Blog
Published on March 4, 2010
By Renée Schomp
Law and Security
On Slate yesterday, former senior military interrogator Matthew Alexander raised a metaphorical eyebrow at the sometimes bizarre, sometimes chilling pro-torture assertions made by Marc Thiessen in his recently published book, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack. Alexander sums it up when he points out that frankly, “Courting Disaster is nothing more than the defense’s opening statement in a war crimes trial.”
It is a relief to hear from a real expert on military interrogations, and yet a shame that it is Thiessen who gets the spotlight on this issue. Human Rights First has been working for years with Matthew Alexander and a group of interrogators who maintain that torture does not get results. Furthermore, as Alexander points out,
Thiessen and the torture apologists mock every American soldier who has followed
the rules of law and ethical warfare. He insults every interrogator who has
learned to elicit information without resorting to medieval abuses.
All voices have a right to be heard—but The Washington Post should know tht Americans are unimpressed by the decision to give Marc Thiessen a column in which he continues to promote abusive interrogation practices and crumble any moral ground our country still stands on.
Send a letter to The Washington Post today letting them know their choice is disappointing—and irresponsible. We’d like to hear from some REAL experts on national security.
