Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Bush's Torture Quote Undercuts Denial

By Jason Leopold
April 15, 2008

President George W. Bush’s comment to ABC News – that he approved discussions that his top aides held about harsh interrogation techniques – adds credence to claims from senior FBI agents in Iraq in 2004 that Bush had signed an Executive Order approving the use of military dogs, sleep deprivation and other tactics to intimidate Iraqi detainees.

When the American Civil Liberties Union released the FBI e-mail in December 2004 – after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit – the White House emphatically denied that any such presidential Executive Order existed, calling the unnamed FBI official who wrote the e-mail “mistaken.”

Read on.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A wake-up call to all bleeding hearts that believe waterboarding of terrorist suspects is torture, or that sleep deprivation, sensory deprvatinor any of these forms of INTERROGATION you call "torture" are.....Give us a break.

Torture is what our enemy does to innocent Americans like Joshua Munns of Redding. Munns and at least three others were kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq and slaughtered piece by piece.

Torture is cutting off fingers while they were still alive and mailing them to government officials in America. Torture is holding Joshua prisoner for two years and having his mother relieved that they finally killed him.

The next time you get upset over America's practice of waterboarding, which to my knowledge has never killed or injured anyone, please remember Joshua Munns from Redding. Think long and hard about what his last two years of life must have been at the hands of the brutal, sadistic, heartless, murdering animals you and your ACLU friends are protecting.

Should I list more stories of the differences between Iraqi and American Torture? Or do the beleeding hearts get it now?

Your President does what he has to do to keep this country SAFE, your fellow AMERICANS safe, and wether you beleive it or not, to end this war as soon as possible. Sadly 99 percent of the American people have established their view of the war from a front row seat at their television.....

When I returned form the first Gulf War, the first thing I noticed was the news, and said to my parents, that is NOT what is happening over there.....

So, in my opinion....if you have never put boots on your feet, and you have never defended your country, then how on earth will you impress someone like me by holding a cardboard sign tring to change the world? You want to change the world go be IN the world, and first and foremost, be APART of something you claim to be an expert on before you claim it....

Thank a soldier, one of his or her friends most likely died to give you the right to run your mouth about something you know nothing about. The soldiers know why we are there, why? Because they had the guts to put boots on and go there, and they have eyes, and they see. It isnt through someones tv camera either, or through someones "personal view", that the rest of the country is forced to watch...

Think America. Duh!

Nat Parry said...

Stacy, your comments, while passionate, reveal a profound lack of logic that is all too common among war and torture supporters.

First of all, simply because what may have happened to Munns and his five other captured comrades may have been more brutal than the interrogation methods of the CIA and US military, it does not necessarily follow that those methods do not amount to torture. Following your logic, would it be equally accurate to say that punching someone in the face does not amount to "violence" because shooting someone in the face is more violent? No, of course, that would not follow. They are both acts of violence, I assume you would agree.

Secondly, there is this profound disconnect that all war supporters seem to share. You all talk about "defending America," but somehow you manage to forget that Iraq never once attacked the United States, or threatened the United States, or even possessed the means to attack the United States. Therefore, the war that Bush launched against Iraq was an unprovoked war of aggression against a defenseless nation.

While it is tragic and sad what happened to Munns, it should never have been unexpected, and had you war cheerleaders thought it through back in 2002-2003, maybe you would have had second thoughts about starting the war in the first place.

Anyway, torture is not only illegal under international humanitarian law, it is also morally reprehensible and strategically useless. Everyone knows that information obtained under torture is virtually useless, because torture victims typically say whatever they believe will help stop the torture.

These are all basic facts and logic, but you war supporters have never been big on facts and logic, so I wouldn't expect you to understand. Thanks for posting though.

Anonymous said...

Goodness, Nat, thanks.

Anonymous said...

What Nat said! Where do these warmongers come from? Illegal wars of aggression make this country less safe not more safe. What kind of break would you like? Maybe a 'waterboarding' break? If waterboarding ISN'T torture why did the USA bring charges against the Japanese for doing the same during WWII?

How sick am I of reading comments from the likes of stacy m. suggesting that I cannot comment on, or think rationally about, the occupation of Iraq unless I'm a soldier or I've been to Iraq - very, very, tired...

Perhaps, because the MSM passed on covering the latest 'Winter Soldier' hearings stacy doesn't realize it's possible to get information about what our soldiers are DOING in Iraq. It ain't pretty. Many soldiers are posting videos too, and all too often, these show less-than-proud moments in US military history.

For crying out loud, even RAND has suggested our efforts in Iraq have been a debacle, that is a complete failure. Many of us 'bleeding hearts' saw this coming debacle even before it began.

I was out in the street, and yes with a sign, as were some ten million 'protesters' world-wide as I recall. Mine said "Shut Bush Down - No War For Oil". This country will be reeling from Bush's 'strategic blunder' for a very long time. Maybe long enough for even some of the warmongers to realize the truth - that this was an illegal war of aggression.

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