Discussion for article #231090
Bravisima, DiFi! I would love to see you on the Sunday talk shows to rebut (refute) Cheney, Brennan and others, but doubt they will invite you.
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I’m tempted to draw an elaborate analogy between all this torture denial and all the rape/sexual assault denial. Seems to me it’s pretty much the same underlying psychology at play in that a major driving force for the vehement denial response seems to be that admitting it is what it is would mean they must accept that they are guilty of something horrifying, so they simply can’t admit that it is what it is.
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“Unknown and unknowable”. Doublespeak is everywhere with these spooks at Langley.
Once again:
Goebbels would be proud.
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Good. Now will you call for, and author legislation to hold those who authorized and carried out torture responsible?
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Actually, I thought those comments were the most honest and intelligent things that sniveling monster ever said.
“Covert authority did not include authorization to use coercive interrogation techniques.”
I love me some internets, but don’t just Tweet it. Say it in a hearing and draft a bill!
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We could call ¨The (Guys) Doth Protest Too Much¨ syndrome.
damn, all of the sudden signs of life in the democrats… it’s terrific to see feinstein respond like this. i caught the opening minutes of his statement and it was nauseating. and even if warren isn’t successful in her efforts to strip those amendments, at least she was able to bring some very much needed attention to them.
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That’l be the day!
We already have legislation that does that. What we need is someone to enforce it.
18 U.S. Code § 2340A - Torture
(a) Offense.— Whoever outside the United States commits or attempts to commit torture shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.
(b) Jurisdiction.— There is jurisdiction over the activity prohibited in subsection (a) if—
(1) the alleged offender is a national of the United States; or
(2) the alleged offender is present in the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or alleged offender.
© Conspiracy.— A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.
18 U.S. Code § 2340 - Definitions
As used in this chapter—
(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
© the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and
(3) “United States” means the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealths, territories, and possessions of the United States.
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Umm, wouldn’t some of these definitions apply to the recently much-publicized police brutality as well? e.g. esp. 1, 2A, 2C?
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Brennan was merely being the good soldier defending the agency he is now in charge of. He has to; otherwise, he’d have to resign due to the complete ineffectiveness that would result from the troops’ loss of trust The nature his mushy responses is clear. He had nothing to add and was anodyne in his defense. Yet whatever remaining shred of morality or honesty he once had is sacrificed to naught with his fetish for “EIT” instead of the Nazi-approvied label “enhanced interrogation technique,” or even the most honest word, “torture.”
Why is Feinstein covering for GWB? Does she really think he and Cheney didn’t know what was going on?
No, 18 USC § 2340A specifies “outside the United States” as an element of the offense. So while the law applies at the Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay and Bagram AFB in Afghanistan and at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, it does not apply to Ferguson or Cleveland or NYC. There are state laws that are supposed to cover that. Again, it’s not a matter of a lack of laws, it is a matter of a lack of willingness to enforce them.
No, there’s more to it than that. While what you say is true, Brennan is also covering his own ass because, as deputy executive director of the CIA beginning in March 2001, he was heavily involved in the CIA’s torture program. Brennan was presumed to be Obama’s choice for CIA Director during his first term but was forced to withdraw his name because of previous public statements supporting “enhanced interrogation”, Instead, Obama appointed him chief counterterrorism advisor (czar), a position that did not require Senate approval.
Cheney assuredly did. But by Cheney’s own admission, Dubya was only clued in on a “need to know” basis. I take that to mean that Cheney only informed Dubya about something when he needed his signature for it. There is little doubt that Cheney was running things. I think that history will record that Cheney was the éminence grise behind the Nazification of America between 2001 and 2008.
DiFi. Most of the time you just can’t stand her, but when you can stand her, you just love her.
I think maybe that explains how she keeps getting reelected over and over again.
After days of defending the CIA on Morning Joe, Morning Joe seemed to admit CIA torture was torture, paraphrasing, "We could’ve shipped them to other countries where the torture is more severe, but we kept them here in a more controlled environment.
Once a man is caught lying, especially a big lie, their words lose all meaning. Brennan can play fuzzy word games forever but the truth is a long ways from his mouth.
The CIA as a whole is the same. They are lying about this and we will never know what all else they are lying about because they are liars.
Central Intelligence my ass. Central deception and limitless power is more accurate.