Spiteful And

Backward Thinking

To the Editor:

I am a mother of two children and I remember September 11 very well. Many people in our own communities died as a result of this act of, yes, we can say it, terror. I remember the fear in not knowing if something else was going to happen, if my children, family and friends could ever be safe again. I remember the anthrax scare, with one person dying from anthrax in Connecticut near our town. I remember the Metro North concerns, the mall threats, the bridge threats, the food supply threat, the bio chemical threats. The fears grew every day. Nobody knew what was happening, but we wanted information from our government, fast.

I remember the general feeling at the time was for our administration to keep us safe! We demanded how this happened and we never wanted it to happen again.

Now, the current administration, sitting around on a beautiful spring day, almost nine years later, is looking back and saying the prior administration did something illegal. They’re complaining that the legal tactics used at the time to get information (of which we all wanted and demanded) are now not palatable for our tastes and we should prosecute.

There are so many important reasons to not go ahead with this spiteful and backward thinking logic, one of them leaving a precedent for future presidents to bring criminal charges against prior administrations because they didn’t like them. I understand that pictures of these “torture” events will be released and if you don’t think other countries will use them as propaganda against the United States and our troops will be in more danger, then you’re kidding yourself. My main dislike of this ridiculous decision is the fact that the methods shown on news channels showing how we “tortured” our prisoners don’t look like torture to me. Our prisoners have doctors and psychiatrists surrounding the “torture” event. The prisoners go back to their rooms and have a cigarette and a cup of coffee and await their dinner. When I think of torture, I think of my husband’s uncle. This man, an ex-senator of the State of Alabama, was in the Bataan Death March and a prisoner of war for three years. He has physical scars and is legally blind from his time in captivity. He wrote a book about his experience and believe me, it’s a very hard read. What this man endured is clearly what I would call torture.

What happened to him is something the United States of America has never done and Americans would never stand for cruelties like that. Waterboarding? Torture? I don’t think so. Maybe we can call it an “underwater contingency plan” and that may sound a little more politically correct for Nancy Pelosi. Please contact our local government and tell them how you feel, I did.

Linda Watson

51 High Rock Road, Sandy Hook                                  April 29, 2009