(Blog Post) Of course, “We can’t legalize physical torture,” Alter opined, as “It’s contrary to American values.” Still, “we need to keep an open mind” about other torturous measures – “and we’ll have to think about transferring some suspects to our less squeamish allies, even if that’s hypocritical. Nobody said this was going to be pretty.” Full Story »
Posted by Rory O'ConnorTo:
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Rory hits on an important issue in this opinion -- how major media figures have taken problematic positions on the use of torture, often without the evidence needed to back up their positions.
Sadly, Alter is not alone among leading journalists and pundits in adopting a more favorable and “modern” assessment of torture. Lest we forget, Mark Bowden, another acclaimed journalist who is a national correspondent at The Atlantic, wrote a feature in the October 2003 edition of that magazine and noted that professional terrorists such as captured Al Qaeda operatives “pose one of the strongest arguments in modern times for the use of torture,”
I'm not so secretly delighted every time someone rips into Tom Friedman. Rory does a particular good job here.