Stain on the nation

New Bush-Era Torture Memo Released, Raises Questions About What Has Changed And What Hasn't

'We Are Unaware Of Any Precedent In World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, Or Any Subsequent Conflict For Authorized, Systematic Interrogation Practices Similar To Those In Question Here'

WASHINGTON -- A six-year-old memo from within the George W. Bush administration that came to light this week acknowledges that White House-approved interrogation techniques amounted to "war crimes." The memo's release has called attention to what has changed since President Barack Obama took office, but it also raises questions about what hasn't.

The Bush White House tried to destroy every copy of the memo, written by then-State Department counselor Philip Zelikow. Zelikow examined tactics like waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- and concluded that there was no way they were legal, domestically or internationally.

“We are unaware of any precedent in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or any subsequent conflict for authorized, systematic interrogation practices similar to those in question here," Zelikow wrote. The memo has been obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive and Wired's Spencer Ackerman.

But while Democrats are using the memo as evidence of a new post-torture era under Obama, human rights activists, civil libertarians and opponents of excessive secrecy say they see many ways in which the country's moral compass is still askew -- and in some ways even more so than before.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/0 ... 08612.html

This all seems so familiar, somehow... Oh, yeah... We've been saying it since the Bushies started calling in all of the copies of the memo to be destroyed to advance their policy of war-crimes and torture. I knew I'd heard it some place.

I'm only sorry that the Obama administration didn't prosecute him, Cheney, and Rumsfeld for the war-crimes they were guilty of.

LadyJazzer wrote:

New Bush-Era Torture Memo Released, Raises Questions About What Has Changed And What Hasn't

'We Are Unaware Of Any Precedent In World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, Or Any Subsequent Conflict For Authorized, Systematic Interrogation Practices Similar To Those In Question Here'

WASHINGTON -- A six-year-old memo from within the George W. Bush administration that came to light this week acknowledges that White House-approved interrogation techniques amounted to "war crimes." The memo's release has called attention to what has changed since President Barack Obama took office, but it also raises questions about what hasn't.

The Bush White House tried to destroy every copy of the memo, written by then-State Department counselor Philip Zelikow. Zelikow examined tactics like waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- and concluded that there was no way they were legal, domestically or internationally.

“We are unaware of any precedent in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or any subsequent conflict for authorized, systematic interrogation practices similar to those in question here," Zelikow wrote. The memo has been obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive and Wired's Spencer Ackerman.

But while Democrats are using the memo as evidence of a new post-torture era under Obama, human rights activists, civil libertarians and opponents of excessive secrecy say they see many ways in which the country's moral compass is still askew -- and in some ways even more so than before.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/0 ... 08612.html

This all seems so familiar, somehow... Oh, yeah... We've been saying it since the Bushies started calling in all of the copies of the memo to be destroyed to advance their policy of war-crimes and torture. I knew I'd heard it some place.

I'm only sorry that the Obama administration didn't prosecute him, Cheney, and Rumsfeld for the war-crimes they were guilty of.

Maybe Obama, Bush, Cheney and others involved can be tried together...

Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool - The role of the CIA's controversial prisoner-transfer program may expand, intelligence experts say.

WASHINGTON — The CIA's secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool.

Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.

The rendition program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured.

The European Parliament condemned renditions as "an illegal instrument used by the United States." Prisoners swept up in the program have sued the CIA as well as a Boeing Co. subsidiary accused of working with the agency on dozens of rendition flights.

But the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration's war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard. [/b]

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/01 ... rendition1

Birds of a feather...

(P.S My text is bigger than your text rofllol )

Whoever is running the reelection campaign for Obama ought to be fired. Running against Bush might have been a good strategy 4 years ago when Bush wasn't, and couldn't be, his opponent, but it's a lame strategy this time around.

Printsmith,

Saying the word Bush to a true liberal is like saying "Remember the Alamo" to a true Texan - it reminds the liberal to feel good about defeating their homeland and for a Texan it reminds them to feel good about defending their homeland.