Washington Post: Pro-Torture?

Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt recently announced his latest hire -- pro-torture ideologue and Bush White House speechwriter Marc Thiessen. We're calling on Hiatt to not hire Thiessen and not give him a platform to spread his dangerous pro-water boarding rhetoric. 

Video courtesy of Crooks & Liars

Tell Hiatt that torture doesn't need a platform. Sign our petition below telling The Washington Post to say no to Marc Thiessen and no to torture.

Here is the petition, in full, below: 

Dear Fred Hiatt:

We are appalled at the news that you have chosen to provide Marc Thiessen, a vocal and prolific supporter of water boarding, a regular platform for his radical views on your editorial page as a columnist.

Thiessen has called the CIA interrogators who tortured detainees through water boarding “American heroes” and has promoted the very dangerous argument that it’s the duty of American interrogators to torture Muslim detainees. The United States hung Japanese soldiers for water boarding American soldiers during World War II. Water boarding was used during both the Spanish Inquisition and by the Khmer Rouge to torture their victims. Yet over and over again, Thiessen, a former Bush White House speechwriter, has come out in defense of this despicable and illegal technique as well as other “harsh interrogation” methods once utilized by the CIA under the Bush-Cheney Administration.

Thiessen wrote in a recent editorial at the Washington Post that interrogators actually “help” terrorists to do their duty to Allah: “The terrorists are called by their faith to resist as far as they can -- and once they have done so, they are free to tell everything they know. This is because of their belief that "Islam will ultimately dominate the world and that this victory is inevitable." The job of the interrogator is to safely help the terrorist do his duty to Allah, so he then feels liberated to speak freely.”

In other words, according to Thiessen, inhumane treatment and torture of Muslim detainees is fully justified because of their religious beliefs. Muslim detainees actually want to be tortured. They are, in effect, asking for it.

We respect the right of anyone to freely express his or her views, regardless of how outrageous they may be. But providing your newspaper as a regular platform for such radical and unconscionable views is appalling. We urge you to terminate any editorial relationship with Thiessen.

Sign the petition and tell The Washington Post that there's no room on their editorial pages for torture.