got barrels of steaming bile to spew over Abu Ghraib, but that was "unofficial." This crap would be out in the open.

Ted at Crooked Timber has a sample email against the bad amendment. Everyone should write, email, fax and call your Congress-critters. If this gets into the bill that comes to the floor, no sensible politician will vote against it. This issue has to be resolved now.