Advertisement

Letters to the editor

Share

Torture is torture

Re “Files detail CIA tactics on captives,” April 17

Just because torture was legal in Nazi Germany did not make it right. Nor did it protect Nazi war criminals from prosecution at the Nuremberg trials.

Advertisement

Just because some fanatical lawyers in the Bush administration decided that torture should be legal does not make it right either.

What happens the next time some despot, here or abroad, decides that torture is legal? Do we let that pass?

We must prosecute these criminals in the Central Intelligence Agency to the fullest extent of the law or we, as a civilized society, will have failed.

Brian Bard

Glendale

As a former political prisoner who was tortured by the Argentine military and adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, I am very disappointed at President Obama’s decision not to allow prosecutions of members of the U.S. government who engaged in torture. His decision puts him on the side of those who argued that Nazi leaders accused of crimes against humanity were only following orders. Even worse, it implies the rationalization that the goal of defeating terrorism justifies any means. This is a flawed point of view. Torture is torture, and it does not matter if it was practiced by a Stalinist operative, an agent of the Gestapo -- or even by a member of an intelligence agency of a democratic country.

Nestor Fantini

Northridge

::

Isn’t it amazing how a very few lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department can write secret memos that allow the U.S. government to overturn laws, treaties and conventions?

Advertisement

The Supreme Court justices must be green with envy -- usually nine of them act to issue a ruling, each undergoes Senate confirmation, and they must publish their opinions. Now we know where true power resides.

Lewis Cohen

Riverside

::

Re “Close the torture loophole,” editorial, April 18

I was an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve trained to debrief naval officers released from POW camps in Vietnam. In order to be familiar with the torture inflicted on our men, we were subjected to torture, including waterboarding and walling.

Granted, waterboarding and walling are no picnic -- but I survived in good order. I learned that the subject thinks that he is drowning but that the action is harmless, and that a Navy doctor was nearby to prevent any subsequent illness or harm.

Calm down, L.A. Times. We didn’t hurt those terrorists. This citizen has survived to an old age of 77.

Advertisement

William Mattingly

La Habra Heights

::

The touchy-feely world of liberals and their hatred of former President Bush is vividly portrayed in this editorial. The details of the interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists read like a college fraternity hazing handbook, but the goal of the procedures used is not initiation into some campus organization. It is the deadly serious business of gaining vital information to foil future terrorist attacks like those that occurred on 9/11 -- or worse.

That critics of benign interrogation methods are blinded by their ideology is truly frightening. God help America if this velvet-glove attitude prevails in our war against terrorism.

Donald Hirt

Paso Robles

Where the guns come from

Re “He let Mexico down,” editorial, April 18

Reinstating the ban on assault weapons in the U.S. may very well help ease drug violence in Mexico. No one can deny that thousands of guns purchased in the U.S. end up in the hands of Mexican cartels each year.

Advertisement

But the oft-cited statistic espoused by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other politicians -- that 90% of the guns recovered by Mexican authorities originate in the U.S. -- is not accurate. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has found that about 90% of the guns traced by Mexican police can be traced back to U.S. gun dealers. But many of the weapons seized in Mexico cannot be traced at all, because they lack serial numbers or other identifying features.

These untraceable guns, which account for many of those seized by Mexican police, could come from anywhere in the world. With so much uncertainty, it is impossible to know anything for sure -- except that the U.S. accounts for a smaller portion of the guns used in Mexican drug violence.

Gray Beltran

Mission Viejo

Taking our medicine

Re “No way to build a railroad,” editorial, April 17

I wholeheartedly agree with your editorial, which advocates paying for a system of bullet trains with increased gasoline taxes rather than borrowed money.

Those behemoth vehicles that invade our parking spaces and blast past us on city streets are not only irritating, they are signs of a society intoxicated with a substance ultimately more harmful than liquor or drugs.

Advertisement

Not only are we poisoning the atmosphere, the excessive consumption of gasoline by massive and overpowered vehicles is leading the U.S. down the path toward bankruptcy and diplomatic futility as we become increasingly owned by our creditors in China and the oil-producing countries of the Middle East.

The only practical solution is bitter medicine: high gas taxes, European-style, that would maintain the retail price of gasoline at $4 a gallon or more.

Gerry Rankin

Glendale

Addicted to oil

Re “California’s looming blunder on biofuels,” Opinion, April 16

The Low Carbon Fuel Standard soon to be adopted by California’s Air Resources Board will help kick the state’s petroleum habit, contrary to Gal Luft’s view.

CARB’s first-in-the-world low carbon standard will promote the development of cleaner alternatives to petroleum by sending clear signals to investors to reduce the carbon content of transportation fuels used in California. The standard requires all providers to reduce the carbon content of their fuels by 10% by 2020, considering “cradle to grave” emissions.

Advertisement

The inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions from land conversion, such as clearing rain forests, is a critical element. Without accurate accounting of these indirect land use effects, the standard could result in fuels with more, rather than less, greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. This would be contrary to the state’s effort to combat global warming under the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Bonnie Holmes-Gen

Sacramento

The writer is senior policy director for the American Lung Assn. in California.

A sick system

Re “Injured civilians battle to get care,” April 17

At first, I was shocked and appalled to read about the civilian contractors’ struggle to receive their much-deserved benefits. Now I’m no longer surprised -- just outraged. It makes no sense that companies like insurer American International Group can dole out bonuses, yet can’t seem to pay for the horrendous injuries sustained by workers in Iraq.

What makes it so tragic and pathetic is that these are seemingly commonplace stories in our time. When is America going to stop protecting the companies and start protecting the people? When is getting medical care going to be a right instead of a business deal?

Randy Helmerich

Sylmar

‘Bu bird

Advertisement

Re “Retail in Malibu is going ritzy,” April 16

Splendid. No doubt more in response to people’s needs than a mere desire for profit, developers in Malibu are working to replace real life with an elite image indistinguishable from that of other, all-too-common ritzy clusters.

One hopes that like the folks who, in search of market share, brought us the Edsel, they get the share they deserve.

Walter Houk

Woodland Hills

Advertisement