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Oh government, why do you fail so?
Aug. 11th, 2009 01:59 amNow, there has been a brouhaha of such proportion that it NEARLY distracted us from the dire threat of piggy sniffles.
No, I don't mean Hazel Blears' bloody car (A car got vandalised. Since when is this NEWS people?!)
I mean the torture rumblings. MI6 would like to assure us that they'd never ever ever ever do something so nasty as torture. Never. Of course not. They just ship people to folks who DO torture and probably send along a list of questions to go with. But there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. Right? After all, we can't control our allies. Right?
Excuse me, yes we can. If our "allies" are torturing people (and this assumes for a microsecond that I believe that MI6's hands are clean - which I REALLY REALLY don't) then these are NAUGHTY people who SHOULDN’T be considered allies. No no no. Seriously - how many times do we have to say this - MORAL HIGH GROUND good, and we keep throwing it away. Torture bad. No ifs buts or maybes. Torture is BAD. Unacceptable. In ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. If someone you’re working with tortures - YOU STOP WORKING WITH THEM!
If you say “we do not torture but work with people who do” then you torture. If we say “we do not torture but we ship people to places where they will be tortured” then you torture. Even if you say “we do not torture but we get info from people who may torture but say they don’t/we don’t ask/check” THEN YOU TORTURE.
You can’t freaking OUTSOURCE your torture and maintain any claim of not torturing. If you are looking for loopholes to get round torture then that makes you one of the bad guys - an epic bad guy in fact. Because you don’t have the moral high-ground over anyone - ANYONE - if you stoop to torture. You need to stand next to Hitler to look good if you condone torture, torture is that level of evil - and we seem to be forgetting that
And for the second fail. The government sees no reason for an indepdent inquiry.
Now, see, if this was about the standard nitty gritty of government like whether the government was using energy saving lightbulbs or something relatively trivial - then yes. An independent inquiry is expensive and unnecessary.
But torture? Really, TORTURE? This, by definition, isn’t trivial. If ever was even a suggestion that we were complicit in torture there should be a full investigation. When that suggestion comes from the Foreign Affairs Committee? Seriously, these are not trivial, these are not easily dismissed. These are legitimate concerns.
And the response? Could it be any worse? If there was no torture or no complicity with torture they would welcome - with open arms - an inquiry. This is a chance to clear the stain, the suggestion, the insult. And if there IS a rogue element supporting torture - well, if they REALLY disapprove of it they’d want to root that out.
The answer is the worst it could be. They don’t want an inquiry. They don’t want torture to be examined or investigated - and most certainly not revealed. At best they are trivialising the possibility of torture rather than treating it as the severe crime it is. At worst - they know they’re guild and are desperately covering it up
No, I don't mean Hazel Blears' bloody car (A car got vandalised. Since when is this NEWS people?!)
I mean the torture rumblings. MI6 would like to assure us that they'd never ever ever ever do something so nasty as torture. Never. Of course not. They just ship people to folks who DO torture and probably send along a list of questions to go with. But there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. Right? After all, we can't control our allies. Right?
Excuse me, yes we can. If our "allies" are torturing people (and this assumes for a microsecond that I believe that MI6's hands are clean - which I REALLY REALLY don't) then these are NAUGHTY people who SHOULDN’T be considered allies. No no no. Seriously - how many times do we have to say this - MORAL HIGH GROUND good, and we keep throwing it away. Torture bad. No ifs buts or maybes. Torture is BAD. Unacceptable. In ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. If someone you’re working with tortures - YOU STOP WORKING WITH THEM!
If you say “we do not torture but work with people who do” then you torture. If we say “we do not torture but we ship people to places where they will be tortured” then you torture. Even if you say “we do not torture but we get info from people who may torture but say they don’t/we don’t ask/check” THEN YOU TORTURE.
You can’t freaking OUTSOURCE your torture and maintain any claim of not torturing. If you are looking for loopholes to get round torture then that makes you one of the bad guys - an epic bad guy in fact. Because you don’t have the moral high-ground over anyone - ANYONE - if you stoop to torture. You need to stand next to Hitler to look good if you condone torture, torture is that level of evil - and we seem to be forgetting that
And for the second fail. The government sees no reason for an indepdent inquiry.
Now, see, if this was about the standard nitty gritty of government like whether the government was using energy saving lightbulbs or something relatively trivial - then yes. An independent inquiry is expensive and unnecessary.
But torture? Really, TORTURE? This, by definition, isn’t trivial. If ever was even a suggestion that we were complicit in torture there should be a full investigation. When that suggestion comes from the Foreign Affairs Committee? Seriously, these are not trivial, these are not easily dismissed. These are legitimate concerns.
And the response? Could it be any worse? If there was no torture or no complicity with torture they would welcome - with open arms - an inquiry. This is a chance to clear the stain, the suggestion, the insult. And if there IS a rogue element supporting torture - well, if they REALLY disapprove of it they’d want to root that out.
The answer is the worst it could be. They don’t want an inquiry. They don’t want torture to be examined or investigated - and most certainly not revealed. At best they are trivialising the possibility of torture rather than treating it as the severe crime it is. At worst - they know they’re guild and are desperately covering it up