i guess we want them to think we might be just as bad as they are
i didn’t intend to spend much time on the documents released by the white house this week that were supposed to clear up the questions about where the united states stands when it comes to toture, but i stumbled into this, and just had to comment.
Q Is there any concern within the administration that now that you’ve released these details and that al Qaeda knows the limits of what they’ll be subjected to, that it might embolden al Qaeda, given the fact that you described them as — they’ll fight until the rest of their lives against America?
MR. HAYNES: I think I heard your question. The Judge already talked about the difficulty of this decision. And we’re fighting a war. And to disclose in such a public way exactly what we do, it is — it hinders us in some way. The enemy now knows what some of the limits are. There’s some value in having some uncertainty. But the decision is made, and sometimes you make tough decisions.
this was the last question – more than an hour-and-a-half into a press briefing.
so if i’m reading this answer by mr. william haynes correctly, it’s bad to convey the simple idea that “the united states does not torture prisoners” because we want the evildoers around the world to think that we might torture our prisoners, even though we would never do that because it’s unamerican?
maybe i’m completely out-of-sync on this international relations stuff, but wouldn’t it be better for us to take the high ground on this, make the simple statement, and stick to it? didn’t we sign some international agreements to that effect anyway? didn’t we have a good reason for doing that at the time?
despite the aministration invoking principles so often, i guess this particular principle is still elusive.
and, by the way… where are the documents from the department of state, the cia and the fbi in this big, unprecedented disclosure?