Torture Is Wrong, Illegal and It Doesn't Work

Coleen Rowley
Huffington Post

Actually torture is seriously wrong, seriously illegal AND IT SERIOUSLY DOESN'T WORK. Talking heads on TV or radio wouldn't even be able to still debate these propositions if we could simply go to the videotape. Attorney General Mukasey and Deputy Attorney General nominee Mark F. Filip wouldn't be able to pretend that they're stumped as to whether waterboarding is torture. And we'd be able to evaluate for ourselves whether there is any validity to the Jack Bauer "ticking time bomb" storyline instead of taking the word of the CIA agent who oversaw the torture operation and who, finally appreciating how wrong it was, desperately must seek to absolve his own guilt in the comforting 24 myth that torture saves lives.

So with the destruction of the videotapes, the debate we should never have had to have in this country continues. And the side of the debate that depends on misinformation thrives. It thrives in the midst of right-wing talk radio and FOX's Total Disinformation Awareness program, the lack of Woodward-Bernstein type investigative curiosity and the mainstream media's disinterest in exposing Bush administration crimes. I was only able to squeak in a couple of sound bites last week on MSNBC's Dan Abrams Show to convey how unbelievable and preposterous it is we are even having this discussion.