A retired general who served in Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia told
Newsmax TV on Thursday that any "short term gain" from using the severe interrogation tactics detailed in a new Senate report also produces "a very long term serious loss to national security issues."
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, senior adviser to a self-described "progressive" think tank, the National Security Network, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner that even in the proverbial "ticking time-bomb" scenario, torturing prisoners of war in an attempt to get vital information is against the law.
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"[W]e are not involved in situational ethics … and what we expect our soldiers to do is to obey the law and obey their training," said Eaton.
"We have our values and we will treat prisoners with the appropriate safeguards that we teach our every young soldier going through basic training," he said, citing the Army's field manual on intelligence and interrogation of detainees.
"Every sergeant, every lieutenant and every captain that we put to the field is faced with ticking-time bomb scenarios," said Eaton. "They need information, they need it quickly. But I've got to tell you, some of the things we did that were revealed in that report may have given short term gain, but a very long term serious loss to national security issues.
Eaton said that on the CIA interrogations report prepared and released by Senate Democrats, he sides with the lone Republican to endorse it: Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and retired Navy officer who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
"I watched the speech … where he fully endorsed [the] report and believes what we did was torture and that what we did was counterproductive to the national security of the United States," he said. "McCain is no shrinking violet. He has a terrific amount of experience at the hands of North Vietnamese torture, so I go with his gut feel on this.
"I will also tell you that I stood behind the president of the U.S. with a lot of other retired, flag-ranked men and women when the president signed the executive order [in 2009] that we would subscribe as a nation to the U.S. Army field manual on interrogation," he said.
Eaton, a longtime critic of the Bush administration's Iraq war conduct, praised the CIA as "great patriots" and said that with the nation "under duress" after the 9-11 attacks, officials and operatives — targets of the Senate report — "were following what they thought was clear guidance from the White House."
To this day, said Eaton, "I'm not sure we know exactly how we acquired what information" in the massive push for intelligence that followed 9-11.
"I keep getting both stories on this," he said, adding that "what I do know is it is counterproductive to national security to conduct torture."
Eaton said that national security threats facing the country today range from natural — climate change and Ebola — to man-made. In the latter category, he said the country needs more comprehensive radiological screening at its borders.
"If we're talking a suitcase-sized dirty bomb that is going to contaminate terrain in an urban area, are we able to say as a nation that everything that comes into the U.S. has gone through radiological checks? I don't think we can say that," he said.
Eaton endorsed the U.S. approach to combating the Islamic State with "close air support" for indigenous ground forces, and on the home front he praised the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in the post-9-11 era.
"Those very qualified agencies are doing the Lord's work for us and there's a whole lot going on that I will never know, but I will also say that they've done a terrific job at keeping us safe," said Eaton.
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