In sympathy with Majority Leader (and GW Grad) Harry Reid’s effort to deny that there is sufficient evidence to investigate torture, I give you this picture of a similar effort by a canine representative.
The key in holding opposing positions in your mouth at the same time is total flexibility. Warning: Much like four tennis balls, the act of arguing that “no one is above the law” but some crimes are the “right thing to do” can risk choking.
Thanks for Patty C for the picture.
That’s cute.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, Harry’s not lying, he’s “writing fiction with his mouth.” Another way of looking at his contorted, contradictory positions on this issue is that he’s “diversifying his portfolio” of excuses for not prosecuting. If the public outcry is large, he can fall back on the “right thing to do” excuse, but until that happens, he can rely on the “no one is above the law” and “we don’t torture, anymore” justifications.
Did they grade on a Big Curve when Mr. Reid went to GW law?
David,
I’ve been struck by the sheer number of lies thrown about as well. They’re flinging out a bowl of spaghetti like a discus thrower. Each piece of spaghetti represents a different lie, a different excuse. If one piece doesn’t stick they hope another one will. So far, this technique has been all too successful.
I just listened to Gen Sanchez on NPR talk about torture in Iraq. We’re back to a few bad apples and a little confusion. And we’re supposed to believe the Pentagon cancelled their propaganda tour of military spokespeople. Right?
This is not the first instance I have known where an otherwise logically thinking person defends a barbaric, illegal act. It’s extremely chilling. Perhaps Mr. Reid is simply trying to please both sides of the debate, but the truly alarming thing here is that there is any debate at all. Torture is illegal, a war crime. Our leaders committed a war crime. There is no debate. It’s obvious that what is going on in the minds of many is a confusion between justice and retribution. That so many refuse to see it is appalling.
FFLEO:
Actually, Reid had a famous grudge against GW Law due entirely to a conversation with a former Associate Dean who allegedly told Reid that he might not be suited for law school after Reid (who was struggling to support his family while working in Congress) said that he could not afford law school.
Prescient man, the former Associate Dean.
Harry Reid also told america the “war was lost” 18 months ago as we had young men and women fighting to free Iraquis from terrorism.
I can’t imagine why he wasn’t kicked out and frog marched down the steps of Congress for that ridiculous statement.
Can you imagine ANY US Congressman telling America “the war is lost” when the Germans initiated the Battle of the Bulge – oh wait, I here a lot of Democrats thought we were losing to the Germans also and were ready to call the Pacific Theater quits at Manila.
Well now that the GODS of the liberals have spoken and otherwise indicated themselves as being in collusion on conducting harsh interrogation, when will Turley demand Harry Reid resign…..
Good picture, poor doggie. Harry Reid was complicit in that he was in on the briefings and thus tacitly approved the policy, while thinking to himself:”I’m a big shot, the big boys are letting me play with them and we’ve got such top secrets, that only we can know them.” I have no evidence of this beside my own BS detector. It certainly explains though why he is adopting his positions.
US torture is our country’s real Milgram experiment. The experiment continues.
joker:
One of my criticisms of the political cancer that is neo-conservatism is its assumption that principle is malleable in the face of power. That is certainly the credo of the Bush-Cheney crime family (Thanks Mike S., for this vivid word picture). You should know than persons of principle still exist and they seem to congregate on our side of the aisle. So to answer to directly, all those complicit of whatever stripe should be held to account. No one has said otherwise.
The main annoyance with crooks is that the believe everyone else is one too.
Judging by the White House Correspondents dinner we can be very well assured that nothing Barack Obama does will be reported in a negative way by 85% of the press – which is the approximate number that voted for this doofus.
W-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l.
The dinner last night sort of reminded me of Hugo Chaves’s big party a couple of months ago where if you were not seen there you were determined to be an enemy of Chaves and open season was declared on you.
Seems we are headed fast down the road towards the end of freedoms as the left dances around the Maypole Obama.
joker:
What would demanding that Reid resign accomplish?
Come on joker, get in the game. Investigate, prosecute and or pardon. Restore the Constitution from the institutional corruption we have endured.
So that going forward, our elected officials never think they can violate we the the people.
Joker,
Batman awaits. Your comments show that you live in a comic book world.
