Terry Arnold: I think it would help, but the real changes--improvements in international reactions--will be induced by how long and how well-demonstrated America's retreat from torture actually is.
The overall uncommunicative style of present and past leadership is not helpful on this. It would be enormously helpful if Obama were not only to say he was closing Guantanamo, but then he went ahead and did it, decisively and permanently.
My ideal would be, as I have said in earlier articles, we close it and we give it back to Cuba. But even with that, if Obama fails to deal fairly with the prisoners who have been illegally held there, the public affairs benefit of closing Guantanamo will be greatly diminished. We must wait and see what decisions are made and implemented on the subject of prisoners who have not been charged. I've interviewed Arnold before on torture:
GW: Do you believe that torture decreases or increases the risk of terrorism?Terry Arnold: It increases the risk. There is a school of thought that it is deterrence. But I do not believe that. If people's grievances multiply, you will have more terrorism. For example, military attacks in Iraq increase terrorism. If you ameliorate people's grievances, you will decrease terrorism.
GW: A high-level Special Ops interrogator said that torture by Americans of innocent Iraqis is the main reason that foreign fighters started fighting against Americans in Iraq in the first place. Do you agree?
Terry Arnold: I agree with that. What went on at Abu Gharaib was on the street before it was in the [American] media.
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