I'm excerpting this from a Counterpunch article about Bush's responses to questions about torture after the G-8. It's great reporters (Europeans at least) are hammering the little man: It was European reporters who
seemed most interested in pressing Bush on the torture issue,
and who were not at all impressed with his continuing assertions
that he was telling people to act in terms of the law. Bush has
no knowledge of history, but European reporters do, and all of
them at the G-8 press conference were no doubt aware how assiduously
Hitler got laws passed to authorize everything he did. Hitler's
government and its actions were all legal; it was a defect in
moral vision that undergirded their atrocities.
Nothing about the torture questions
appeared in the New York Times or any of the other major US newspapers,
but European papers were full of it. Neither did the US press
report that after Bush spoke, Jacques Chirac said that in the
war on terrorism we should not "forget the principles on
which our civilization rests, such as human rights."
Here are the torture parts
of Bush's G-8 press conference:
First time Bush was asked about
legalizing torture:
Q Mr. President, the Justice
Department issued an advisory opinion last year declaring that
as Commander-in-Chief you have the authority to order any kind
of interrogation techniques that are necessary to pursue the
war on terror. Were you aware of this advisory opinion? Do you
agree with it? And did you issue any such authorization at any
time?
THE PRESIDENT: No, the authorization
I issued, David, was that anything we did would conform to U.S.
law and would be consistent with international treaty obligations.
That's the message I gave our people.
Q Have you seen the memos?
THE PRESIDENT: I can't remember
if I've seen the memo or not, but I gave those instructions.
Second time Bush was asked
about legalizing torture:
Q Returning to the question
of torture, if you knew a person was in U.S. custody and had
specific information about an imminent terrorist attack that
could kill hundreds or even thousands of Americans, would you
authorize the use of any means necessary to get that information
and to save those lives?
THE PRESIDENT: Jonathan, what
I've authorized is that we stay within U.S. law.
Third time Bush was asked about
legalizing torture:
Q Mr. President, I wanted to
return to the question of torture. What we've learned from these
memos this week is that the Department of Justice lawyers and
the Pentagon lawyers have essentially worked out a way that U.S.
officials can torture detainees without running afoul of the
law. So when you say that you want the U.S. to adhere to international
and U.S. laws, that's not very comforting. This is a moral question:
Is torture ever justified?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, I'm going
to say it one more time. If I -- maybe -- maybe I can be more
clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law.
That ought to comfort you. We're a nation of law. We adhere to
laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws,
and that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions
out of -- from me to the government.
The last bit about "The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you" is the only part I've seen.
To revise an old chestnut ...
Sir, you have legalized wife beating. Do you consider wife beating justified at any time?
Dagnabbit, like ah splained to that other feller, I ain't done nuthin illegal.
What a proud moment for Merkins everywhere.
met-a along with after, between. among; akin to G.mit, Eng. mid- (as in midwife )], a prefix meaning: 1. changed in position or form, altered, transposed, as in metamorphosis, metathesis: equivalent to trans- 2. after, as in metaphysics........
met-a-mor-pho-sis 1. a) change of form, shape, structure, or substance; transformation, especially by magic or sorcery. b) the form resulting from such change. 2, a marked or complete change of character, appearance, condition, ect. 3. in biology, a change in form, structure, or function as a result of development; specifically, a) the physical transformation, more or less sudden, undergone by various animals during development after the embryonic state, as of the larva of an insect to the pupa and the pupa to the adult, or the ltadpole to the frog. b) the developement of different forms as a result of adaptation to different functions. c) the change of form constantly going on in living cells and tissues. 4. in medicine, a morbid change of form of tissues or parts.
Air America aired that last statement and it sounded pathetic, like Nixon's "I am not a crook"
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It was European reporters who seemed most interested in pressing Bush on the torture issue, and who were not at all impressed with his continuing assertions that he was telling people to act in terms of the law. Bush has no knowledge of history, but European reporters do, and all of them at the G-8 press conference were no doubt aware how assiduously Hitler got laws passed to authorize everything he did. Hitler's government and its actions were all legal; it was a defect in moral vision that undergirded their atrocities.
Nothing about the torture questions appeared in the New York Times or any of the other major US newspapers, but European papers were full of it. Neither did the US press report that after Bush spoke, Jacques Chirac said that in the war on terrorism we should not "forget the principles on which our civilization rests, such as human rights."
Here are the torture parts of Bush's G-8 press conference:
First time Bush was asked about legalizing torture:
Second time Bush was asked about legalizing torture:
Third time Bush was asked about legalizing torture:
- tom moody 6-14-2004 11:43 pm
The last bit about "The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That ought to comfort you" is the only part I've seen.
What a proud moment for Merkins everywhere.To revise an old chestnut ...
- mark 6-15-2004 7:55 am [add a comment]
met-a along with after, between. among; akin to G.mit, Eng. mid- (as in midwife )], a prefix meaning: 1. changed in position or form, altered, transposed, as in metamorphosis, metathesis: equivalent to trans- 2. after, as in metaphysics........ met-a-mor-pho-sis 1. a) change of form, shape, structure, or substance; transformation, especially by magic or sorcery. b) the form resulting from such change. 2, a marked or complete change of character, appearance, condition, ect. 3. in biology, a change in form, structure, or function as a result of development; specifically, a) the physical transformation, more or less sudden, undergone by various animals during development after the embryonic state, as of the larva of an insect to the pupa and the pupa to the adult, or the ltadpole to the frog. b) the developement of different forms as a result of adaptation to different functions. c) the change of form constantly going on in living cells and tissues. 4. in medicine, a morbid change of form of tissues or parts.
- sarah 6-15-2004 12:04 pm [add a comment]
Air America aired that last statement and it sounded pathetic, like Nixon's "I am not a crook"
- steve 6-15-2004 5:03 pm [add a comment]