Bush OK'd confirming waterboarding

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The Washington Times

The White House today said President Bush authorized his CIA director to confirm the use of waterboarding by U.S. officials on three suspected terrorists to gather intelligence and that the interrogation technique is not torture.

“This program and the techniques used in it were determined lawful through a process,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

Senate Democrats, however, demanded a government investigation into the matter to determine whether laws forbidding torture were broken.

Mr. Fratto clarified his comments on the legality of waterboarding by saying that each specific time the technique has been used, its legality was “dependent on the circumstances.”

Read more: http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080206/NATION/753933414/1001

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ON EDIT: Link fixed.

:patriot:

[tekisui]

1. drip, drip, drip.....

[movonne]

5. Is this a way of getting everything out while bush is in the WH..so

he can pardon the repug party...and the CIA,and Blackwater, etc..

[saigon68]

29. I hope History records him as a thug worse than Hitler

[goforit]

22. It's only "drip, drip drip" if Congress has courage to do SOMETHING!!!!!

NOT!!!

[ixion]

2. so he's admitted he's a war criminal... can we send them to the Hague yet?

[Zensea]

4. Not exactly, read it more carefully

That's what I thought at first too, so I checked another source -- Reuters.
All he did was tell Hayden that it was ok to testify regarding the waterboarding.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN06286822
"U.S. President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to give its most detailed public account of its use of a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding, the White House said on Wednesday."

He approved the disclosure, not the waterboarding, at least according to this.

[tekisui]

7. See this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2826702&mesg_id=2826702

The White House says it could "re-authorize" torture.

[Judi Lynn]

6. It's not likely we will EVER know a day the CIA moves independently of the President to torture!

It's not like it's an "every man for himself" operation.

You're right, no one sane would have ever imagined he was not 100% committed to this barbarity.

[Zensea]

8. True, but

I doubt they will openly admit it (even given the thread that is referenced above in the other response to my post).
I could be wrong, but I think they will always parse their language in a way to avoid prosecution.

[ursi]

3. when can we lock this bastard up and sieze his assets in forfeiture?

[Deny and Shred]

9. "...determined lawful through a process" and that process was ?

Alberto Gozalez writing a legal opinion saying it isn't torture if it doesn't result in organ failure is not a process. It's one under-qualified loyalist's opinion which flies in the face of US law and international conventions. Let's go Congressional Dems.

I can't imagine how this is playing around the globe. The degree to which it's investigated and prosecuted will have some correlation to the degree to which the US can begin to regain its moral standing from a foreign relations perspective.

[Bozita]

10. Hey Nancy, didya see that? ... Is it still off the table?

Another opportunity for the Dems to soil themselves.

[Supersedeas]

26. Nancy Disaster is busy sipping tea with the Telecom Companies

[truthisfreedom]

11. It's fantastic, really. We ALL know that torture was the FIRST thing on their minds.

They authorized it without a second thought.

[bdamomma]

27. of course they did authorize it,

they rationalize using torture because this is a different kind of criminal yea sure, they just want to beat the crap out of them for their oil. I hate what this country has become, and the world is watching very closely.

[DRoseDARs]

12. Hey Pelosi, is he impeachable yet? n/t

[geomon666]

13. Wow, he just admitted to committing a felony.

WHERE THE FUCK IS OUR DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bdamomma]

30. or will * cry out Executive privilege" BS like he always does.

this guy needs his a$$ to be hauled to jail. He is a War Criminal and committed Crimes against Humanity, plain and simple. :mad:

[Vinca]

14. Can someone send Nancy a copy of the Moonie Times in braille? nt

[fascisthunter]

15. And By Doing Nothing to Bush Congress Condones It All

They can BS all they want, but actions speak much louder than a few angry letters or threatening to issue subpoenas. I'm sick of all the BS. I want IMPEACHMENT! I want accountability.

[pat_k]

16. Investigation?? INVESTIGATION?? Don't they mean "Procrastination?"

There is NOTHING to "investigate."

Our treatment of the people who are in the custody of the state and the processes by which they are committed to state custody are central to our identity and moral authority as a nation. If the processes are unjust and immoral, the state is unjust and immoral. If the treatment is inhumane, the state is inhumane.

"Drowning torture" ("waterboarding" to the propagandists) is absolutely and unequivocally forbidden under U.S. Federal Law. It is as clearly forbidden as "The Rack" and "Thumbscrews."

Bush and Cheney refuse to acknowledge that subjecting any person drowning torture is immoral, inhumane, and prohibited in ALL circumstances. They refuse to acknowledge that arbitrarily seizing and indefinitely committing any person to U.S. custody is prohibited in all circumstances.. These refusals, and the Un-American and Unonstitutional "defense" they invoke (unitary authoritarian power) are intolerable subversons of our Constitutional government and Federal law.

Case closed.

The judiciary committee could make the case in hours. Pelosi could put Articles to a vote by the end of the week. And if they vote out Articles, the Senate could be dispensed with in a day.

[fascisthunter]

17. Of Course Bush Did... He Probably Has a Private Collection of Tapes

so he can watch them by himself.

[Newsjock]

18. My comment from another thread is valid here, too

The only moral action is for the world's leaders to appear before the United Nations and demand swift and crippling sanctions -- including an immediate and total cutoff of oil -- against the United States for its repeated violations of international law.

And if the U.S. will not allow U.N. inspectors to inspect this secret facility, then there is no other option but for a multinational force to seize control of the White House and capture the chief executive and vice president for trial at The Hague.

[happygoluckytoyou]

19. I'LL GO ALERT THE MEDIA.....

7 YEARS IN AND WHO IS SURPRISED?

CHECK OUT THESE HEADLINES----->
BUSH WAS RIGHT, NUKES FOUND IN IRAQ
REPUBLICANS CAUGHT NOT CHEATING
SWIFT BOAT DISCOVERED TELLING THE TRUTH
ENTIRE GOP SENATE DETERMINED NOT IN THE CLOSET
FOX NEWS MORE ACCURATE THAN ANY OTHER STATION
DUBYA APPOINTS THE APPROPRIATE CANDIDATE TO A POSITION

---------------> NOW T H A T WOULD BE NEWS !!!!

[Ian David]

20. CONYERS HEARING TOMORROW!

Tomorrow, Conyers will be addressing this in a public hearing with The DOJ.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. its legality was “dependent on the circumstances.”

Moral relativism.

It's legal, or it's not legal.

[Drum]

23. W = Warcriminal

:(

[daleo]

24. The Torture President.

Shameful. Anyone who can excuse ancient barbarities like torture can excuse other ancient barbarities. A little over a century ago, a man like Bush would have been accepting of slavery too.

[gratuitous]

25. So the perps get to decide if they committed a crime?

Justice, Republican-style.

[LynnTheDem]

28. Ahhh it's only torture "depending on the circumstances"!

Waterboarding is ILLEGAL and it's TORTURE.

AMERICA TORTURES PEOPLE.

And the entire world knows it.

[bdamomma]

31. exactly the whole world knows it,

and we are nothing but hypocrites to the rest of the world if we condone the practices of torture used in other parts of the world, cause we already practice torture, we have no business telling another country they don't respect human rights. We are shameful hypocrites. :mad: