Denounce Torture

Senator Lindsey Graham (R), a former military lawyer and current reserve judge on the air force court of criminal appeals, has proven to be one of the Senate's leading experts in the debate over the rights of terror suspects. He has advocated for the use of the extant military court- martial system to try suspects and has declared the system legally and militarily secure. Graham has consistently opposed the use of torture by helping pass a ban against torture last year. Last week, he questioned the judicial renomination of Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes who helped issue a memo allowing the torture of detainees in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. According to the International Herald Tribune:

Graham has insisted that only a system grounded in the military code and the Geneva conventions will reaffirm the reputation of the United States abroad and protect U.S. troops if they are captured.

In an interview, Graham stated:

What I'm trying to do with my time in the Senate during this whole debate we're having is to remind the Senate that the rules we set up speak more about us than it does the enemy. The enemy has no rules. They don't give people trials, they summarily execute them and they're brutal, inhuman creatures. But when we capture one of them, what we do is about us, not about them.

John McCain, a fellow military veteran and Republican senator, has sided with Graham in condeming the use of torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" on terror suspects.

See: "A key Republican holds out on detainees"

Tags: Abu Ghraib | General Counsel William Haynes | Guantanamo | Senator Lindsey Graham | torture

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