Damned if you...

The Washington Post, and in particular reporter Dana Priest, are under attack from both liberals and conservatives regarding its story on secret CIA prisons published earlier this month. Conservatives say the story constitutes a major breach of national security--calling it irresponsible reporting and claiming that it will put the lives of Americans and their allies at risk. Some conservative pundits also claim that the information was leaked to the Post as part of a Democratic plot to discredit the Bush administration. Liberals decry the fact that the Post withheld the names of the countries involved, with some going so far as to call the Post complicit in torture for not revealing all of the facts in the story. For its part, the Post says it decided to go ahead with the story after "balancing legitimate national security concerns with informing our readers about important things that were being done in their name by the government" (quote from Leonard Downie, Executive Editor of the Post.)

Personally, I applaud the Post for having the brazos to publish the story. As Leonard Downie says, I think it is important for us as Americans to know what our government is doing in our name. To me, transparency in government is the key to a healthy and successful democracy. Whatever the motivation for the leak is irrelevant. I do feel, though, that the Post should have gone one step further and published the names of the countries involved. This needs to see the light of day. Torture in any form is wrong. There is never a justification for it, even in wartime and even in counter-terrorism operations. We are not terrorists. We believe in basic and universal human rights and civil liberties. (Does this sound familier to anyone: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"?) Regardless of what these prisoners have done and what information they may possess, it is a far more dangerous thing to stoop to their level and become like them than any benefit that could be derived from torturing them from information. And, for me, that's the scariest thing about this story.