Discussion for article #225857
An excellent first step - admitting that we have tortured people.
This is going to make Dick Cheney very, very sad.
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“Obama: We Tortured Some Folks.”
I guess it all depends on your definition of “we”.
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… but he did not seek prosecution against the officials who carried them out.
Perhaps wrongly.
But I don’t mind the straight talk.
As history needs to know plainly-- the distinction, and who created the environment.
jw1
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Interrogation with torture is not designed to extract confessions from the guilty. It is designed specifically to extract confessions from those who are not guilty.
Torture does not get you to truth. So, it’s not ONLY intrinsically wrong; it is ineffective in helping you learn what you want to know.
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“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.” United Nations Convention against Torture, signed by the United States and ratified by the United States in 1994.
“I think it’s important when we look back to recall how afraid people were…” Why, exactly?
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…and who gave the torturers a free pass while prosecuting whistle blowers who revealed torture
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou given more than two years in prison
Judge says former intelligence officer who exposed aspects of use of torture should have been jailed for longer
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His conviction is a travesty viewed logically, yet mostly served to scare potential whistleblowers in the national security state into shutting the f••k up forever. Probably worked until Snowden.
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Have the impeachment proceedings started yet in the House for “apologizing for America”?
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I think it’s important to not forget what we did - or rather what was done in the name of our country. It NEEDS to be called torture because that’s what it was. The fact that we didn’t use torture used to be one of the things that set us apart from all of the “thems.”
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Exactly what I thought. The “blame America first” accusations by jingoist poltroons to begin in 3, 2, 1…
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Why are some on the left and the right acting like this is news? He’s said this before. Ted Cruz’s spokesperson is acting him saying this is some win for the enemies.
I don’t get why this is being treated like some unknown revelation. Particularly in light of all the shit we need to deal with now.
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Can you just imagine what would have happened if he dared try. The republicans would have gone stark raving mad and this country was in an economic free fall and the economy had to come first. The first black president going after former officials of the preceding administration - yeah that would have worked out well.
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I give a rat’s ass what Cruz-missle thinks about anything, beyond how his knuckledragging base will respond to it.
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Yeah but he should have at least made it an overtly public decision not to indict the criminals of the preceeding administration. He should of made the point clear that he wants to indict, but it is the public’s choice not to go down into a screaming Republican political rathole cuz the ecomomy is on the brink (also Rebublican/Conservative responsibility). Instead he used mba fuck-speak such as “we need to look forward”. Well I peered ahead and I saw un-indicted criminals emboldened for maore by their get-out-of-jail-free card handed to them by Obama.
Otherwise, he’s a pretty good President,
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Nothing wrong with torture. Who cares? Just don’t try and make access to healthcare easier and cheaper for our citizens, because that’s just wrong! We are, after all, a nation founded upon Judeo-Christian values and not some sissy-pants “turn the other cheek and feed the poor” bullshit that liberals would have you believe.
And water boarding is hardly even torture. What we need to do is starting nailing some of these bastards to crosses. Like how the Romans did it.
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Prosecute those officials who carried them out…and close Guantanamo Bay while you’re at it.
With the present congress? Not gonna happen.
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Wanna bet on how long it will be before theDick and his reptilian daughter slither out of their rat holes to comment on this?
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