U.S. Senate Torture
Report: A 'Matter of Life or Death' (Rzeczpospolita, Poland)
"I
consider a lesser evil ethically SUPERIOR to a greater one; and that I have a natural
right to defend myself and my loved ones, as well as my countrymen, from death
BY ALL MEANS. If a war prisoner has information that can save lives -
especially many people’s lives - I, StanisławRemuszko, will not hesitate to impose “unconventional
methods” to extract that information. Of course, torture like that used by the
Gestapo or NKVD [Soviet secret police] is out of the question.
I remind you, however, that so-called waterboarding causes
no - I repeat, absolutely no physical damage, apart from a feeling of crippling
fear."
This is deadly serious, because it was and remains a
question of life or death.
Let us first review the unvarnished facts. Poland acceded to
NATO in 1999. Two years later terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers killing
almost 3,000 people working in them. America declared war on the attackers and
appealed to North Atlantic Treaty countries for logistical support. In 2005 the
international organization Human Rights Watch accused Poland of hosting a
secret CIA prison on its territory. A prosecutorial investigation of the matter
was initiated (and continues to this day). In July 2014, the European Court of
Human Rights ordered
Poland to pay €100,000 to each of two brown-skinned foreigners [Abu Zubaydah
and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri - both Saudis] suspected of international
terrorism as compensation for the torture they were allegedly subjected to at the
hands of Americans at the Polish Intelligence Center in the Masuria region,
near Stare Kiejkuty. Poland has appealed the judgment.
Then on Dec. 9, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a 500
page summary of its 6,000-page report on practices employed by the CIA in the fightagainst
terrorism.
The subject, being so attractive to the media, will likely
remain in the headlines for a long time to come. I would like to recall,
however, as a side note, that critical or at least cautious voices were raised about
the issue at hand (two-term President AleksanderKwaśniewski, Former Prime Minister Leszek
Miller, and current Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak). I myself, in the pages of Rzeczpospolita last July, pointed to a lack of hard evidence [in Strasbourg verdict], and that everything is based on rumor, speculation and a 'what if' kind of deduction." Even today, after the release of the U.S. Senate report summary,
we still know nothing about the details of the AgencjaWywiadu's
collaboration with the CIA in Masuria ten years ago; it isn't even clear if the
individuals who won the compensation in the Strasbourg court were indeed ever
in Poland.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
I would also like to note that hot wars are still being fought
in the world. Real wars - whether we like it or not - always mean death and/or
suffering not only to soldiers fighting one another but for civilians, (children,
women and the elderly not excluded), and they inevitably go beyond peace-time treaties
with the force of law, particularly in extreme situations. I remind the reader of the bitter reality that in a real war we are legally entitled to kill the enemy, even if we no longer sanction the death penalty.
Such is the very nature of the armed conflict. There does
not exist (it is not physically possible) a war that is pure, ideal, true to
every letter of the law, treaties and directives. In that context, I consider a
lesser evil ethically SUPERIOR to a greater one; and that I have a natural
right to defend myself and my loved ones, as well as my countrymen, from death
BY ALL MEANS. If a war prisoner has information that can save lives -
especially many people’s lives - I, StanisławRemuszko, will not hesitate to impose “unconventional
methods” to extract that information. Of course, torture like that used by the
Gestapo or NKVD [Soviet secret police] is out of the question.
I remind you, however, that so-called waterboarding causes
no - I repeat, absolutely no physical damage, apart from a feeling of crippling
fear. What is better (or a lesser evil): the fear suffered by someone suspected
of preparing an attack or the deaths of innocent people? Who knows the easy
answer?
