Even more fundamental… putting panties on a prisoners head is torture. Hacking a head off with a rusty sword isn’t.
There is no search for truth when they ‘know’ the truth. We’re evil and they’re just misunderstood.
They could have also explored torture under the Obama administration too (something which might be inadvertently uncovered, if they started interviewing CIA interrogators). It certainly has its political biases.
Having said that, I agree with the basic premises of the report, namely, that there was torture of POWs over the course of the Bush administration and that the torture was inflicted without a justifiable reason. I think it demonstrates that there is no safe major party when it comes to violations of the Constitution for frivolous or mendacious purposes.
“Having said that, I agree with the basic premises of the report, namely, that there was torture of POWs over the course of the Bush administration and that the torture was inflicted without a justifiable reason.”
The problem is that the Bush administration took the legal view, meaning that they applied a strict interpretation of the legal definition of torture, rather than looking at the actions from the view that most people commonly understand torture to be. What is the meaning of is and all that junk? Similar to the stand down order for Benghazi. No “Stand Down Order” was given but people were told to stand down. There is a reason why lawyers have such a bad reputation.
I want more information on what took place that is free from similar political lawyering. I was shocked to learn that one of the guys was waterboarded over 200 times but then found out that there wasn’t 200 waterboarding sessions but rather over 200 pours with each pour lasting no more than 40 seconds. That is still a lot and should be considered torture even if it doesn’t meet the legal definition but it doesn’t need to be sensationalized, the truth is enough.
“They could have also explored torture under the Obama administration too (something which might be inadvertently uncovered”
Yes, Obama reinstated the practice of rendition and rather than send people to Gitmo has created a network of black site prisons, some on the high seas. Personally, I see little difference in outsourcing practices deemed to be torture or inappropriate by Obama and doing them ourselves.
Even more fundamental… putting panties on a prisoners head is torture. Hacking a head off with a rusty sword isn’t.
There is no search for truth when they ‘know’ the truth. We’re evil and they’re just misunderstood.
They could have also explored torture under the Obama administration too (something which might be inadvertently uncovered, if they started interviewing CIA interrogators). It certainly has its political biases.
Having said that, I agree with the basic premises of the report, namely, that there was torture of POWs over the course of the Bush administration and that the torture was inflicted without a justifiable reason. I think it demonstrates that there is no safe major party when it comes to violations of the Constitution for frivolous or mendacious purposes.
“Having said that, I agree with the basic premises of the report, namely, that there was torture of POWs over the course of the Bush administration and that the torture was inflicted without a justifiable reason.”
The problem is that the Bush administration took the legal view, meaning that they applied a strict interpretation of the legal definition of torture, rather than looking at the actions from the view that most people commonly understand torture to be. What is the meaning of is and all that junk? Similar to the stand down order for Benghazi. No “Stand Down Order” was given but people were told to stand down. There is a reason why lawyers have such a bad reputation.
I want more information on what took place that is free from similar political lawyering. I was shocked to learn that one of the guys was waterboarded over 200 times but then found out that there wasn’t 200 waterboarding sessions but rather over 200 pours with each pour lasting no more than 40 seconds. That is still a lot and should be considered torture even if it doesn’t meet the legal definition but it doesn’t need to be sensationalized, the truth is enough.
“They could have also explored torture under the Obama administration too (something which might be inadvertently uncovered”
Yes, Obama reinstated the practice of rendition and rather than send people to Gitmo has created a network of black site prisons, some on the high seas. Personally, I see little difference in outsourcing practices deemed to be torture or inappropriate by Obama and doing them ourselves.