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As Hari reports, Col. Allen West took Iraqi Yehiya Hamoodi and threatened to kill him, a clear unambiguous violation of the Convention Against Torture. When Hamoodi did not give up the information he was believed to have, West again threatened to kill him and shot a pistol a foot from his head. For torture, West was fined $5,000. Now he's running for CongressAt National Review Online, Jed Babbi, a deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration, argued in December 2003 that what Col. West did was no big deal, not heroic, but not criminal either. Such is the right wing today. Torture is simply no big deal, even long before Abu Ghraib shed a harsh light upon officially-sanctioned torture.
If John McCain's opposition to torture still had any substance, he would be denouncing Col. West's support within the Republican Party.
