A United Nations (UN) special investigator speaking about torture and terrorism stated the “re-introduction of torture under a Romney administration would significantly increase the threat levels to (Americans) at home and abroad.” Mitt Romney has promised to use torture methods, like water boarding, in his administration.
“Speaking out on the issue for the first time, Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, took fierce aim at the Republican candidate’s refusal to condemn waterboarding,” Colin Perkel, at The Canadian Press, reported:
“There is no doubt that the Romney administration would be able to claim — in the event of a Romney presidency — a democratic mandate for torture,” Emmerson told The Canadian Press.
“That would put Romney as the first world leader in history to be able to claim a democratic mandate for torture.”
Noting that “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the suspects now on trial in Guantanamo Bay for planning the [9/11] attacks, was waterboarded 183 times, according to the U.S. Justice Department,” Perkel adds:
Counter-terrorism experts maintain that American abuse of detainees in places such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib in Iraq, or torture of suspects done by others for the U.S., has been a boon for terrorist recruiters.
Terrorists have also used the abuses to justify attacks on Americans around the world.
As such, while Bush, Romney and others have defended enhanced interrogations as critical to U.S. national security, Emmerson was adamant that going back to any form of torturing suspects would be dangerously counterproductive.“The re-introduction of torture under a Romney administration would significantly increase the threat levels to (Americans) at home and abroad,” Emmerson said.
“Such a policy, if adopted, would expose the American people to risks the Obama administration is not currently exposing them to.”
Of course, radical media outlets like Breitbart are using this story to push for a Romney victory, especially because they think Americans hate the United Nations, when, really, it’s primarily the Tea Party, not average Americans, who hate the UN.
Globally, only 17% disapprove of the UN’s job performance. That number is far lower in countries thew UN actually operates, like sub-Saharan African countries. The U.S. which is widely ignorant about the UN’s functions, the disapproval rate is 48%. A whopping 73% of Republicans give the UN poor marks.