- Benjamin Franklin
How about those who sacrifice human rights to gain security?
"[W]aterboarding," which is a particularly amusing name, redolent of skateboarding, snowboarding, all sorts of lesser entertainments. It involves killing a man - drowning him - many times, without his actually expiring. The process was not invented by the Khmer Rouge: it has a long and honorable pedigree, dating back to the Spanish Inquisition. But my friends in the Killing Fields were the first true moderns to incorporate this practice: to make it an integral part of the body politic....
Terror is a simple business. All you have to do is drip water into a cloth held over a man's face, and he will feel - he will know - that he is drowning. It is false knowledge, yes, but it has the force of truth. And to know that you are dying, being executed, is an astonishingly terrible thing....
(Source)
I think the quote could be accurately changed to read, "Those who desire to give up human rights in order to gain freedom will not have, nor do they deserve, either one."
All Americans must continue to speak out against the human rights abuses perpetrated by our government at Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA prisons so that our security is not further compromised. The President is not 'protecting our families' by permitting torture. Nor is the Congress by giving him the latitude to do so. By allowing for the abuse of human rights and dignity, they are increasing the danger we face.
GP
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