Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making the rounds in Europe, deflecting questions about CIA secret prisons and insisting that the United States “does not authorize or condone torture.” But the Bush administration has established so many legalistic exceptions to that statement as to render it almost meaningless.
U.S. intelligence agents repeatedly have used waterboarding, for instance, against terrorist suspects. And a German national, Khaled al-Masri, says he was seized and taken to a U.S. prison in Afghanistan, where he says he was tortured and held for months. He is suing the CIA.
The United States’ stand on torture should be crystal clear — we don’t do it. Instead, America is losing its moral authority on a basic human rights issue. This is a foreign policy disaster.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
What does the death of a New York City cop have to do with a Kansas congressman? Nothing, according to the office of the latter, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has suggested that if not for the “Tiahrt Amendment” passed two years ago in “the dark of night” restricting access to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ tracing data, Officer Dillon Stewart might not have been fatally shot last week with a stolen gun that had been used in a crime six months ago.
"I think it’s outrageous that he was blaming Congressman Tiahrt for the death of a New York City police officer when the purpose of the original amendment was to save lives of law enforcement officers and was actually supported by the ATF and the Fraternal Order of Police. This amendment passed in broad daylight in the House Appropriations Committee,” Tiahrt spokesman Chuck Knapp told The New York Sun.
Schumer wants Congress to require mandatory reporting of stolen guns and guns used in crimes to the ATF database. This is a worthy issue — and for debate beyond the offices of the National Rifle Association.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Just what is Howard Dean thinking? And just how long are the rest of the Democrats going to let him keep saying it out loud, for all their potential voters to hear? As he called for the immediate withdrawal of 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops from Iraq, Dean told a San Antonio radio station this week that the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong.” As unhappy as Americans are with the cost in lives and dollars there, declaring defeat is the furthest thing for most minds.
It’s getting harder all the time to believe Dean was the early front-runner to win the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
On Dec. 7, 1941, just before 8 a.m., Japanese fighter planes bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack that devastated the U.S. fleet, killing 2,388 American military personnel and shocking a nation to action.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called it a day that would “live in infamy.” It was that generation’s Sept. 11. The devastating homeland attack prompted America’s entry into World War II.
Today, on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, we remember the sacrifice of so many brave young soldiers, sailors and airmen on that morning. We also honor the aftermath: The steely resolve of a great nation to fight and win against tyranny in the world.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The Kennedy Center Honors tend to be a Democrats’ paradise, but President Bush at least offered a prime rib at a pre-ceremony cocktail party Sunday as he discussed the honoree with, in his words, “the most famous legs in show business”: “Tina Turner’s life began in Tennessee in a town called Nutbush. I’ve never been there, but I’ve passed a few sign wavers who apparently want me to know about it.” The other honorees are actors Robert Redford and Julie Harris, singer Tony Bennett and ballerina Suzanne Farrell; CBS will broadcast the event Dec. 27.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
As Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline goes before the U.S. Supreme Court today to try to defend the state’s death penalty, many Kansans have sound reasons to hope he wins. Most notably, that’s what the system promised the survivors of the killers’ victims, and it was the will of the jurors who heard the evidence and sentenced these men to death. Polls still show strong support for the ultimate punishment, but the exonerations of death-row inmates in other states and the high cost of these prosecutions make you wonder how long it will be before Kansas decides it’s not worth having on the books.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Remember the movie “Face/Off”? Maybe not. The plot revolved around an undercover FBI agent using an advanced surgical procedure to take the actual face of a criminal to penetrate a crime ring. It seemed far-fetched in 1997, but modern medicine has a way of turning science fiction into reality.
The recent partial face transplant — the world’s first — on a French woman seems to have gone well, although the radical procedure also has raised a host of thorny ethical issues. Did the doctors move too quickly to introduce what is still a highly risky and experimental procedure?
Moreover, an individual’s facial features are closely associated with identity and personality. What does a face transplant do to the recipient psychologically?
But consider that the woman patient had suffered a horrific dog mauling. She wore a mask in public. Doctors had ruled out conventional plastic surgery as too complicated and unlikely to succeed. This procedure, if perfected, could provide hope in such cases.
It’s too soon to call the face transplant a success. But it’s another example of how medical science is challenging our notions of both what’s possible and what’s ethical.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
