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• Sunday, May 17, 2009 01:15 PM

  What's missing in most of MSM reporting

  The torture discussion in the MSM is, for the most part: transparency & accountability V. safety & security, when it should be: transparency and accountability, AND safety and security. Whether or not the photos are released, it needs to be widely understood that those who approved torture have put US soldiers and citizens at risk. Because, as far as some are concerned, anything else is just "ideology."

  For example:

  The one-star general almost yells when asked to talk about the infamous Abu Ghraib photos showing U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees.

  "If we had had a company commander doing what he was supposed to be doing, a battalion commander doing what he was supposed to be doing ...," Brig. Gen. David Quantock said.

  He carried on -- growing more and more angry. So the next obvious question was, "It makes you angry?"

  "It does make me angry," he said. "Because I think we lost a lot of American lives because of those photos."...

  Obama said he believed the release of the pictures could put American lives in danger. That is Catch-22 situation No. 1: on one hand transparency; on the other, the safety of U.S. troops.

  http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/14/iraq.u.s.detainees/

  What's not heard often enough:

  ROMERO: Well, we’re all concerned about the safety of our soldiers. That’s obvious. What’s also true is that it’s not the photos that put them at risk. It’s the policies that authorize torture and abuse that was authorized at the highest levels and that went down the chain of command across the theaters of war.

  CQ Transcript: Rep. King, ACLU Chief Romero on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ (today)

  http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003119345

  ------

  ThinkProgress: Every time you hear a conservative [or some "liberals"] repeat the canard that torture kept America safe, refer to this report as a handy rebuttal.

  I. TORTURE DOES NOT YIELD ACCURATE INTELLIGENCE

  II. TORTURE MAKES AMERICANS LESS SAFE

  III. HISTORICAL LESSONS CAUTION AGAINST ENHANCED TECHNIQUES

  http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/11/report-why-bushs-enhanced-interrogation-program-failed/

  Report: http://thinkprogress.org/why-enhanced-interrogation-failed/

  —EJ Read EJ's other letters
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