The Torture Lobby
Fighting the McCain amendment


An op-ed piece in the LATimes Heading toward the 'dark side' raises some interesting points about Cheney's fight to exempt the CIA from McCain's amendment, which would prohibit torture by American agents and troops:

As one veteran interrogator said, "The only thing torture guarantees is pain — and sometimes death." Of the more than 80 deaths of detainees in U.S. custody, the Pentagon has classified 27 as criminal homicides. At least seven of those people were tortured to death. And dead men don't talk. So if cruelty and abuse are not the key to unlocking the secrets enemy prisoners hold, why the pitched battle against McCain?

The answer is executive power. Since 9/11, the administration has claimed sweeping authority for the president to fight terrorism, and has vigorously opposed any challenge by either Congress or the courts to the powers of the commander in chief in wartime. The McCain fight is the latest chapter in this four-year struggle, which tests the fundamental principle of separation of powers. A victory for the McCain amendment will help reaffirm an essential part of our constitutional system — securing checks and balances over the executive branch.

[. . . .]

Time is running out for the torture lobby. The question, as McCain puts it, of "who we are" will likely be decided in the coming weeks. Are we a people who reject the inhumanity depicted in the Abu Ghraib photos and many more serious cases of abuse that cameras didn't capture? Or are we — as Cheney says we must be — willing to go to the "dark side" to fight terrorism?

The question is a momentous one. Our answer will not only define the national character for years to come but will affect — in ways we may not yet fully understand — our ability to defeat the terrorist enemy who has precipitated this moral crisis.

I had already thought that our use of torture indicated a victory by the terrorists, as well as providing them a recruiting tool. However, the idea that a root cause of the Cheney battle centers on widening executive power had not occurred to me. I don't know why not, since Bush has systematically acted with unchecked power in many phases of his presidency.

Let's hope congressional backbones are not merely a temporary respite. It is one thing to enact your policies while in office. But, I don't believe the American people voted for a drastic change in our democracy. We just toppled Sadam for accumulating and abusing his central authority. We don't need an omnipotent president.