The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog Top Senate Republican Admits That Torture Helps Al Qaeda Recruitment This is a good one. In the course of attacking Obamaâs decision to release the torture memos, GOP Senator Kit Bond appears to have admitted that the image of the U.S. torturing terror suspects actually helps terror recruitment and hurts our national security â one of the principle arguments of torture opponents. Check out this nugget buried in an interview Bond, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, gave to ABCâs George Stephanopoulos: Bond believes the administration âreleased far too much information,â adding that he thinks Al Qaeda will use this information to train their followers to resist interrogation and that it will provide âpropaganda for Al Qaedaâs media machine.â Bottom line: Bond believes this release will âmake us less safe and âheighten angerâ in parts of the world âwhere weâre trying to make friends.â Now that Obama has released the torture memos, Bond is arguing that the image of America torturing would provide âpropagandaâ for terrorists and leave us less safe. But the claim that the image of America torturing would have this effect has been made by opponents of torture for years â and itâs an argument that has long been dismissed as irrelevant by âharsh interrogationâ proponents. Bond, to be sure, is arguing that torture should be kept secret for these very reasons. But in the process, heâs inadvertently acknowledged that one of the key arguments long made against torture is correct. Either you believe the image of America torturing makes us less safe, or you donât â and a top Senate Republican has now revealed that he does believe this.
I'm not sure how anyone who understands anything at all about the culture of the Middle East could think that what we have done has done anything but help al Qada in terms of our tactics with detainees. Brandon