Outsourcing Torture

In a policy whose name is in no way indicative of what it condones, the Bush Administration's use of "extraordinary rendition" has serious ramifications for the U.S. and particularly American citizens abroad and the prospects for pursuing the "war on terrorism". First, when the U.S. has a policy that essentially condones and authorizes torture (see the Bybee memo for the legal rationale given by Alberto Gonzalez and the Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee), it degrades the voice of the U.S. as a promoter of human rights and emboldens countries that use torture (if not officially using these facilities, as was done under "extraordinary rendition"). Second, it emboldens those fighting against the U.S. to torture captive Americans, whether civilian or military, while leaving no real sound footing on which the U.S. can condemn these acts without being hypocritical. Finally, it is a very pooor way of extracting information from captured suspects. While being tortured it is safe to assume that any confessions are of very suspect quality. In addition, the use of torture precludes any information gained from being used to prosecute suspected terrorists because any information extracted by using torture cannot be used in legal proceedings in the U.S. and many other countries. Finally, and probably most importantly, there is no reason that torture is ever the right policy and its use should be condemned universally. It destroys the tortured and the torturer.