Our values and laws are not inconvenient obstacles

by: Sleeping Giant Stirs

Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 19:34:46 PM EST

Yesterday, we learned that in November 2005, the CIA destroyed videotapes of its interrogations of two prominent al Qaeda suspects, including a close Osama bin Laden associate - Abu Zubayadah. Media reports suggest that these videotapes depict brutal interrogation techniques, and could certainly be relevant to ongoing investigations and inquiries. Furthermore, these videotapes were not provided to the 9/11 Commission, which made a broad set of requests for classified documents - including interrogation tapes and transcripts - that would have included information about the 9/11 attacks.

The CIA has argued that these tapes needed to be destroyed to protect the identities of the interrogators. Our government must go to any length necessary to protect the identities of those who serve in a covert capacity. But the CIA keeps scores of classified material - including videotapes - while protecting the identities of its agents. This raises serious questions about whether the tapes were destroyed to protect the nature of the interrogation, rather than the identity of the interrogator.

Mr. President, this incident deserves further congressional oversight and inquiry - neither the CIA nor this interrogation program is immune to our laws. This is yet another chapter in a dark period in our constitutional history. Now, it is time to turn the page.

Senator Obama, today on the Senate floor, also stated:
We should not have to find ways of ignoring or averting our own laws to defend our country. Torture does not work. Torture violates our laws. And torture sets back the standing and moral leadership that America needs to triumph in this global struggle. Our values and laws are not inconvenient obstacles to the defense of our national security - they can and must be a guiding force in our response to terrorism.

After the pre-emptive strike against the American Navy stationed in Pearl Harbor, The Japanese High Command was confident that the United States would never rally its culturally fragmented society to the degree necessary to intervene with the imperial aspirations of the Rising Sun. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, having spent time in the US while attending Harvard University, knew otherwise. He is believed to have told the High Command, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."