Letter: U.S. degraded by comparison to al-Qaida

Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

Sam Pizzo, in his letter Sunday, stated that he would prefer 30 seconds of waterboarding over the al-Qaida form of torture. This conclusion was reached by relying on ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou's statement that Abu Zubaydah "cracked" after 30 seconds of waterboarding, which Mr. Pizzo thinks is far more humane than techniques used by al-Qaida.

Kiriakou, however, was not even present when Zubaydah was waterboarded, nor did he personally follow up on any of the alleged disclosures made by Zubaydah. So Kiriakou's statements are, at best, conjecture. And studies have shown that information gathered by torture is inherently unreliable. Prisoners will say anything to avoid the suffocating discomfort of drowning or any other pain resulting from torture.

Furthermore, Americans should take little pride in the fact that our methods of torture are not as heinous as al-Qaida's. For most of our nation's history, we prided ourselves on moral superiority. We did not torture anyone. Now we compare ourselves to al-Qaida - one of the most bloodthirsty, cruel, inhumane organizations in the history of the world? Should we also take pride in the fact that our concentration camps are not as bad as those of Hitler and Stalin? Are these the standards by which we now measure ourselves?

Those who attempt to justify torture assume that detainees in Guantanamo and secret prisons are all al-Qaida operatives who know details about the next planned attack. But there are many detainees who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time or who were turned in by others for the reward. The United States is torturing these individuals, just as suspected witches were tortured in the 17th century.

The rationale for this ongoing torture is that we are afraid that al-Qaida will again attack the United States. But fear has always been the rationale for torture. We need to stop torturing prisoners and reestablish our moral superiority around the world.

Albert G. Marquis, Las Vegas