Lt. Commander Andrew Williams resigned his commission in the United States Navy.  It seems that his pride in serving in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps waned after the CIA destroyed videotapes and Brigadier General Hartmann, chief legal adviser at the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions, was unable to say that the Military Commissions instituted to try enemy combatants would not use statements obtained through “waterboarding”, which used to be known as torture before it was adopted by the United States as “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

Williams, 43, felt that Hartmann was admitting torture is now an acceptable interrogation technique in the United States — an admission that did not sit well with him.

“There was this saying in the Marines: ‘We don’t lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate people who do,’ ” Williams said. “And that sort of echoed through the Navy.”

But Hartmann isn’t Navy, and he’s still wearing the uniform proudly.    Williams doesn’t expect his resignation letter to cause anyone in the military to lose sleep, but it allows him to sleep a little better.

“Thank you General Hartmann for finally admitting the United States is now part of a long tradition of torturers going back to the Inquisition. In the middle ages the Inquisition called waterboarding “toca” and used it with great success. In colonial times, it was used by the Dutch East India Company during the Amboyna Massacre of 1623.

“Waterboarding was used by the Nazi Gestapo and the feared Japanese Kempeitai. In World War II, our grandfathers had the wisdom to convict Japanese Officer Yukio Asano of waterboarding and other torture practices in 1947 giving him 15 years hard labor. Waterboarding was practiced by the Khmer Rouge at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. Most recently, the United States Army court martialed a soldier for the practice in 1968 during the Vietnam conflict.”

But it’s all different now, apparently, since it’s now the United States employing torture to get what it wants.  Since we’re the good guys, and whatever we use it for will be for good (not evil, like the Nazis), everything is okay. 

Of course, when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) asked General Hartmann whether he would feel the same if it was the Iranian government “waterboarding” American servicemen to get information, Hartmann responded, “I am not prepared to answer that question.”  Is this guy a leader or what?

And just in case you think Williams is some lefty sushi-eating, chardonnay-drinking, AirAmerica-loving, pinko, need I mention (per the ongoing tale at  Volokh) of Col. Morris Davis, who used to be chief prosecutor of the Gitmo Tribunals but quit because he believed the tribunals to be a kangaroo court, duking it out with Brig. Gen. Hartmann,  responds to Hartmann’s congressional testimony:

Hartmann says the military commissions are consistent with an American military justice system that is the envy of the world. Apparently he’s privy to some worldwide polling data I haven’t seen, because it appears to me military commissions have created worldwide enmity, not envy. To overcome that, there must be two assurances from the highest levels: One, that evidence derived from waterboarding will not be introduced before a military commission, and two, that all reasonable efforts to keep the proceedings open to the media and other observers will be exhausted before closing any portion of any trial. That’s the minimum American justice demands.

I might consider adding a little commentary to the above, but it would only detract from things said better than I possibly could.  These are high-ranking legal officers of the American military resigning rather than participating in, or being party to, what this nation is attempting to pass off the our citizens and the world as justice.  They love their country enough to resign and speak truth rather than be party to the death of American justice.