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Jun

24

The Wall Street Journal apparently thinks NOT torturing is illegal

Here’s the opening of their editorial:

Here’s a political thought experiment: Imagine that terrorists stage an attack on U.S. soil in the next four years. In the recriminations afterward, Administration officials are sued by families of the victims for having advised in legal memos that Guantanamo be closed and that interrogations of al Qaeda detainees be limited.

Should those officials be personally liable for the advice they gave President Obama?

Cute.

For the “thought experiment” to really work, though, NOT torturing terror suspects would have to be illegal under domestic and international law, as well as treaties the United States had signed long before the attack. In order to honor all those laws, the United States would be compelled to torture possible terrorists.

Oh. Wait. That’s kind of ridiculous, isn’t it?

Reading the rest of the editorial, and it’s clear the Wall Street Journal doesn’t get it. The editorial board apparently thinks that torture opponents are motivated by politics instead of principle and, oh yeah, the clear intent of the law against torture.
 
Joel Mathis | 8:10 AM | 2 Comments
Uncategorized, gitmo, terrorism, terrorists, torture, wall street journal, war on terror, waterboarding
 
  1. Keith Says: Jun 24 1:25 PM

    For it to be a “political thought experiment”, shouldn’t they have put some thought into it?

  2. Kim Callahan Says: Jun 24 1:37 PM

    When people have to resort to far-fetched hypotheticals to (try to) make their case, as all the pro-torture people do, you know right off the bat that there’s a fundamental weakness in their position.

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