In case you haven't seen it yet, there is deeply disturbing news on the front page of today's New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.
But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Included in the opinion was authorization to "barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperature."
Here's how Senator Obama responded to the news of this secret torture authortization:
The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security. We must do whatever it takes to track down and capture or kill terrorists, but torture is not a part of the answer - it is a fundamental part of the problem with this administration's approach. Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them. Torture is how you get bad information, not good intelligence. Torture is how you set back America's standing in the world, not how you strengthen it. It's time to tell the world that America rejects torture without exception or equivocation. It's time to stop telling the American people one thing in public while doing something else in the shadows. No more secret authorization of methods like simulated drowning. When I am president America will once again be the country that stands up to these deplorable tactics. When I am president we won't work in secret to avoid honoring our laws and Constitution, we will be straight with the American people and true to our values.
We've had enough of the torture and the secrecy. We're tired of seeing our legal frameworks trampled upon. We're sick of seeing our country's moral authority evaporate in the world's eyes. We need a fresh start and we need sweeping, fundamental change. That's why we're behind Barack Obama -- a candidate who will open up our government rather than cloak it in secrecy, a candidate who will close down Guantanamo and end torture, a candidate who understands and reveres our Constitution, a candidate who will change the way people all across the world look at America.
For more on how Senator Obama will reshape our foreign policy and renew our standing in the world, read his speech from Monday.
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