Title: The White House defense for torture: UPDATED with video Source:
Crooks and Liars URL Source:http://crooksandliars.com/ Published:Oct 5, 2007 Author:Crooks and Liars Post Date:2007-10-05 19:22:30 by Zipporah Keywords:None Views:176 Comments:16
(h/t Scarce)
The debate over U.S. torture policy erupted yesterday on the Hill, in the wake of yesterday’s NYT blockbuster, highlighting secret legal opinions from the Bush administration, which endorsed “the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
The president’s aides fanned out to deny, defend, and spin the revelations, but for my money, the most impressive argument came by way of Frances Fragos Townsend.
White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend also dismissed objections to the CIA program yesterday, saying during an appearance on CNN that al-Qaeda members are trained to resist harsh interrogations. She said that “we start with the least harsh measures first” and stop the progression “if someone becomes cooperative.”
First, the notion of being trained to resist drownings has always seemed rather far-fetched. Unless al Qaeda has figured out a way to equip terrorists with gills, there isn’t much anyone can to prepare for waterboarding.
But it’s that second part that’s particularly noteworthy. As Townsend described it, on national television, the painful physical and psychological tactics, which are unlawful, are suspended when the detainees “becomes cooperative.” In other words, “We stop torturing when we get what we want out of the suspect.”
Indeed, it's unbelievable! We've come a long way, baby!!! To summarize the Perrino performance:
- We do not torture, period. - We do not torture anyone unless we suspect that they have some info. (now, that's a big relief, they don't just torture everybody or NOT YET) - We do not torture those who cooperate. (this is very humanitarian too) - We do not begin with the nasty things, we try the softer things first. (this is very reassuring too) - It is done scientifically, and there's an approved torture plan. - Those who do the torture are well trained and there's less than a hundred of those. (do they get a certification when they complete the training? and, who's training them? the kgb? the mossad? the aipac?)
This, people, it's where a formerly civilized nation is being dragged by the refuse that now has the power to destroy everyone on earth or any one they choose, individually.