From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Oct 24 2001 - 10:26:32 MDT
Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
> Mike Lorrey wrote:
> >
> >
> > THe only thing that bothers me is that there are those who are so
> > interested in stripping lifelong Americans of more liberties but bristle
> > at the idea that it is somehow wrong to use sodium pentathol on detained
> > non-citizen suspects who are known associates of bin Laden and are
> > refusing to talk.
>
> It is WRONG. Do you belief for a minute that the precedent will
> not be applied to US citizens suspected of aiding and abetting
> terrorists?
The problem, Samantha, is that you are confusing these terrorists with
criminals of the civilian sort. They are NOT. They are prisoners of war,
and as such, can and should be interrogated. If a suspect is known and
documented to be an associate of a terrorist and fits the profile
themselves, they should be treated as such. This is not fighting crime,
this is fighting war. I understand that you have no experience in
dealing with the latter, so your ignorance is forgivable.
> Especially when what that label can be applied to
> is currently ultra-fuzzy?
There is nothing fuzzy about it, except maybe to someone with severe
ameriphobic myopia.
> How about a bit of torture of mere
> suspects while we are about it? Do you think it is open season
> on "non-citizens" just because of 9-11? Would you like the same
> treatment when you go abroad?
Americans DO get that very treatment when we go abroad, even in
countries which are allegedly our freinds. The French, for example, are
particularly rough in interrogating suspects, and the Saudis as well
have been documented to have tortured and killed Americans.
These terrorists attack us so willingly (rather than the regiemes which
they have their real beefs with) primarily because they know we are soft
and treat prisoners with kid gloves. One of the participants in the
Khobar Towers bombing, for example, was shipped to the US as a condition
of his agreement to testify against his accomplices, but as soon as he
got here he clammed up and refuses to talk, and our laws prevent us from
shipping him back to Saudi Arabia where they are quite willing to make
him talk.
> Would you like this treatment on
> mere suspicion without legal counsel? The day that the US
> government uses such methods is the day it becomes my sworn
> enemy.
Well, from what I've seen from you, that doesn't scare me much. You
gonna bomb me with flowers and hugs? Or are you going to temporarily
adopt tactics in extremis that you would normally abhor in order to deal
with an outside threat that exploits your preferred way of life?
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