Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 01:58:36 -0500
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Dershowitz: Make Torture An Option
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

[Note from Matthew Gaylor:  My favorite quote from Dershowitz is: "If 
anybody has any doubt that our CIA, over time, has taught people to 
torture, has encouraged torture, has probably itself tortured in 
extreme cases, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn."   Dershowitz 
then derides those who oppose torture as having a "naive viewpoint". 
As an American who opposes torture, I agree with Dershowitz that it 
is likely our CIA has condoned or even committed torture-  Edmund 
Burke wrote that "For evil to triumph, good men have to do nothing." 
But Un-American acts are not inevitable, especially when good 
Americans say no.]

< http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,324751-412,00.shtml >

NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2002

Dershowitz: Make Torture An Option

* Civil Libertarian Believes Torture Will Be Used In War On Terrorism
* And He Wants Specific Procedures In Place
* Watch Sunday at 7 PM ET/PT

(CBS) Is there a place in the U.S. justice system for torture?

Alan Dershowitz, the civil libertarian defender of O. J. Simpson,
believes the law should sanction torture so it may be applied
in certain cases, such as terrorist acts.

In a report to be broadcast Sunday on 60 Minutes, Dershowitz tells
Correspondent Mike Wallace that torture is inevitable. "We cant just
close our eyes and pretend we live in a pure world," he says.

After the events of Sept. 11, with many al Qaida members in custody,
Dershowitz says he wants to bring the debate to the forefront. He gave
the "ticking bomb" scenario - a person refusing to tell when and where
a bomb will go off as an example of the type of case warranting torture.

The FBI has anonymously leaked to the press the belief inside the bureau
that torture may be an option in these trying times.  But Lewis Schiliro,
former New York bureau director, warns of problems with torture.

"If anybody had the ability to prevent the events of Sept. 11... they
would have gone to whatever length... The problem becomes, where do
we draw that line?" he tells Wallace.

Torture is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, says Human Rights Watch
Executive Director Kenneth Roth, who also says its not reliable. He points
out that an Islamic terrorist, convicted in America for terrorist plots
he admitted to after torture by authorities in the Philippines, had also
admitted to being the Oklahoma City bomber.

"People will say anything under torture," says Roth, adding that
resorting to torture degrades humanity and the idea of democracy.
"We, in many important respects, become like the terrorists," he tells
Wallace.  "They will have won. Our democracy will have lost."

This is a naive viewpoint, says Dershowitz. "If anybody has any doubt that
our CIA, over time, has taught people to torture, has encouraged torture,
has probably itself tortured in extreme cases, I have a bridge to sell you
in Brooklyn."


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