“Can you imagine ANY US Congressman telling America “the war is lost” when the Germans initiated the Battle of the Bulge”
Joker,
That you would dare to use this sentence shows how out of touch and into the propaganda you are. A brief history lesson:
1. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and wiped out most of our Pacific Fleet in 1941. We declared war
2. Germany declared war on US soon after.
3. FDR who wanted to go to war, or prepare for it in 1939 was blocked by congressional Republicans led by Senator Prescott Bush. Yes W’s grandfather.
4. Prescott Bush and the Dulles brothers ran a bank that lent Hitler money so he could come to power.
5. George W. Bush admitted that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
6. We attacked Iraq to remove weapons of mass destruction, that were never there, because the Bushies told lies to get the Congress and public to go along.
7. The war in Iraq is lost. Iran is the biggest influence there now and extremists are in control.
8. By lying us into an unnecessary war and getting our troops killed, many because they weren’t given the right equipment by Rumsfeld, or Dick Cheney’s Haliburton, the Bush/Cheney Crime Family (sorry Mespo but Mike Malloy the radio guy thought this one up)are the real traitors.
9. your obvious support of this criminal group indicates that you too support traitors, or more likely you snoozed through History and civics classes, while getting all your new from propagandists like FOX, or Rush.
Why do you hate America?
Mike Spindell,
What does History have to do with it…
miki spindell,
do you think your rewriting history is not obvious to any with a clue?
Shouldn’t you lefties go out and get a job and move out of your mother’s basements and give dad back his old computer? At least pay for your own internet connection.
La la lal lalallla la
Lefties dancing around the Maypole Obama while their freedoms disappear left and right and they are oblivous.
Obama has done more damage to American’s freedoms in 4 months than Bush did in 4 years.
Russia warns world in Soviet-style show of might
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.2bd8acd3958f3504b0e198ea61d1c3d0.a1&show_article=1
My GOD, what hath Obama wrought.
Four months of back door deals, handshakes, bending over and bowing to every two bit ruler and now the Russians, the Chinese, and every two bit world thug is flexing their muscles.
FFLEO,
Joker’s answers to my post make your point well. Joker is the kind of troll who thinks it is fun to bait liberals, since he can’t write well enough to get paid to do it, has to be for fun. Best to be ignored for the America hating Islamo-Fascist Traitor that he is. His funniest comment is about getting a job since he shows all the skills of a bottom feeder. Probably he does part time work sweeping up at the local Dairy Queen since he couldn’t do anything else more complicated.
Joker may be obnoxious but he is right. I would rather bo obnoxious and write and whiny and wrong.
This country is going to hell in a handbasket. Spending trillions we don’t have for votes. Telling the world it is on it’s own. Thinking we can continue to tax the hardest working bunch more and more. The idea that a Mexican or Canadian style health care system would work in America. This nation’s finest days ended 1/21/09.
While hovering your cursor over the neat picture above, this caption appears, “dogwithballs.”
Mr. H. Reid must never again be associated *favorably* with such a fortitudinous quality.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Incredible Arrogance of Obama
“The 65th Anniversary of D-Day is fast approaching. Barack Obama will attend the events on June 6th as George Bush did in 2004 for the sixtieth memorial service. Here is the rub, as of now Obama’s State Department has asked (read demanded) the French government not allow tour guide services to operate that day. It is a big day for Normandy tourism. Yet, the king will not allow those not connected with government to enjoy the day. Obama is very important you know. This is an unprecedented request. I hope the French come to their senses and deny it.
Compare that with 2004.
Security was tight as President Bush and other world leaders were in attendance, but the event was still open to all. A friend relayed the story of waiting in line to use a port-a-potty (a French port-a-potty no doubt, yuck, believe me.) She looks to her left and who he is in the next line waiting patiently? President Bush. Sure he had Secret Service nearby, but he waited like everyone else.”
Obama’s arrogance is simply beyond belief. I suppose to many people, the people who voted for him, this is not a character flaw. To me, it is. I don’t think you can argue a case that he is not arrogant, although I am sure someone will try. Romano has Obama on video (I’m not going to steal his entire post – you’ll have to go watch it for yourself!) saying “a light will shine down from somewhere…You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, ‘I have to vote for Barack.’”
