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Huckabee, Dems. to meet retired officers on torture |
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By Roxana Tiron
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Posted: 11/30/07 05:48 PM [ET] |
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee so far is the only Republican presidential candidate scheduled to meet in Iowa with a group of retired generals and admirals to discuss military detention and interrogation policies.
Human Rights First, a non-partisan human rights advocacy group organized the meetings. It invited all of the presidential candidates to participate in the meetings.
Huckabee, who polls indicate is surging in Iowa, is scheduled to meet with the retired officers on Monday.
Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Barrack Obama (Ill.), Chris Dodd (Conn.), former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will also meet the retired officers in private one-hour meetings between December 1 and December 3.
The treatment of detainees has been an important presidential campaign issue and became a point of friction between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during Wednesday’s GOP debate. McCain, who was tortured as a Vietnam prisoner of war, has been a strong voice against using torture as part of the detainee interrogation process.
This is the second time the group scheduled meetings with the presidential candidates. In April, Clinton and two other Democratic candidates, Sen. Joe Biden (Del.) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) met with the officers whose careers span from combat operations to intelligence, law and the medical field.
“We would like to reach as many candidates as we can,” said retired Lt. Gen. Harry Soyster, who served as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “We think it is an important issue, and the potential commanders in chief need to be educated on it.” Soyster added that the commander-in-chief has to understand that the policy the White House sets “has a direct impact on soldiers.”
“The point that we are trying to stress with these candidates is that it is both possible and highly appropriate for presidential candidates to be very, very concerned about protecting national security and that there is no conflict between that objective and the humane treatment of prisoners,” said retired Brig. Gen. David Irvine, a strategic intelligence officer who taught at the Army Intelligence School for more than a decade.
“You can be a hawk on national security but that does not mean you have to advocate torture,” he added.
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