Do you want to be free or do you want to be secure? When it comes to torture, you can forget that dilemma. Torture, it turns out, brings you neither freedom nor security.

That was the testimony that a lawyer for the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Colonel V. Stuart Couch was prepared to give before Congress. Then, just before he was to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, Lieutenant Colonel Couch sent a message to the committee, explaining that he had been ordered by the Pentagon not to testify. The Bush Administration ordered Couch to help them cover up the problems that American torture is causing for the effort to fight terrorists.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was accused of organizing a group of terrorists that included one of the hijackers of September 11, 2001. However, the prosecution of Slahi had to be abandoned because torture, including beatings and severe psychological manipulation to force Slahi to say what interrogators wanted to hear, had severely damaged the investigation’s credibility.

Slahi was just one terrorist connected to the attacks of September 11, 2001 who was not brought to justice because of the Bush White House’s warped dedication to torture. That’s the story that Lieutenant Colonel Couch told to the Wall Street Journal, but the Pentagon refused to allow Couch to submit himself to questions from Congress about the matter. Thus, the Pentagon deprived Congress of its constitutional right to oversee the activities of the Executive Branch, including the military.

Torture is bad enough, but cover-ups of torture, and their threat to American security, are even worse. In 2008, we need to elect a progressive President who will help protect America from the dangerous gaps in security caused by torture.

(Source: Associated Press, November 8, 2007)