Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

March 13, 2008

In early March, Spain dropped its request to extradite Jamil-el-Banna and Omar Deghayes, who were suspected of involvement with an al-Qaeda cell in Madrid.

As the Guardian of London notes, Spanish officials concluded that ?the torture [the suspects] suffered during five years of American custody had left them too weak to stand trial.?

When he vetoed a bill banning torture last week, President Bush insisted that removing torture from the interrogation toolkit would undermine efforts to protect our nation from terrorism. The case of el-Banna and Deghayes indicates that the opposite is true.

In addition to being utterly immoral, torture is entirely impractical, since it sabotages sound efforts to obtain reliable information and prosecute terrorist suspects.

Mr. Bush would have us believe that America would be helpless unless our government employed the same abominable methods used by the Axis powers in World War II. Those who genuinely love our country know better.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.