Via Scott Horton, the human rights attorney (no relation):
Eric Haney, the former command sergeant major of Delta Force, and a key advisor to CBS’s program “The Unit” gives an interview to the LA Daily News and puts it straight.
“Q: What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney …
A: (Interrupting) That’s Cheney’s pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It’s about vengeance, it’s about revenge, or it’s about cover-up. You don’t gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It’s worse than small-minded, and look what it does.
I’ve argued this on Bill O’Reilly and other Fox News shows. I ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you want someone that the American public pays to torture? He’s an employee of yours. It’s worse than ridiculous. It’s criminal; it’s utterly criminal. This administration has been masters of diverting attention away from real issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is torture, period. And (I’m saying this as) a man who has been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I know it, and all of my mates know it. You don’t do it. It’s an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, “Well, they do it to us.” Which is a ludicrous argument. … The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what’s legal and what we believed in. Now we’re going to throw it away.”
Read the rest.
Update: I have received several emails saying that Haney was not a founding member of Delta, nor was he ever CSM of it.
Now I get this message from his wife, Dianna Edwards:
“Please correct CSM Haney’s title for the record. ( trust me – there is at least one former delta officer who would swift boat Haney for such a mistake ). He was not the CSM of Delta and has never claimed to be. He retired as CSM of the Batt in Panama following Just Cause.
Thanks.”
Haney’s apparently brand new website where he’s claiming less credentials than the Los Angeles Daily News gave him is here.