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Title: 4th-Grader Questions Rice on Waterboarding
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URL Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy ... .html?wprss=rss_print/asection
Published: May 4, 2009
Author: Alec MacGillis
Post Date: 2009-05-04 14:18:50 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 221
Comments: 15
4th-Grader Questions Rice on Waterboarding Ex-Secretary of State Stresses Legality By Alec MacGillis Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 4, 2009 Days after telling students at Stanford University that waterboarding was legal "by definition if it was authorized by the president," former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was pressed again on the subject yesterday by a fourth-grader at a Washington school. Rice, in her first appearance in Washington since leaving government, was at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation's Capital before giving an evening lecture at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. She held forth amiably before a few dozen students about her love of Israel, travel abroad and the importance of learning languages, then opened the floor to their questions. The questions had been developed beforehand by students with their teachers and had not been screened by Rice. At first, they were innocuous: What was it like growing up in segregated Birmingham, Ala.? What skill did she want to be best known for? Then Misha Lerner, a student from Bethesda, asked: What did Rice think about the things President Obama's administration was saying about the methods the Bush administration had used to get information from detainees? Rice took the question in stride. saying that she was reluctant to criticize Obama, then getting to the heart of the matter. "Let me just say that President Bush was very clear that he wanted to do everything he could to protect the country. After September 11, we wanted to protect the country," she said. "But he was also very clear that we would do nothing, nothing, that was against the law or against our obligations internationally. So the president was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country." She added: "I hope you understand that it was a very difficult time. We were all so terrified of another attack on the country. September 11 was the worst day of my life in government, watching 3,000 Americans die. . . . Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal, and I hope people understand that we were trying to protect the country." Misha's mother, Inna Lerner, said the question her son had initially come up with was even tougher: "If you would work for Obama's administration, would you push for torture?" "They wanted him to soften it and take out the word 'torture.' But the essence of it was the same," Lerner said. Rice touched off a firestorm last week when she told students at Stanford that "we did not torture anyone." "The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations, under the Convention Against Torture," Rice said at Stanford, before adding: "And so, by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture." Critics said the remark bore echoes of former president Richard M. Nixon's notorious statement, "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal." Rice did not seem to hold Lerner's boldness against him. Because he missed the group photo she took with his classmates, she posed for a couple of solo shots with him -- and chatted briefly with him about Russia, the land where his parents are from and the one that Rice, a Russia expert by training, had told the students was her favorite abroad.
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#1. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
She can dish it out but she can't take it.
I despise that beotch. If I were King, I'd impale her and enjoy her slow painful death. After, of course a fair and speedy trial and pay per view ticket sales.
I'd pay for that!
It's Uncle Ben's or nothing, for me.
The reality is that she knows that she participated in International War Crimes not unlike the ones the Nazi's swung for at Nuremberg. What she is running from is culpability for Crimes Against Humanity and the hangman's noose. Were she or her master brought before a War Crimes Tribunal there is no doubt that they would be convicted and hung. That is what she is afraid of. These psychos who get off on torture and murder are usually personally physical cowards. Stalin was well known as a coward. Obama is continuing the same crimes.
"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology...It's importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda...Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russel, Eugenicist and Logician
The smooth criminal transition from Bush/Cheney to Obama
He went to pieces when the Germans made it to the outskirts of Moscow in 1941. Totally incapacitated.
Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan were both 20th Century Fox. When the actor Warner Oland died, he was replaced as Charlie Chan by Sidney Toler, whose first Chan movie was "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" in 1938. The reason I mention this is, last night I was watching 1939's "Mr. Moto's Last Warning." and in that movie part of the action takes place in a movie theater. On the theater's marquee it says, "Charlie Chan in Honolulu with Warner Oland." Sheesh.
LOL!!! Love your movie selections. I watched most of the Thomas Crown Affair Sat. night. Remember this tune?
Windmills of Your Mind. Excellent song.
You could fertilize thousands of acres with that much bs.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. But 1,350,000 dead Iraqis are Hunky Dorky along with the misery that 3,500,000 homeless displaced Iraqis and slowly dying is The American Way? "They Hate Us Because Were Free".
"Satan / Cheney in "08" All of Iowa and most of Ohio.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" You forgot Kansas.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. Rice is a butcher, who thanks to the political immunity offered by the two parties to each other, is free to live another day.
I've already said too much.
#2. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
#3. To: Lysander_Spooner (#2)
#4. To: MUDDOG (#1)
#5. To: MUDDOG, Jethro Tull, Ferret Mike, Torture Mike, Weasel Mike, Rotara, TwentyTwelve, all (#1)
She can dish it out but she can't take it.
#6. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
She held forth amiably before a few dozen students about her love of Israel
#7. To: Original_Intent (#5)
Stalin was well known as a coward.
I've already said too much.
#8. To: Jethro Tull (#4)
I've already said too much.
#9. To: MUDDOG (#8)
(Edited)
#10. To: Jethro Tull (#9)
I've already said too much.
#11. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal, and I hope people understand that we were trying to protect the country."
Lord Acton
#12. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
(Edited)
September 11 was the worst day of my life in government, watching 3,000 Americans die. . .
#13. To: James Deffenbach (#11)
You could fertilize thousands of acres with that much bs.
#14. To: tom007 (#13)
All of Iowa and most of Ohio.
Lord Acton
#15. To: tom007 (#12)
But 1,350,000 dead Iraqis are Hunky Dorky along with the misery that 3,500,000 homeless displaced Iraqis and slowly dying is The American Way?
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