Was he “just joking”? Is that “out of context”? Hell, no. He believes this drivel.
Arrogance is a serious character flaw because it leads you to believe that you are always right and you are unable to listen to those who may be able to guide you. You believe your way is the only way and that you can make no mistakes. Like Caesar. Or Oediupus.
You have Wanda Sykes at the Nerd Prom last night telling people that Rush Limbaugh ought to be tried for treason because he said he hopes Obama fails. Okay, she’s a comedienne and can say crap like that. But when a President of the United States releases documents that endanger troops and national security, when he releases terrorists onto United States soil, when he alienates longtime allies in favor of leaders who have expressed hate and disdain for us, instituting nationalized health care, nationalizing automakers and banks, well, maybe Wanda Sykes wasn’t looking in the right direction when she decided to call someone out for treason.
Romano enourages us to remember the 2010 elections are coming and that there is still time to slow down this train wreck. I honestly do not, at this point, believe that the Obamabots will turn against their leader; they love him. They love Michelle. They love Michelle’s arms. They love the dog. But the elections will give the rest of us a chance to slow down the havoc that he is imposing on our country. If he gets all four years unchecked then the damage will be practically unreparable.
As Romano says, NOT what those boys in Normandy died for.
“I would rather bo obnoxious and write and whiny and wrong.”
Wade,
I thought I was bad in not spell checking my quotes. I do take exception to your characterizing people you disagree with as “whiny.” There is of course the implication within that we
are somehow less tough than those you foolishly idolize. Let me see G.W. Bush supported Viet Nam, but used Daddy’s influence to make sure he didn’t go there to fight. Cheney didn’t have time, neither did Gingrich and a host of other Bush supporters.
That though shouldn’t be used as a sign of manliness, I am assuming you’re a typical misogynist, what should be is courage. Frankly, the leaders you favor lack courage and are in the pockets of those with the money. The Saudi’s own Bush for instance and he even holds hands with their Prince Bandar. None too manly. However, I suspect you got manly issues of your own. A little tip for you from a manly, not whiny guy, real men don’t feel they have to prove their manliness.
Seems as if some truth may have been told in jest,for there seems to be a waterfall of denial showing.
joker:This is for you.
Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin.
Stanislaw J. Lec (1909 – 1966), “Unkempt Thoughts”
“Wade 1, May 10, 2009 at 10:49 am
Joker may be obnoxious but he is right. I would rather bo obnoxious and write and whiny and wrong.”
Is that what you are education be informing you on? Copy and paste are more easier. After yours follow up rant, you saying “whiner” is like the pot calling the kettle a pot.
Genius.
Thanks for the giggles, JT.
Just as I delight in your articles, I love that photo on
all ‘four corners’. Only wish I could have been there when I sent it originally…
p.s. I hope you have at least one dog, including a shih-tzu!
Whatever happened to ‘Puddles’?
joker 1, May 10, 2009 at 10:15 am
miki spindell,
do you think your rewriting history is not obvious to any with a clue?
**************************************************
Well sir, he at least is aware of what the history is. You sir have no ideal of what history is except what you have been told just like we. However, we do read other sources to educate ourselves. Hence, I would trust Mike Spindell’s version of history as accurate as it could be.
I trust his rationale and reasoning over a Trolly Tramp’s any day of the week.
“I think it’s very, very important that we have a clear understanding that what happened here was an honorable approach to defending the nation, that there was nothing devious or deceitful or dishonest or illegal about what was done,” he said.”
This quote from D. Cheney on Face the Nation proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt. that there is no reason to worry about anything. I’m glad he’s cleared that up.
Of course what they did was so honorable and legal and undeceitful that I’m suprized he didn’t call for an immediate investigation, just to clear his good name and all.
Jill,
I appreciate your words of today. This is an excellent approach.
“Is that what you are education be informing you on? Copy and paste are more easier. After yours follow up rant, you saying “whiner” is like the pot calling the kettle a pot.
Genius.”
Get thee to Alaska BIL, there’s a Govenor there in dire need of your speechwriting talent.
