Steps to Ending Torture
In his speech to the nation on Tuesday, President Obama categorically renounced torture. He has signed an executive order laying out a timetable to close Guantanamo, has ended the CIA's use of other methods not outlined in the Army Field Manual, and abolish secret prisons.
George Hunsinger of Princeton Seminary and founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, writing in the blog Progressive Revival, commends the new administration for the steps it has taken, but he also urges additional steps be taken. He'd like to see loopholes closed, the speeding up of the closing of Guantanamo, and the explicit ending of the practice of extraordinary rendition. In other words, he wants the Geneva Conventions to hold for us as well.
He expects resistance and efforts to evade these new rules. But he wants the leaders of the nation to hold firm:
America's greatest strength is its principles -- it would be sad if we would continue to circumvent them to protect ourselves. If we do, then what makes us who we are?
George Hunsinger of Princeton Seminary and founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, writing in the blog Progressive Revival, commends the new administration for the steps it has taken, but he also urges additional steps be taken. He'd like to see loopholes closed, the speeding up of the closing of Guantanamo, and the explicit ending of the practice of extraordinary rendition. In other words, he wants the Geneva Conventions to hold for us as well.
He expects resistance and efforts to evade these new rules. But he wants the leaders of the nation to hold firm:
In short, the new executive orders are full of promise, They overturn illegal and immoral tactics in the defense of national security. But they do not mean that the struggle is over.
America's greatest strength is its principles -- it would be sad if we would continue to circumvent them to protect ourselves. If we do, then what makes us who we are?
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