Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A Moral Question....

The WaPo:

A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that "probably saved lives," but that he now regards the tactic as torture.

John Kiriakou, said the first high-level al-Qaida detainee was defiant for weeks but broke down 35 seconds after the waterboarding started. Although the information he gave "probably saved lives," Kiriakou now says that he considers waterboarding to be torture, and "Americans are better than that. via Slate.

Hmmm.... Everyone here knows how I feel about this, but please discuss.

I remember reading about a women during the Holocaust who slept with a Nazi officer to keep him from sending a Jewish family that worked in the home to the gas chambers.

Was that moral? She committed a grave sin to save the lives of others. Was she "better than that?" Is that right? Was she right? And if she was right, then is waterboarding right?