Trolls, trolls and more trolls. Can’t any trolls ever concern themselves with real issues with real facts? Joker, were you in a coma during the last 8 years? It seems that you think the damage done to the Consitution by Bush was miniscule compared to Obama’s damage. You really need to actually read something for a change. You might actually learn something. Warrantless wiretapping, illegal torture, Cheney is not even part of the Constitution according to him, and cherry picking intelligence reports to lie to Americans about WMD’s in Iraq? That is just a sampling of the extra consititutional activities that George W. Bush’s regime carried out during the last 8 years. Did you not read the “get out of jail” OLC memos by Bybee and Yoo? Go back to Batman and leave the serious discussions to the adults.
Here’s some more important news. One of the men we tortured in order to link Saddam and al qaeda just “committed suicide”? in a Libyan jail.
“The Arabic media is ablaze with the news that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, the emir of an Afghan training camp — whose claim that Saddam Hussein had been involved in training al-Qaeda operatives in the use of chemical and biological weapons was used to justify the invasion of Iraq — has died in a Libyan jail. So far, however, the only English language report is on the Algerian website Ennahar Online, which reported that the Libyan newspaper Oea stated that al-Libi (aka Ali Abdul Hamid al-Fakheri) “was found dead of suicide in his cell,” and noted that the newspaper had reported the story “without specifying the date or method of suicide.”
This news resolves, in the grimmest way possible, questions that have long been asked about the whereabouts of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, perhaps the most famous of “America’s Disappeared” — prisoners seized in the “War on Terror,” who were rendered not to Guantánamo but to secret prisons run by the CIA or to the custody of governments in third countries — often their own — where, it was presumed, they would never be seen or heard from again.
The emir of the Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan, al-Libi was one of hundreds of prisoners seized by Pakistani forces in December 2001, crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Most of these men ended up in Guantánamo after being handed over (or sold) to US forces by their Pakistani allies, but al-Libi was, notoriously, rendered to Egypt by the CIA to be tortured on behalf of the US government.
In Egypt, he came up with the false allegation about connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein that was used by President Bush in a speech in Cincinnati on October 7, 2002, just days before Congress voted on a resolution authorizing the President to go to war against Iraq, in which, referring to the supposed threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, Bush said, “We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and deadly gases.”
Four months later, on February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the same claim in his notorious speech to the UN Security Council, in an attempt to drum up support for the invasion. “I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these [chemical and biological] weapons to Al Qaeda,” Powell said, adding, “Fortunately, this operative is now detained, and he has told his story.” As a Newsweek report in 2007 explained, Powell did not identify al-Libi by name, but CIA officials — and a Senate Intelligence Committee report — later confirmed that he was referring to al-Libi.
Al-Libi recanted his story in February 2004, when he was returned to the CIA’s custody, and explained, as Newsweek described it, that he told his debriefers that “he initially told his interrogators that he ‘knew nothing’ about ties between Baghdad and Osama bin Laden and he ‘had difficulty even coming up with a story’ about a relationship between the two.” The Newsweek report explained that “his answers displeased his interrogators — who then apparently subjected him to the mock burial. As al-Libi recounted, he was stuffed into a box less than 20 inches high. When the box was opened 17 hours later, al-Libi said he was given one final opportunity to ‘tell the truth.’ He was knocked to the floor and ‘punched for 15 minutes.’ It was only then that, al-Libi said, he made up the story about Iraqi weapons training.”
As I explained in a recent article, Even In Cheney’s Bleak World, The Al-Qaeda-Iraq Torture Story Is A New Low, drawing on reports in the New York Times and by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker, the use of al-Libi to extract a false confession that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq was particularly shocking, because a Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded in February 2002 that al-Libi was lying, and Dan Coleman of the FBI (which had been pulled off al-Libi’s case when the CIA — and the administration — decided to render him to torture in Egypt) had no doubt that the emir of an Afghan training camp would know nothing about Iraq. “It was ridiculous for interrogators to think Libi would have known anything about Iraq,” Coleman told Jane Mayer. “I could have told them that. He ran a training camp. He wouldn’t have had anything to do with Iraq.”
