Republicans field torture apologist for Congress

The contest on March 13 to fill Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional seat hasn't (yet) drawn the sort of focus from Democrats that we put on the Virginia governor's race or Doug Jones' successful Alabama senate campaign. The vacancy came about because the former Republican representative made a mighty noise campaigning against abortion, and then was caught urging abortion on his girl friend. Oops. But Trump carried the district by 19 points and Republicans have held the seat for decades. This is not promising turf.

Democrats have a candidate who seems a plausible fit for this 95 percent white, still significantly unionized, suburban and rural district. Conor Lamb is a white 33 year old Marine veteran and former assistant U.S. attorney. He avoids hot button social issues in favor of economic appeals.

The Republican candidate, state legislator Rick Saccone, is something of a bomb thrower. He has quipped

"I was Trump before Trump was Trump..."

'Nuff said for many of us. Trump paid Saccone a campaign visit.

But there's more. Lee Fang from the Intercept has uncovered Saccone's background as a consultant at the U.S. Army's prison at Abu Ghraib during the Iraq invasion. He sees nothing wrong with a little light torture; when advised that brutal treatment is unlawful, like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney he plays word games about what the U.S. does to captives.

In his book, “The Unseen War in Iraq” and in a series of newspaper columns, Saccone argued for the use of such tactics, claiming that so-called enhanced interrogation methods are both legal and effective means for extracting intelligence. International human rights attorneys reject the former claim, and an extensive investigation by the Senate intelligence committee rejects the latter.

Since “the enemy is not an Army, wears no uniform,” Saccone wrote in his book, the U.N. Convention Against Torture does not apply. Saccone dismisses federal law defining interrogation methods that inflict “severe mental pain and suffering” as torture because “the threshold of pain varies among individuals.” Any methods that do not inflict “long lasting pain that leaves permanent physical damage,” Saccone argues, should be considered.

... Saccone draws on his own personal experience to argue broadly for expanded use of techniques criticized as torture. The examples from his time in Iraq include telling a suspect that, unless he confesses, he will be turned over to a militia that will execute him. In another, Saccone writes about a hardened suspect that expressed fear when he saw a large German police dog, so Saccone made the suspect believe he would release the dog to attack the suspect unless he provided information. And in another, Saccone discusses using live wires to threaten a detainee with electrocution.

Fang interviewed Erudite Partner for the article. She is, after all, an academic expert in these matters. She corrects Saccone on both the law and the facts on U.S. torture. Read it all here.

Saccone's claim to fame in Pennsylvania has been to oppose separation of church from state, attempting to have Pennsylvania declare a "Year of the Bible." Last year he proclaimed:

“[God] wants godly men and women in all aspects of life. He wants people who will rule with the fear of God in them to rule over us.”

What a strange, fear-based, God these torture types worship!