Former
Republican congressman Bob Barr was angrily booed at the CPAC conference in
Washington, DC on Friday when he declared that water-boarding is torture.
During
a debate of whether suspected terrorists ought to be tried in civilian courts
or read Miranda rights upon arrest, Barr said the Antiterrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 provided the framework for how to deal
with terrorist suspects, and said government officials should stick to that law.
"Either
we believe, as lawyers, as lawmakers and as citizens, that there is value in
laws, that laws that are passed have meaning and have a purpose, or we
don’t," Barr said.
Barr
said there's nothing magical about military tribunals, they don't have
necessarily better lawyers than in the civilian sector. He went on to say that
he has more faith in our US attorneys, who are non-political, than all the many
republicans who do not support the use of civilian trials.
Barr
said that the civilian courts can try them, and should try them, which is
precisely what our laws provide for. He challenged the idea of handing all
suspected terrorists to the military to let them torture them for a while. He
declared that water-boarding is not an advanced interrogation technique, it is
torture.
His
comments were met with little applause and gasps among the audience at the
conservative conference, which was quickly drowned out by loud jeers.
Earlier
in Barr’s debate with Republican Congressman of California, Lundgren got an
enthusiastic round of applause when he declared, "I support enhanced
interrogation."
Barr
served as a Republican House representative from Georgia from 1995 to 2003,
before switching to the Libertarian Party in 2006. Prior he served as U.S.
Attorney for Georgia during the Reagan and first Bush years.
See
portions of the debate here:
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