America’s Stain

The hard-hitting report by the U.S. Senate on the torture practices of the CIA looks like an act of self-purification, but there is no consensus in the U.S. against torture, and the ban imposed by President Obama can be dismantled with the stroke of a pen.

Dianne Feinstein is a courageous woman. It is thanks to her, a long-serving Democratic senator, that the U.S. Senate has finally examined the interrogation methods of the CIA after the 9/11 attacks and semi-officially confirmed what everyone has suspected – that torture was committed in the name of America.

The report documents in detail the brutality and perfidy with which the CIA made al-Qaida militants talk. It dissects the assertions with which these methods were justified – that they prevent further attacks and saved lives, and that only with the help of the confessions obtained through torture was Osama bin Laden found.

This is completely wrong. It is at last on record that the CIA deliberately tried to mislead the public with false information since the methods have become more and more known, and that the CIA has sought to interfere with the Senate’s work to conduct an investigation.

Still No Consensus Against Torture

Democrat Dianne Feinstein called all that “a stain on our values and our history.” Republicans, however, deny the obvious. They speak of inaccuracies and distortions, and continue to justify the abuses in the name of the fatherland. Only one prominent Republican stands in contrast to his party: Sen. John McCain, a conservative through and through, who was himself once tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

It is precisely these reactions that are indicative of America’s state of mind. They reveal the inner conflict of a society that was certainly never as united as it seems in talk of fireworks on Independence Day.

It has become more difficult for Americans in recent years to agree on the values that were once taken for granted by the country and by all Americans: the rule of law, and if you will, simple human decency. In other words, the opposite of what has happened in CIA prisons.

A Nonchalant Shrug of Acknowledgment

The torture of al-Qaida operatives is no longer considered by many Americans to be the downfall of their country, a country that had at least once opposed the despotism of British colonial power with the use of its own law. Surveys show that a definite half of U.S. citizens think that torture is justified to prevent attacks.

This shoulder-shrugging nonchalance is also reflected in series and films such as “Homeland” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” where not only do intelligence agencies act as cartels of criminals, but also where torture always makes the bad guys talk.

America has often gone astray, but again and again the self-healing powers of the oldest existing democracy in the world have been summoned – and rightly so. The society has always brought itself out of these aberrations. At the beginning of the last century, big business threatened to take over the country. A resolute president, Theodore Roosevelt, was enough to put the reins on capitalism.

In the ’60s, the civil rights movement forced racists to their knees. A decade later in the Nixon era, Congress, and especially the CIA, faced the consequences of the abuse of power: Murder and manslaughter were forbidden by law for intelligence agencies.

The Ban on Torture Can Be Abolished with the Stroke of a Pen

The overhaul of CIA torture practices is in this tradition, but there is one important difference. This act of self-cleansing is simply not borne by a majority, even if it is only the silent majority of Americans as in the Roosevelt or the civil rights era. One half of the population approves of or supports an overhaul. The other sees no sense in this, and certainly no need.

President Barack Obama has explicitly banned the CIA from practicing torture, by written decree. A future president could overturn the ban with the mere stroke of a pen, without consequence. Only a law that explicitly prohibits intelligence agencies from torture practices would permanently prevent America from behaving again like it is unworthy of its rule of law.

There is no majority in Congress for this, as throughout the entire country. There can be no discussion of self-healing. America is far from coming clean of the excesses of the Bush era. The stain Dianne Feinstein spoke of is far from being resolved.