Ending Torture & Never Going Back Again

This was our big week! HRF organized and executed a meeting in DC where 12-14 retired Generals and Admirals met with key members of the transition team, Greg Craig (White House Counsel) and Eric Holder (Attorney General, former high school classmate of Gabor), and Mary DeRosa. The meeting was very productive, and the Generals felt they were really listened to. Media coverage of the meeting, including the history of this group, and how Human Rights First facilitated it all, was extensive and positive. Stories posted by AP and Reuters were picked up in a variety of newspapers, including International Herald Tribune, and radio shows, including NPR, and writers from the New York Times and Washington Post also wrote stories on the Generals. The blogosphere was flush with the story, and you may have seen a couple prominent television appearances: Rear Admiral John Hutson spoke on CNN on Wednesday, and last night Major General Paul Eaton made a splash on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Some quotes:

"Fundamentally, those kinds of techniques are ineffective," said John D. Hutson, a retired Navy rear admiral and former judge advocate general. "If the goal is to gain actionable intelligence, and it is, and if that's important, and it is, then we have to use the techniques that are most effective. Torture is the technique of choice of the lazy, stupid and pseudo-tough."

"We need to remove the stain, and the stain is on us, as well as on our reputation overseas," said retired Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, former Navy inspector general.

"If he'd just put a couple of sentences in his inaugural address, stating the new position, then everything would flow from that," said retired Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, whose regiment in World War Two raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.

“It is (important that) the new president say up front that the United States is not going to engage in torture or enhanced interrogations,” retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, one of the participants in the meeting, said during an appearance on “CNN Newsroom.” Not only are such techniques generally ineffective, Hutson said, but they also “smear the good name of the United States, domestically and internationally.”

Wow, I’m glad those meetings went well, and we have ended torture [sorry, not yet]. It’s actually such a pleasure to hang out with the generals and admirals, whose humanity is as notable as their accomplishments. These are friends who recognize the importance of logistics to the success of a mission, and also see that those of us managing those details are thoughtful and engaged on these, and many other, issues. Lots of great company this week! (Thanks also to Kevin for being some of it.)

Times are really tough, and since I have no power in this world, I instead turn to the promotion of video clips that make me smile or laugh (sometimes out loud.) Invest in your LOLk! Here’s Dwight’s perfect crime, a monologue that has been cemented in my memory by Liz’s recitation of it.

Autumn Songs: In honor of my week spent in the DC metropolitan area, I give you Silver Spring(s). Shout out to Montgomery County! That is where I am from, but is it home? I tend to think that, rather than the hometown where your parents arbitrarily decided to be when you were born, a decision over which you had no agency, the place where you make your life is home. In any case, Montgomery County is filled with a bleak nostalgia, more or less enjoyable, always weird. Related: Never Going Back Again. Touché, Fleetwood Mac.