I’ve watched the religious right for the better part of two decades, dating back to my days in high school. So I’ve seen and heard a lot of offensive and outrageous things from fundamentalist leaders. But American Family Association policy analysis chief Bryan Fischer may have made the most patently offensive statements I’ve ever heard from a religious right leader. In the space of two days, Fischer declared that detainees suspected of terrorism not only had no right or expectation not to be tortured, but that they brought these techniques on themselves.
Since the Senate’s scathing report on the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” was released, Fischer has engaged in a ham-handed defense of this program, even though there is no doubt that it crossed the line into torture. On Thursday’s edition of his show on American Family Radio, “Focal Point,” Fischer repeated the usual right-wing shibboleth that the use of these heavy-handed techniques helped us find Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad. He then made a breathtaking claim–the detainees were more or less at the mercy of the CIA. Not only were they not American citizens, but they couldn’t claim the protection of the Geneva Conventions because they only apply to “people who fight in uniform.” Therefore, Fischer said, the detainees had “absolutely no legal rights that they can claim anywhere.” If we did extend them any mercy, it was “simply because we are a merciful people driven by Christian principles.”
With apologies to Politifact, this isn’t just wrong, it’s Pants on Fire wrong. The Fourth Geneva Convention states that if a detainee is found to not meet the criteria for prisoner of war status and is not a national of a neutral or co-belligerent state, he must still be “treated with humanity.” While an unlawful combatant can be tried–no small thing, since a POW can’t be tried at all–the International Committee of the Red Cross’ official commentary on the Fourth Convention states in no uncertain terms that “nobody in enemy hands can be outside the law.”
But you shouldn’t need an international treaty to tell you that you don’t have carte blanche to treat a suspected terrorist any way that you please. Does Fischer seriously think that you lose your right to basic human dignity just because you’re suspected of a crime or a terrorist act? Unless I heard this wrong, that’s essentially what he’s saying. If Fischer had his way, then if someone is manifestly guilty, we would more or less be able to violate their rights with impunity–a suggestion that would be repugnant to any fair-minded American.
If possible, Fischer sank even lower the next day. He claimed that the responsibility for these techniques rests solely on the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. His full rant has to be reproduced in full to be believed.
“The culpability and the blame and the accountability for every last bit of the enhanced interrogation techniques rests on the Muslims who were responsible for 9/11. If you’re looking for somebody to blame for waterboarding and sleep deprivation and rectal rehydration, look no further than the Muslims who were responsible for 9/11. They made those enhanced interrogation techniques necessary. So let’s not forget–no 9/11, no waterboarding. No 9/11, no Gitmo. No 9/11, no rectal rehydration.”
Let’s not sugarcoat this. Fischer is officially on record as favoring the punishment of one act of barbarism with another. Period, full stop. When I heard this, I was literally shaking with anger. Fischer wrings his hands about abortion and gay rights running counter to our values, then he condones behavior that essentially sank us down to al-Qaeda’s level? Pot, meet kettle. And would Fischer be willing to say this to the face of anyone who did time at the Hanoi Hilton? It looks like the North Vietnamese used the very same rationale that Fischer is using–they attacked us, so they deserved to be tortured.
After this, whenever Fischer goes into one of his right-wing rants, he might as well sound like a Peanuts adult. Anyone who even suggests that the detainees either had no expectation of avoiding torture or that they deserved what they got has no business whatsoever complaining about this country being in a moral decline.
Watch the video below.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
