Neither President Bush, nor his nominee for Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, nor anyone else in the Bush administration is willing to publicly answer the simple question: "Is waterboarding (an interrogation method that simulates drowning) a form of torture?"
The excuses they have given for their reticence to answer the question are themselves tortuous: Bush argued terrorists would get an advantage if he answered and Mukasey cited his concern that to answer would, "put [interrogators'] careers or freedom at risk" ("Mukasey hearing turns testy," 10/19).
In truth, even if Bush acknowledged waterboarding was torture, terrorists know that the US "out sources" (through the program known as "extraordinary rendition") harsh detainee interrogation to countries where waterboarding is employed, and thus terrorists determined to steel themselves against this simple and widely documented technique are not waiting for a definitive answer from Bush which they would in any case presume was a lie.
As for Mukasey's alleged concern for protecting the interrogators- nothing could put them more at risk than not knowing whether the methods they employ are legal under international conventions.
In short all this obfuscation boils down to the proposition that Bush & Co. will not say whether they approve interrogation techniques against our enemies that they would consider torture if our enemies performed them against US citizens.
In a just world President Bush, Vice President Cheney, other members of the Bush Administration and some Republican and Democratic members of Congress would find themselves facing war crime charges at The Hague, where they would have to publicly and explicitly defend their torture and "preemptive war" policies.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
With enemies like these who needs friends?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’ s jaw-dropping stupid comments at Columbia University about gays and the holocaust are further reminders of President Bush’s great good luck and the world’s misfortune that the U.S.’s most vociferous foreign critics reduce themselves to figures of ridiculousness in their evident desire to get applause from their audiences back home when they appear before cameras in New York (“Iranian president gets hostile reception”, 9/26.)
Last year Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s idiotic comments about Bush being the Devil overshadowed his U.N. address which should instead be remembered for his highlighting efforts to create an alternative economic model for the Americas, one that is intended to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources.
Similarly, Ahmadinejad’ s pointed observation this week that the Palestinian people have been made to suffer for the sins of the Germans (Nazis) was completely lost in the din of condemnations surrounding his many preposterous claims.
It could be argued that with enemies like these Bush hardly needs friends; but if another world is possible we need to hear from leaders with vision and integrity who strike chords that resonate among all peace loving peoples of the world, and soon.
Last year Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s idiotic comments about Bush being the Devil overshadowed his U.N. address which should instead be remembered for his highlighting efforts to create an alternative economic model for the Americas, one that is intended to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources.
Similarly, Ahmadinejad’ s pointed observation this week that the Palestinian people have been made to suffer for the sins of the Germans (Nazis) was completely lost in the din of condemnations surrounding his many preposterous claims.
It could be argued that with enemies like these Bush hardly needs friends; but if another world is possible we need to hear from leaders with vision and integrity who strike chords that resonate among all peace loving peoples of the world, and soon.