Anti-torture activists voice approval, concern about executive orders

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Religious opponents of torture expressed simultaneous approval and concern about a series of executive orders by President Obama upending his predecessor’s policies on detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects.

On his second full day in office, Obama signed documents closing both the United States prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret CIA prisons for terrorism detainees; ordering treatment of terrorism suspects in accord with the Geneva Conventions; giving the Red Cross access to terrorism detainees; and ending controversial interrogation techniques—including waterboarding—not allowed under the U.S. Army Field Manual and that critics have labeled torture.

A loophole 

Obama’s orders left room for re-instituting some so-called enhanced interrogation techniques after a cabinet-level review of the subject. That loophole created some concern for torture opponents.

Obama “has already changed the world with respect to America’s use of torture,” said a statement praising the orders from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “He has rejected the use of torture as an interrogation technique and allowed the United States to again find its moral bearing.”

However, the statement added, Obama’s establishment of a task force to study whether the CIA should be allowed to establish other techniques beyond those described in the Army manual “is a cause for concern.”

Coalition leaders called on Obama “to ensure that any additional techniques are humane, effective and available for public scrutiny. We cannot afford to risk a return to the secret abuses of the past. Specifically, the president should publicly affirm that any additional interrogation techniques comply with the ‘golden rule’—that they would be both moral and legal if used upon a captured American.”

David Gushee, a professor at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology and a prominent evangelical critic of torture, released a statement praising the decision. Gushee said the orders “fulfill and in some cases go beyond both our long-term goals and the specific principles we articulated last year” in a joint statement by the religious anti-torture campaign and a torture victims’ advocacy group.

National security, foreign policy, and justice

“It is striking that a refrain running through these executive orders is a concern for national security, foreign policy, and justice,” Gushee said.

“The president has implicitly but clearly recognized today that the aberrant detainee and interrogation policies of the last seven years in fact damaged our national security, harmed our foreign policy interests, and violated core principles of justice.”

But Gushee also noted that “there is more to do” to restore America’s moral standing on the issue of torture.

“Congress passed laws during the Bush years that in some cases need to be repudiated through new legislation,” he said.

“Executive orders are a powerful tool but they can be reversed by new presidents or under new circumstances. We need new laws, and we also need a comprehensive review of what was done to people in our name since September 11. We need a religious and moral accounting, not just a legal one.”

Congressional supporters of the Bush policies on terrorism suspects criticized some of Obama’s orders. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, released a statement specifically criticizing the Guantanamo order.

“The Guantanamo Bay prison is filled with the worst of the worst—terrorists and killers bent on murdering Americans and other friends of freedom around the world. If it is closed, where will they go, will they be brought to the United States, and how will they be secured?” the statement said.

He and other Republicans said administration officials didn’t have satisfactory answers to these questions during briefings with congressional leaders on the executive orders, prior to their signing.