Did you know that there is a U.S. Representative who was a former POW in Vietnam who shared a cell with John McCain? His name is Sam Johnson and he has a different view on the McCain amendment on torture.

McCain said when he introduced the amendment that the need for intelligence in the war on terrorism is obvious.

“What should also be obvious is that the intelligence we collect must be reliable and acquired humanely, under clear standards understood by all our fighting men and women,” he said. “To do differently would not only offend our values as Americans but undermine our war effort because abuse of prisoners harms, not helps, us in the war on terror.”

But Johnson argues that interrogators must have flexibility as they try to pry information from detainees.

“Requiring the Field Manual to detail every type and means for interrogation and making it the sole authority on interrogation techniques would give our enemies advance knowledge, allowing them to train their people to withstand our procedures,” he wrote.

“Having to potentially sift through thousands of pages of proper techniques in order to get interrogation authorization would likely compromise our ability to control the process, potentially preventing us from attaining valuable information that could avert future attacks,” Johnson wrote.

Apparently, Johnson eschews the limelight as much as McCain claims it. I'd like to hear more of his views or at least see a debate between him and McCain instead of just seeing McCain on every other show every time you turn on the TV.