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Respectfully, I must disagree. I criticize, have criticized, and will continue to criticize my senator, Dianne Feinstein, for her vote. Regardless of how impeccable her honesty may or may not have been, she voted to relegate a crime against humanity to the status of "not as important as filling a position." I've said it here before, and I will say it again: Under the U.N.Convention Against Torture, the United States government has an obligation to investigate all allegations of torture, to prosecute them, to ensure that punishment commensurate with the act is meted out to all those responsible, and to provide redress (but not compensation) to the person or persons tortured in court. Furthermore, they are required by law to ensure that information obtained by torture is never used, and that those alleging torture are protected. The United States government is never allowed to make excuses on torture, nor grant any plea of acting on authority of superiors.
I criticize my senator because, in my view, she has broken the law. I criticize my senator because she does not treat torture as the world community views it: a crime that, along with genocide, is the most serious crime that can be committed, bar none. I criticize my senator because she has stood by, as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, privy to information that the Bush administration was implementing systematic use of torture and extraordinary rendition, and failed to blow the whistle, failed to disagree, failed to investigate and prosecute, and still fails to put those responsible in prison, as she is enjoined to do by the rest of the world. I criticize my senator because even now, little dictators half a world away are justifying their treatment of suspects by "How can we bring law and order if we cannot torture criminals? We must be given a free hand to deal with terrorists, and the chief justice has no business to ask us to produce them in courts." I criticize my senator because every American serviceman or woman, every American diplomat, every American businessperson, every American, is now fair game for waterboarding. I criticize my senator because she should stand on the side of the law against torture even if the victim is Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, even if the victim is Pol Pot or Hitler or Stalin or whoever you want to choose as your most hated figure, because that is the right thing to do. My senator is, to me, a seventy-four year old ghoul with blood on her hands because she will not stand against the world's worst crime. She does not represent me, or any sane Californian. Instead, she represents all that is wrong with this country, and much of the world.
I could give a damn that she's more honest than Harry Reid.