There have long been suspicions that, after the CIA had finished exploiting al-Libi, he was sent back to Libya, but although Ennahar Online claimed that he “was sentenced to life imprisonment” in Libya, and that a representative of Human Rights Watch had recently met him in prison (which I have not yet had time to investigate, but find highly unlikely), the most detailed story about what happened to him, and why he was not sent to Guantánamo with 14 other “high-value detainees” in September 2006, was provided to Newsweek by Noman Benotman, an exiled Libyan opposed to the regime of Colonel Gaddafi, who said, in May 2007, that
during a recent trip to Tripoli, he met with a senior Libyan government official who confirmed to him that al-Libi had been quietly returned to Libya and is now in prison there. Benotman said that he was told by the senior Libyan government official — whom he declined to publicly identify — that Al Libi is extremely ill, suffering from tuberculosis and diabetes. “He is there in jail and very sick,” Benotman [said]. He also said that the senior official told him that the Libyan government has agreed not to publicly confirm anything about al-Libi — out of deference to the Bush administration. “If the Libyans will confirm it, it will embarrass the Americans because he is linked to the Iraq issue,” Benotman said.
The most important question that needs asking just now, of course, is whether it was possible for al-Libi to commit suicide in a Libyan jail, or whether he was murdered. I doubt that we will ever find out the truth, but whatever the case, the focus on his death should not focus solely on Libya, which only took possession of him after the US administration had made use of him to justify the invasion of Iraq. Whatever al-Libi’s actual crimes, his use as a tool in a program of “extraordinary rendition” and torture, exploited shamelessly not to foil future terrorist plots but to yield false information about al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, remains a low point in a “War on Terror” that has few redeeming features.”
(from Andy Wothington)
joker:
“Germans initiated the Battle of the Bulge,”
“Nuts”
Brig.Gen Anthony McAuliffe Acting Commander of the 101, Dec. 16,1944.
Jill,
My money says he was tortured again or was so traumatized by our earlier torture that he was insane.
rafflaw,
I’m hoping this story will get covered extensively in English language newspapers. This man could have testified to the fact that he was tortured to link Saddam to 9/11. Much of the torture evidence we have so far validates this as the real reason for the torture ordered by bush and cheney. Afterall, torture is designed to achieve false confessions, not valid information. It appears that much of the Arabic speaking world does not believe it was a suicide, but until we know more, it’s very difficult to understand what is involved in this man’s death.
My best again to your new grandchild who’s probably growing like a weed!
Jill,
I like most Americans hope this terrorist was killed.
Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi – may he rot in hell.
You sound like he was your relative. Were you one of his wives?????
RE: Harry Reid’s Grudge Against GW
Prof. Turley didn’t mention the best part. The best part was that GW had no clue about the grudge and asked him to speak at the law school “diploma ceremony” in 2005 (which is different than a graduation ceremony. I don’t really get it. Whatever.)
Reid accepted the invitation.
He then proceeded to air all of his then-35-year-old dirty laundry in his speech. The grads were pissed. The law school faculty had dropped jaws. One of the deans had to rush the microphone when Reid was finished in order to defend the honor of a former colleague. It was like a Andy Kaufman stunt. Or a WWF heal turn. It was pretty awesome.
Anyhow, his “lesson” was that he was learning to forgive and be a bigger man. That a legitimate “bigger man” probably wouldn’t air his dirty laundry in front of thousands of people celebrating a graduation ceremony was completely lost on him.
Reid is a dumbass (and a petty one at that).
Jill,
Thanks for the comment about my grandson. He is growing like a weed and really getting a personality. I also agree with your comments on the fact that torture does not produce actionable intelligence, but let’s not forget that it is also illegal.
Alex,
You may want to return to Earth now. Your trip to Venus has been cancelled and Dr. Who wants his phone booth back.
Wayne Jarvis,
Thank you for that very interesting insight.
Not funny: Barack Obama laughs at Wanda Sykes “joke” about wanting Rush Limbaugh dead
May 10, 2009
Reuters Correspondent
What was Wanda Sykes thinking? Perhaps more to the point, what was President Barack Obama thinking when he laughed and smiled as the comedienne wished Rush Limbaugh dead?
Although the Left is reporting her White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech as “taking shots” at Limbaugh and mocking everyone, that’s a gross misrepresentation of what turned into a hateful and disgusting diatribe.
I was at the dinner and I began by laughing at Sykes’s gentle teases about the press loving Obama so much they never capture him on film smoking but often seem to get him on the beach.
