Human Rights Violations in the Name of Security in the United States

Originally posted on A contrario on 22 March, 2008

This is the extended and original version of a letter I submitted to the editor of the local paper. It is the first of a growing series of documents to come out of my research into the human rights violations that are being committed by or in the United States. While I am disgusted by my government's behavior, I am even more incensed by the general public apathy (at least in my area) toward the issue . I wrote this letter in an attempt to dissolve that apathy and implore people to start attending to what the U.S. government is doing in our name. Democracy will not survive in this nation if we do not monitor our own government at least as vigilantly as it seems to be monitoring us.

"Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right." This is an exact quote from Bush's 26 June 2003 Presidential Statement. My question here is a simple one: When will we the people hold Mr. Bush to these words?

If what he said wasn't a bald-faced lie, then why did he veto the anti-torture legislation on 8 March 2008? More to the point, why wasn't his decision reported in the Lafayette Journal and Courier on the 9th, 10th, 11th or later? We cannot blame the Journal and Courier alone for this omission; the editors select the stories based on our interest in them. So, the real question is, why do we have so little interest in the matter?

The illegal seizure of so-called "unlawful enemy combatants", the use of mental and physical torture during "detainee" interrogations, and the rendition of suspected terrorists to countries that employ outright barbaric forms of torture is morally and legally untenable. Worse, by endorsing our government's policy (either directly or indirectly by refusing to learn more and to act), we have shown both our children and the global community that we are little more than moral hypocrites, that we are merely a nation of small-minded, self-proclaimed moral cowards who will gladly impeach a President for sexual impropriety but will not hesitate to re-elect a President whose lies result in a war that costs thousands of soldiers and civilians their lives. Not even the use of torture on innocent people is enough to incite the same degree of moral outrage as a sex scandal in this morally twisted nation. Do we not realize how much more destructive the dehumanization of others is to our collective morality than the petty issues we often debate, or have we been so fixated on the splinter in our brother's eye that we have wholly overlooked the log lodged firmly in our own?

I have neither the time nor space here to detail the entire range of reasons why torture should be unacceptable or what the Administration offers as a justification. I will state briefly that, in addition to being morally unacceptable to almost every major religion and moral code, torture is a very foolish international policy. By implementing its own torture programs in the Guantánamo Bay detention center and in various secret CIA prisons or by sending its prisoners to other nations to be tortured even more severely, the United States government is essentially undermining its previous efforts to protect human rights around the world. Just as we do not realistically expect our children to obey "do as I say, not as I do", we cannot reasonably expect other nations to be pressured by us into treating people more humanely than we ourselves do. Moreover, the use of torture merely fuels the growing hatred of the United States and elevates the perceived legitimacy of the al-Qaeda campaign amongst Muslims. It also discourages other nations from joining our cause, as such co-operation would imply approval of our methods. Finally, there's the issue of the quality of intelligence gathered through torture--most people, when pushed hard enough, will confess to anything (remember the Salem witch trials?).

Our failure to respond to our Government's actions justifies some of the growing anti-American sentiment. After all, one of the charges against us is that we are more interested in expanding our own wealth and comfort than in defending the rights of the oppressed and exploited peoples of the world. I am purposely using the collective "we" here to emphasize the fact that I am no more beyond culpability than the President himself. Were I a better man, I would have taken the time to learn the truth and have taken a stand when the Administration threw the Geneva Conventions aside in 2001. Unfortunately, I did not. Now I must decide what I will do not only to restore justice but to make amends for my earlier inaction. My first step is to encourage you, my fellow citizens, to take the time to learn more about what our Government is doing in our name. If you, like me, are unable to stomach what you learn, then I encourage you to join me in expressing your dissent to our Executive, Legislative and Judiciary officials in a manner that you find both appropriate and effective. I am not asking you to join a certain group, align yourself with any campaign or to do anything without first taking the time to think it through. Instead, I encourage you, before anything else, to educate yourself on the issue.

To help you begin your research, I have compiled a list of relevant links at the following address:
http://www.napoletano.net/front/gitmo

Brian Napoletano
Graduate Student
Purdue University