No more secrecy on waterboarding

The Wall Street Journal reports that "the CIA says it briefed congressional leaders on enhanced interrogation techniques" (techniques we now know were torture).

Document 1 of four released documents chronicles 10 pages of congressional briefings. On page 8, item 35, dated Jan. 16, 2008, Rep. John McHugh attended a briefing. The subject was Videotape Destruction (Discussion of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques — EITs, including waterboarding).

Mr. McHugh has, to the best of my recollection, never spoken out about those destroyed tapes or their contents and especially only a few roundabout remarks on waterboarding like to the Times on March 18, 2008, when he said in part, "People like to play these games of semantics. What matters is that the CIA has abandoned waterboarding and that the question of interrogation techniques goes beyond debates on any particular method," and "waterboarding is one of the few (methods or techniques) that fall into a gray area where it's debatable, among some ... and it's not acceptable and not where we should be."

I now know why he said that. It followed his Jan. 16, 2008, CIA briefing cited above. McHugh is flat-out wrong in his view and his statement and understanding about interrogation techniques, torture and especially waterboarding. He should note that we're already at that point, and in fact, we're beyond that point (the debate he mentioned). Committing war crimes or any other unlawful and illegal acts in time of war or not are debatable.

President Bush admitted to authorizing the CIA to use "enhanced" interrogation which we now know was waterboarding and nearly 300 times in at least two cases — that is an admission to war crimes for which we have prosecuted and held people accountable (after WWII). Everyone and anyone involved in torture of detainees should be held accountable and answer for the actions, including those who were briefed on it.

If are to believe President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, those who conducted those "enhanced" techniques were only "following orders" and they will not be held accountable. Neither will the lawyers who advised it was OK, but they may be disbarred. That is not justice.

The issue of torture has been cloaked in secrecy, and the media has been reluctant to touch it, even with a 10-foot pole. But, now it's on the table for the whole world to see, and it's not pretty. It's our government, and I just thought you'd like to know.

Danny M. Francis

Watertown