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Guantanamo should stay open, waterboarding OK: Cheney
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News —
... said. "Nobody can specify that." In previous wars the United States has "always exercised the right to capture the enemy and then hold them till the end of the conflict. That's what we did in World War II with, you know, thousands, hundreds of thousands of German prisoners," Cheney said. "The same basic principle ought to apply here in terms of our right to capture the enemy and hold them. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gDqO... transcript here: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6464697 =1
Cheney Confesses To A War Crime
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl gets the following out of Cheney:
KARL: Did you authorize the tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed?
CHENEY: I was aware of the program, certainly, and
involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency, in effect,
came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they
talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And
I supported it.
KARL: In hindsight, do you think any of those tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others went too far? ...
Cheney's Appointment with The Hague
Taylor Marsh —
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Of course, he doesn’t have one, but it would be justified, using his latest admissions.
This is an
exit interview for the history books. One that certainly isn’t about legacy
resurrection, something that cannot possibly be done where Vice President Dick
Cheney is concerned. ...
The Senate Has Blamed Bush for Abu Grahib...
The BRAD BLOG —
... On Monday, Dick Cheney admitted to ABC News that he approved torturing suspects in custody --- albeit with a quibble over the semantics of the word "torture" --- but his confession has received little notice on other channels. The story ran on page A14 in the Los Angeles Times today, with the White House-approved euphemism in the headline, "Cheney Was Key in Clearing CIA Interrogation Tactics." ...
And when Jeb Bush becomes president, he'll get a free pass because the press will decide they were too tough on Obama
Brilliant at Breakfast —
... Jonathan Turley spoke with Keith Olbermann on Countdown tonight on how Dick Cheney has essentially admitted to committing war crimes, but of course if no one has the guts to prosecute, what difference does it make? ...
Cheney: We Do Torture
TalkLeft —
Actually, Cheney says "we don't do torture." However, a few questions later he contradicts himself: KARL: And on KSM (Khalid Sheikh Mohammed), one of those tactics, of course, widely reported was waterboarding. And that seems to be a tactic we no longer use. Even that you think was appropriate? CHENEY: I do. In case you are wondering waterboarding has been considered torture for thousands of years. It violates US law. It is a crime. Not just a war crime, but also a violation of US criminal law. Cheney has ...
Mitchell Bard: Cheney's Confession Should Lead to Criminal Investigation of Bush's Torture Policies
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
All it took was two words. Two simple words from Dick Cheney -- two words we're used to seeing in a completely different context -- settled a question I had been ambivalent about since Barack Obama was elected president last month. The question was, "Should Democrats go after Bush administration officials for the extra-legal activity of the last eight years?" Thanks to Cheney, I think that the Justice Department should investigate the criminal activities of, at the very least, the soon-to-be (but not soon enough) ex-vice president relating to the U.S. practice of torturing prisoners.
What were the two words? "I do." ABC News ...
Cheney on Authorizing ‘Hard Line’ Interrogation Methods
Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines —
Vice President Dick Cheney took a moment to reflect on his eight eventful years in office during a sit-down with ABC’s Jonathan Karl that aired earlier this week. Here’s the part where he owns his role in approving the use of what ABC called “hard line tactics” against accused terrorists like ...
Cheney on Authorizing ‘Hard-Line’ Interrogation Methods
Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines —
Vice President Dick Cheney took a moment to reflect on his eight eventful years in office during a sit-down with ABC’s Jonathan Karl that aired earlier this week. Here’s the part where he owns his role in approving the use of what ABC called “hard-line tactics” against accused terrorists like ...
If Bush and Cheney Commit War Crimes and Everyone Knows It, But Does Nothing, Is It Still a Crime?
The BRAD BLOG —
... that George W. Bush was responsible for approving War Crimes (torture and abuse) at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Dick Cheney admitted in a recent interview to helping to approve War Crimes (torture and abuse) in interrogations, and the corporate media --- with the lone exception of MSNBC --- has been virtually as silent on what may be the most offensive crimes ever committed by an Executive Branch in the U.S. as they were during the lead-up and follow-through of the War on Iraq, when those same officials sent our nation into war on the basis of demonstrable lies. ...
Duncan Hunter: Torture Provided ‘Enormously Valuable Information That Saved American Lives’
Think Progress —
... Last night on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) ardently defended the Bush administration’s torture policy, echoing Vice President Cheney’s claim that torture yielded life-saving results. He pointed to waterboarding Abu Zubayda and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was remarkably successful. “After this procedure,” Duncan said, “we got enormously valuable information that saved American lives.” Watch it: ...
A Legacy of Evil
Antiwar.com Original —
I n what might be called their legacy interviews (their exit interviews), President Bush has tried to soften his image and project a sense of competence , while Vice President Cheney has, if anything, gone out of his way to confirm that he was the administration's Darth Vader, devoted to protecting and extending the Empire and proud of it. Perhaps because I had the opportunity to meet with Cheney early on and get some sense of him as a person, I am inclined to credit him as more reliable . Dubya, perhaps understandably, strikes me as less honest perhaps most dishonest with himself. He has acknowledged ...
