Earl Blumenauer: “we have elevated to an art form here in Congress dancing around serious issues and avoiding our congressional…”

“we have elevated to an art form here in Congress dancing around serious issues and avoiding our congressional responsibilities. Torture is a case in point, not extreme interrogation, but let's call it what it is: torture. At the same time the President was asking Congress to rubber-stamp his policies of torture, the military was saying that torture does not give good information, and they were against it. Torture puts our troops at risk in giving our enemies the green light to torture our people. Torture lowers our image, our moral standing around the world. In yesterday's headlines across America and across the world, there was the story of the Canadian citizen we kidnapped and we sent to Syria, a country on our terrorist watch list, so he could be tortured. His ordeal did not end for a year. Three years later, he is walking around a free man, never charged and Congress, spineless, has not taken action to stop this barbaric, illegal and immoral practice. It is time for us, as we stumble towards adjournment, to deal with something meaningful, investigate this outrage, and legislate protections. ____________________”