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
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26 Comments
She makes a fool out of herself and the United States.
It’s resignation time for her. We seem to be overflowing with stupidity.
“Condi’s answers are tortuous”Well what did we expect? This administration has made hypocrites of us. I don’t see how we can ever again condemn human rights abuses with a straight face. We condemned Saddam for torture roome, yet we torture. We condemned Saddam for using chemical weapons, but we used chemical weapons.We’ve lost the high ground.
Remember when Condi said we’d killed 75 percent of Al Qaeda’s top leadership. And the reporter asked her, “75 percent of what number” and she said, “of the known Al Qaeda leadership” and the reporter asked again how many is that and she said, “oh anywhere from the tens to the hundreds . . . ”
In other words, I’m lying through my idiotic teeth.
But when you work for the Liar-in-Chief, you become what he is.
Just ask the now disgraced Colin Powell . . .
There was a story recently about a German citizen who was kidnapped and held hostage by the US. He claims he was tortured during the time he was held. I noticed that Condi didn’t want to talk much about that kidnapping.
The “darling of AIPAC” always has a job. “Truthfully Impaired?” Not a problem.
The real sad truth is how bad we have executed the war on terror. If things were done even close to how they should no one would have access to speak about covert operations.
Now, if we ever have real terrorists we will not be able to remain safe by using torture to get needed information to save our cities or country. We play stupid games and render ourselves at the mercy of those who wish to do us harm.
If the safety of thousands of Americans especially civilians is at stake – we need to use torture on terrorists to save our lives. But, if our leaders randomly torture the wrong persons and can’t keep secrets – Have we became our worst enemies? If knowledge is power …. then what is stupidity?
“If knowledge is power …. then what is stupidity?”
Answer: The Bush administration.
We have programmed the chads and NBC and FOX news that Condi is the next President. Talk about secret BLACK Ops! She is already in traing for the oval office. Another 8 years for the Bush Administration! Horay for the red, white, and blue!
Between Bush, Condi and Bolton (who said yesterday that torture wasn’t a real human rights issue), and our outsourcing industrial base, we’re going to be doing well to only be a third-world country by ‘08!
The Bush & co. use the S.O.D.D. defense. “It is not us that is doing the torture. It is “Some other dude did it!. We just give them a free ride on an airplane”.
Condi Rice is a very brilliant person.
Joe,
I think she is, too. And I have never understood why she aligns herself with Bush, et al.
Maybe there is something wrong with the water in Palo Alto?
If Condi is brilliant, and supports an idiot for the power and glory she attains by association, then she’s definitely morally and ethically challenged! Further, she’s hitched her fate to a black hole instead of a star, which is’t a very brilliant thing to do.
Well Jed! Bush might be a doofus, but he did win the Presidental Election twice. At least Condi aligns herself with a winner. Unlike Democrats who keep on losing seats election after election.
Actually! I know Bush is somewhat an embarssment to the Republican Party, but that isn’t nothing like the Democratic Party. Not only is it embarrsing, it is downright a shame. I honestly feel sorry for the Donkey for being a Democrat Mascot.
Bush and Rice are up to their necks betraying America.
From the New Yorker:http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050704fa_fact
The dirt.
Bush and Rice…..Traitors?…. or just 3 dollar gasoline?
From the New Yorker:
“Iran was a main focus of this year’s aipac policy conference, which was held in May at the Washington Convention Center. Ariel Sharon and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, among others, addressed five thousand aipac members.”
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050704fa_fact
Manipulating foreign aid, AIPAC Style.
From the New Yorker:
“Sam Gejdenson, a former Democratic congressman from Connecticut, says. When Gejdenson opposed a proposal to increase Israel’s foreign-aid allocation at the expense of more economically needy countries, aipac, he said, responded by “sitting on its hands” during his reëlection campaigns, despite the fact that he is Jewish. “It’s like any other lobbying group,” he said. “Its job isn’t to come up with the best ideas for mankind, or the U.S. It’s narrowly focussed.”
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050704fa_fact
Why is Bush and Condoleezza Rice there? To take advice from 5 million Israelis on how to conduct the business of 300 million Americans?
From Haaretz:
“This year has also seen the most perplexing development in the powerful pro-Israel lobby’s history: an FBI investigation into allegations that a Pentagon analyst passed classified information to Israel via AIPAC officials.
The closer Israel and Washington have grown on policy issues, the more vociferous the charges of Israel’s critics that the Jewish state and its American Jewish supporters exercise too much influence over U.S. decision-making.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ArticleNews.jhtml?itemNo=576759&contrassID=13&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0
Rice talks about “terror suspects.” Isn’t a “terror suspect” anybody you decide to make a “terror suspect?”
A little vague, don’t you think?
AIPAC has too much influence over our national elections. The FBI should find out how many in congress are accepting bribes from AIPAC.
Bush and Rice speak at AIPAC when faced with this:
http://www.middleeastnews.com/unresolutionslist.html
Joe,He won by lying to the voters, and now they know it. If elections were held today, Bush couldn’t win if he ran unopposed!
Seriously, what goes on inside Bush’s stupid mind? His actions tell us that he’s sold his soul to Israeli greed. But why?
I asked but why? And the blog went silent.
Perhaps you were having supper. More likely you don’t have an answer.
Perhaps infallibility is symptomatic of megalomania.
He struts when he walks. Hitler used to stomp his foot. Mussolini pushed out his chin and raised his head back with the backs of his hands on his hips.
I wonder if he’s the type to ask for a blindfold.
Or just a little boy with a loaded gun.
Why, you ask, Ed?
Skipping the specifics (there’s quite a lot to chew on, and I just don’t have the energy now), it’s the usual motivations. Money. Power. Graft. Arrogance. A false sense of superiority (they’re “better than us”). And a frighteningly lawless view of government power.
What’s more, the current radicals (they’re not “conservatives” in any sane sense of the term) want to “fix” the system so they never lose power (at least not for a few decades), though Tom Delay’s problems may throw a tiny wrench in their plans.