"Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary."
David H. Petraeus, Commander, U.S. Central Command
“The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."
Admiral Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence
"If it were up to me I would close Guantánamo not tomorrow but this afternoon...Essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America's justice system...and it's causing us far more damage than any good we get from it."
Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State
"I have been hard pressed to find a situation where anybody can tell me that they've ever encountered the ticking-bomb scenario... a show like 24...makes all of us believe that this is real--it's not. Throw that stuff out, it doesn't happen."
Jack Cloonan, FBI special agent from 1977 - 2002
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current [G.W. Bush] administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Major General Antonio M. Taguba, US Army Retired
"I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people...I lie awake worrying about this every night."
Major Robert Preston, former prosecutor, US military commissions
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