Torture and the President-Elect

It was interesting that both Obama and his Republican oppponent, John McCain, came out strongly against waterboarding during the presidential election

By GABE PRESSMAN

Updated 4:18 PM EST, Mon, Jan 26, 2009

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He was in American custody for more than six years. But he was never charged with a crime.

Muhammad Saad Iqbal was finally released from the American prison in Guantanamo last summer. And now he's granted an interview to a veteran Times reporter, Jane Perlez. His story seems sadly typical of other long-time detainees of the U.S. government. When he arrived home in Lahore, Pakistan, last August, he could barely walk, his left ear was infected and he needed antibiotics and antidepressants.

Six years in prison and never charged with a crime! It seems incredible that our nation, which has inspired the world for more than two centuries with our constitution and civil liberties, can be guilty of violating one of the most basic principles embodied in the constitution and bill of rights, habeas corpus -- the right of everyone to a fair and speedy trial.

Iqbal says he was tortured and interrogated endlessly. He was first arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia after, two American officials said, he boasted to members of an Islamic group that he knew how to make a shoe bomb. Iqbal denies he ever made that statement. But, two days after his arrest, he said, the Central Intelligence Agency had him transferred to Egypt, then to the American prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and, finally, to Guantanamo Bay, where he spent five years before being released. He was told only that he was no longer considered an enemy combatant.

President-elect Barack Obama must decide whether to close Guantanmo, as many critics have urged. Iqbal's ordeal puts into focus a process favored by the Bush administration of shipping suspected terrorists to foreign countries -- sending them from prison to prison but not charging them with anything. They gave it a pretty name, extraordinary rendition. And suspicion of wrongdoing seemed sufficient for the Bush administration to practice a hideous form of torture known as waterboarding, simulated drowning.

It was interesting that both Obama and his Republican oppponent, John McCain, came out strongly against waterboarding during the presidential election. McCain indeed knows something about torture. He endured it for several years in a Vietnamese prison camp.

The immediate reaction to the interview with Iqbal was searing. Scores of comments flooded the Times. One Westchester man wrote: "Bush had a chance to show the best of the U.S. Instead, he reached for the worst.'' And a California woman said: "It will be a cold day in hell before we can erase such stains from history."

Iqbal said he had been beaten, shackled, covered with a hood and given electric shocks.

But a CIA spokesman, Paul Gimiglliano, told the Times: "The agency's terrorist detention program has used lawful means of interrogation, reviewed and approved by the Department of Justice and briefed to the Congress…I have no idea of what he's talking about. The United States does not conduct or condone torture."

Maybe the CIA spokesman needs a lie detector test. Substantive reports of widespread abuses at Guantanamo and elsewhere have certainly cast a far different light on the situation.

President-elect Obama, even as he concentrates on trying to fix the economy, has put the CIA high on his priority list. He has criticized the CIA for its interrogation methods including torture. His appointment of Leon Panetta, a prominent figure in the Clinton administration, to head the CIA, is a sign of the new president's determination to fix the agency. Panetta will face some opposition from some Congressional leaders who thinks he lacks intelligence experience but Panetta has long experience in navigating the rocks and shoals of Washington politics, and Obama will probably get his way.

We urgently need an independent commission to look into the questions surrounding this issue, including: Is torture ever justified in protecting us against terrorist threats? Should Guantanamo be closed? Should the American policy for "extraordinary rendition" of prisoners to foreign countries be continued?

If we are to be credible in our pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, should there be limits on our behavior? Does a philosophy of anything goes defeat our purpose and undermine our effort to lead the forces of democracy in the world?