Yet, when 9/11 struck, out of horror at what had been perpetrated, many of those good Americans who had so vigorously opposed torture as practiced by the French in Algeria stifled their qualms and at best averted their gazes from excesses committed in Guantánamo, waterboarding within the homeland or rendition abroad for other less squeamish regimes to do what was necessary.
Or they more actively supported the Rumsfeld-Cheney line for the extraction of information at any cost.
The same phenomena were witnessed in my country after the murderous bombings in London of July 2005, as fear raised its head.
One almost-immediate response was the shooting on the London Tube of an utterly innocent Brazilian by trigger-happy and frightened cops.
A close relative of mine in England, a man whom I respect for his liberal-mindedness, now expresses himself in favor of interrogation under torture—given certain circumstances:
i.e., when the authorities are convinced that it might avert a terrible atrocity. We argue vigorously.
Can one trust even the finest brains in the CIA or MI-5 ever to be absolutely sure about a culprit?
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