Navy Captain Says Most in Army Agree ‘Torture Is Improper’

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Capt. Scott B. Curtis informed The New York Instances most individuals within the army agree “torture is flawed.”
Curtis wrote a letter condemning the torture a Guantanamo Bay detainee went by means of.
The letter, signed by seven senior army officers, referred to as it a “stain” on the US’ “ethical fiber.”

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A Navy captain who served 30 years within the army mentioned there may be widespread settlement amongst service members that “torture is flawed.””I feel you will discover that your senior individuals absolutely perceive that acts like torture do extra long-term harm than good, in the event that they do any good,” Capt. Scott B. Curtis informed The New York Instances.Curtis spoke with the Instances’ Carol Rosenberg final week, revealing himself because the creator of a letter signed by a army jury that condemned the CIA’s use of torture.The 2-page handwritten letter, despatched to Pentagon officers after the jury delivered a compulsory sentence to a terrorist, requested for clemency for the person, calling the torture ways used in opposition to him “a stain on the ethical fiber of America.”

The person, Majid Khan, 41, described to the jury the torture he skilled at CIA black websites, which have been established world wide throughout the struggle on terror to carry enemy combatants and carry out “enhanced interrogations.” Like Khan, many who have been interrogated have been ultimately despatched to Guantanamo Bay.Khan mentioned he skilled force-feeding, waterboarding, and bodily and sexual abuse. He mentioned he was remoted whereas nude, chained up at the hours of darkness, and almost drowned.The letter in contrast the ways to these utilized by “essentially the most abusive regimes in fashionable historical past.”Curtis informed The Instances that the jury, made up of senior army officers, didn’t have sympathy for the person or his actions, however that the torture he described was a “mitigating issue.” He mentioned he wrote the letter in 20 minutes after the sentencing and provided to let the opposite jurors signal it, with seven of the eight doing so.

He additionally mentioned that opposition to torture isn’t a “liberal” place, citing the late Sen. John McCain’s view.McCain, a Republican from Arizona and likewise a veteran, skilled torture himself throughout the years he spent as a prisoner of struggle in North Vietnam. McCain was a vocal opponent of torture, arguing it produces defective intelligence, endangers our personal troops who find yourself captive, and is morally flawed, writing in 2011: “This can be a ethical debate. It’s about who we’re.”Nonetheless Republican President Donald Trump expressed assist for torture in 2017, claiming it “works,” although his protection secretary, James Mattis, and CIA director, Mike Pompeo, each opposed reintroducing the improved interrogation strategies.Curtis informed The Instances he thinks the US “remains to be the nice guys, for lack of a greater time period, all through the world” however that “we definitely make errors.” He additionally mentioned the letter “wasn’t condemning the current army and the current CIA.”

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