It was amusing when she quipped that Obama trying so hard to be all things to all men that the next thing is he’ll be seen mowing the White House lawn.
But the speech took a very ugly turn when she laid into Limbaugh.
This is what she said: “Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you’re saying, ‘I hope America fails’, you’re, like, ‘I dont care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq’. He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason.
“He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight.”
She then concluded: “Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that’s what he needs.” Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the “joke” with the person sitting on his right.
There’s not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead.
What was his crime? Hoping that Obama’s policies – which he views as socialist – will fail.
That’s way, way beyond reasoned debate or comedy and Obama’s reaction to it was astonishing.
Imagine if a comedian “joked” that Obama was a terrorist who was guilty of treason and should be tortured and allowed to die. There would justifiably be an outcry.
But when the “joke” comes from a liberal, Obama-supporting comedienne and the target is a right-winger then the likes of Hilary Rosen and Donna Brazile are on CNN saying it’s just comedy and Limbaugh is “fair game”.
And Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead? Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington.
Watch the video. What do you think?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/05/10/not_funny_barack_obama_laughs_at_wanda_sykes_joke_about_wanting_rush_limbaugh_dead
“What was his crime? Hoping that Obama’s policies – which he views as socialist – will fail.”
Alex,
I thought her joke was not only funny but courageous. Rush
Limbaugh is a misogynist, racist pig, who has made his money appealing to people’s worst natures. The Washington Press Corps represents not a free press, but a gaggle of transcribers who allowed the Bush/Cheney Crime Family to loot the Middle Class, start a phony war for profit, killed thousands of our soldiers to get the oil companies a good Iraq deal, tried to lower benefits for our injured returning soldiers, broke the law against torture and committed treason to the Constitution by breaking their oaths to uphold it. This press corps slavishly supported the Bushies and found equivalencies that didn’t exist. They gave equal weight to unfounded arguments against global warming and did the same between evolutionary theory and intelligent design.
The kissed Bush’s patrician behind, while they slandered Clinton for sexual dalliance. They allowed the most ridiculous impeachment hearing in history to take place and yet closed their mouths while Bush killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s for no good reason. How could Ms. Sykes remarks not be shocking to them, since most of them have been kissing Rush and Rove’s asses for so long.
alex -
Did you get your feelings hurt, sweetie? Get over it. You’re a tough conservative wack-job who supports torture. Did this offend your delicate sensibilities? Jokes? Really?
How about a little water-boarding? Are you tough enough to deal with it? Or are you going to cry the way you cry about a comic’s jokes?
Wow … tell this wimp some jokes and see how long it takes before he cracks.
Baby wants his momma …
Mike S. and Mojo,
Nice job!
“I’ve never wished anyone dead, but there are obituaries that make me smile.”
— Clarence Darrow
rafflaw,
That’s great about your grandson. As to remembering torture is illegal, I just heard something amazing on NPR, amazing because they usually won’t even call torture, torture. Ted Koppel said the debate about torture is over. It’s against the law. He’s going to speak about this on TOTN today. I’m sure they’ll have a torture supportor (or two) on as well, but having Ted Kopple say this so bluntly is a real start to counteract Dick Cheney’s claims.
raff,
The Doctor would never leave the TARDIS in the hands of such a dubious character.
Following is an interview with Binyam Mohamed on his torture at Bagram and Gitmo. This torture continued until he was released.
Here is a message of Reid, Pelosi, Dick. Holder and Obama:
“Binyam Mohamed: These seven years has taught me a lot. I’ve learnt things which I didn’t even know, things that I couldn’t have learnt except through this experience. Putting your head down because of fear, that shouldn’t be an excuse not to do your duty. There’s oppression here. We have to stand up to it.”
We aren’t putting our heads down. Obama and Holder do your duty.
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/03/28/guantanamo-bagram-and-the-dark-prison-binyam-mohamed-talks-to-moazzam-begg/
Whether final determinations are made showing individuals were ‘rightly’ held, or especially wrongly, these detainees are no doubt angry and probably ‘unstrung’, as well.
Prior to forking over any large settlement checks for pain and suffering, I strongly suggest the US actively participate in their rehabilitations.
Incidentally, Worthington has still never been to Gitmo…