To The Editor:
Re: “US Supreme Court delivers junk justice, ” A Britisher’s View by Shavana Abruzzo, 6-19 issue.
While I generally have a grudging respect for Shavana Abruzzo’s column, on this one she is way off base.
While I too have great compassion for the deceased reporter, Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2002, I believe holding detainees and using waterboarding is a practice of the Middle Ages.
With our modern technology, why couldn’t interrogators use sodium pentothal (truth serum) as a means of confession?
While that may have drastic side-effects, regardless of whether suspects are innocent or guilty, it is still a more humane approach.
Also, let us not forget that in his first year as president, Richard Nixon improved and, drastically, reduced the torture of American prisoners of war.
If we torture prisoners of war, whether justified or not to hostile nations, they will do the same to American prisoners of war.
Ms. Abruzzo should understand that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, too. Therefore, the US Supreme Court’s decision that prisoners are entitled to counsel is a proper one, although not a perfect one.
Some people will not yield to torture, being innocent or guilty, and others will sell out in a minute under duress.
I see no reason why the truth serum cannot be administered in this day and age.
Elliot Abosh
Brighton Beach
