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Open Letter to 60 Minutes

Posted on April 30, 2012
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That the debate over torture is reduced to "whether it works or not with regard to national security" is a travesty and is as unconscionable as the torture and indefinite detention inflicted upon those captured.

Dear 60 Minutes,

While it is your right to have ex-CIA chief, Jose Rodriguez, on your show I’d like to point out that the record of the mainstream covering the stories of those who have endured torture and indefinite detention has been sorely lacking. For example a large number of the American public has been kept from the fact that the torture and indefinite detention of many under the Global War On Terrorism was done so under erroneous and suspect circumstances.

Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld all knew that most of those detained were innocent. Wilkerson is quoted as saying,  "it became more and more clear many of the men were innocent, or at a minimum their guilt was impossible to determine let alone prove in any court of law, civilian or military."  

And yet nearly 200 remain in Guantanamo and over 2000 in Bagram under the Obama Presidency. Jose Rodriguez had one thing going for him during this interview…and that was to call out Obama’s the use of assassination by drones without due process.

That the debate over torture is reduced to "whether it works or not with regard to national security" is a travesty and is as unconscionable as the torture and indefinite detention inflicted upon those captured. It is inhumane and immoral…period.

Interestingly Rodriguez chose to call out the Obama administrations use of drones for assassinations without due process as if to say that torture/indefinite detention is better than drone assassinations. The truth is that both the policies of torture and indefinite detention and drone assassinations should be regarded as immoral because of the horror they inflict on the people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. 

I should hope that in the future you choose to interview the victims or family members of victims of these deplorable policies. These are the stories that the American public should hear. Perhaps it will rouse them to finally question the legitimacy of these policies.

Sincerely,
Jill McLaughlin
World Can’t Wait National Steering Committee

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