http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2008/02/15/Opinion/Torture.Justifiable.On.Those.Who.Torture.Americans.Anything.Goes-3213761.shtml?reffeature=htmlemaileditionOn Monday, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the masterminds behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and five cohorts were charged by the Pentagon with mass murder and war crimes. The thing is, some of the evidence used against them was admitted during their waterboarding interrogations. For those who do not know what it is, waterboarding is when the prisoner is held down at a decline, a rag is placed in his or her mouth and water is poured over their face to replicate drowning.
This CIA interrogation technique is used to extract information from suspected terrorists. In this case, it interrogated Mohammed because he, being an important member of al Qaida, obviously had important information about the terrorist organization and whom he worked with during the planning of the 9/11 attacks. This information needed to be extracted immediately because he might have had information that could lead us to other arrests or vital information, which it has. This information could be about future attacks, identifications and locations of other al Qaida members. In a story that ran in The New York Times, intelligence officials stated the interrogation techniques "have been described by the independent commission that investigated those attacks as having provided rich and important information about terrorist operations."
Techniques such as these are essential for the well-being of the nation's people, its troops and the world. Without these methods, much of the important evidence would not be revealed through normal interrogation methods. Some of this information could be about potential suicide bombers planning to attack the troops, or terrorist attacks on the U.S.. How about where they are training al Qaida members or where they are training the children they are recruiting or stealing, or perhaps where insurgents are in Iraq and Afghanistan?
There is a plethora of information that needs to be extracted from these terrorists and it needs to be done the quickest way possible. Even if they have to go further, if it will save innocent American civilians and troops, then by God, do whatever needs to be done. The safety and welfare of the American people should be our No. 1 priority.
This is not any worse then any other country would do to our captives. Military forces in the U.S. are trained in ways to resist these methods because they are used often in other countries. The terrorist organizations have done and will continue to do more horrible things to our people and our troops as long as this Jihad the terrorists have upon us still remains. These terrorists have slaughtered countless people and tortured even more then that. They behead our innocent citizens and all they get is an insignificant interrogation compared to that. We are apparently above torture. We are too good for that. Well, we might be, but if my family's and friends' lives are in danger in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other country, and if we have the means to save their lives by interrogating or even torturing a captured terrorist, suicide bomber or any other member of a terrorist organization, I say do what needs to be done to get that information out. People think it is OK to kill fetuses, but God forbid we interrogate a terrorist to save the lives of innocent Americans.
Ben Schwarzwalder is a senior in journalism.
Read some of the comments. Only one person agrees, saying, "We are better than our enemies.
But if torture is the way to get the information from these filthy animals that torture and murder our people then God bless America.
Kill every last one of those dirty filthy flea bitten terrorists as slowly and as painfully as humanly possible.
Because thats what they are doing to us." - Nick
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