The 'Coup' That Wasn't
Antiwar.com Original —
... this . However, it seems to me that if he has anything to apologize about, it's for failing to hit his target despite two well-aimed tries. The crew that brought us this war and the subsequent occupation deserve to go down in history as far worse than mere incompetents: we hear much about how the top Bush administration officials who ordered subordinates to engage in torture , up to and including the president and vice president , have to be brought to justice, and that's all well and good . But what ...
Deterring Torture Through the Law
Antiwar.com Original —
... necessarily torture; if you do torture, you probably have a defense; and even if you don't have a defense, the torture law doesn't apply if you act under the color of presidential authority." Clearly, the so-called "rotten apples" sat atop the proverbial barrel, as the Senate report demonstrates time and time again. If you'd like still more proof of premeditation and you missed Vice President Dick Cheney Monday on ABC bragging about his role in facilitating waterboarding, please read the transcript . Cheney's was the familiar above-the-law attitude, a reprise on his ...
Cheney vs. Congress
Daily Kos —
A quick two-point timeline: Dec. 11, 2008: The Senate Armed Services Committee released a report laying responsibility for the development of torture techniques at the feet of senior Administration officials. The New York Times editorial board would later write that this report "amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff." ...
Calling Your Bluff, Joe. Put Up or Shut Up.
Daily Kos —
The theme gets wider and deeper by the day. Cheney, Bush, Duncan Hunter, Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, William McGurn and a multitude of others all say torture works. They hint, or say directly, that Barack Obama would be foolish to give it up. They declare this would put America at risk of another 9/11. They say arguments to the contrary are "leftwing rubbish." Message: Not only should those who ordered and implemented torture not be prosecuted, they also deserve medals. Anybody who would deny U.S. intelligence agencies the torture tool undermines America and enables the mass murder of Americans. Joe ...
The U.S. Did Torture, and Donald Rumsfeld Was Closely Monitoring The Progress
Swampland —
"We do not torture," President Bush said, in November of 2005.
"This government does not torture people," the president repeated, in October of 2007.
"On the question of so-called torture, we don't do torture. We never have. It's not something that this administration subscribes to," added Vice President ...
The Office of Legal Counsel Released Memos- Open Thread
Flopping Aces —
Harold Ford: I Would Have Voted To Approve Torture
Think Progress —
This weekend, former Vice President Cheney repeated his claim that torture “saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of lives.” Of those, like President Obama, who condemn torture as making America less safe, Cheney insisted, “in effect, we’re prepared to sacrifice American lives rather than run an intelligent interrogation program that would provide us the information we need to protect America.”
This evening on MSNBC, former Democratic senator Harold Ford, Jr., adopted many of Cheney’s right-wing talking points to defend torture, saying he was “not as outraged as some are ...
Nightmare on Cheney Street
Commondreams.org Views —
... in Maryland and in the tomato fields of Southwest Florida. 'There has never been a single day in our America, from its discovery and birth right up to the moment you are reading this sentence, without slavery,' write renowned human trafficking expert Kevin Bales and respected historian Ron Soodalter in their new book The Slave Next Door ." Links Barton Gellman, Angler (Penguin, 2008); http://www.bartongellman.com/ ABC News, "Cheney Defends Hard Line Tactics," December 16, 2008; http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=6464697&page=1 Fox News, "Text of Dick Cheney's National Security Speech at AEI," May 21, 2009; ...
REPORT: Key Terror Detainee Acknowledged ‘I Make Up Stories’ In Response To Torture
Think Progress —
Point/Counterpoint: Dick Cheney vs Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Brilliant at Breakfast —
Point: "There was a period of time there, three or four years ago, when about half of everything we knew about al Qaeda came from that one source. So, it's been a remarkably successful effort. I think the results speak for themselves." - Dick Cheney, to ABC, December 16, 2008. Counterpoint: "I made up stories." - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Summary: How pathetic and ironic is it when al Qaeda terrorists have to set the record straight about our own national security? ...
Where Is This Decade’s Murdoch or Limbaugh?
Pajamas Media —
The center-right needs new strategies and new talent to expand its media presence. [image] “Thank you, Dick Cheney.” So says Captain Danny Ross of the Major Case Squad when the massive data mining of credit card transactions provides him with a valuable lead in a terrorist investigation. Ross is a fictional character speaking in the season finale of Law Order: Criminal Intent, and Eric Bogosian’s line reading is laced with inappropriate sarcasm. Still, the acknowledgment of Cheney’s role in protecting us rings true. “Yes — thank you, Dick Cheney.” You can almost hear the audience responding, without the irony. It’s certainly a line you won’t ...
