"February 7, 2002. America lost a little of its greatness that day. We lost our position as the world’s leading defender of human rights, as the champion of justice and fairness and the rule of law. But it is a testament to the continuing greatness of this nation, that I, a lowly Air Force Reserve Major, can stand here before you today, with the world watching, without fear of retribution, retaliation or reprisal, and speak truth to power. I can call a spade a spade, and I can call torture, torture."
— Air Force Major, David J. R. Frakt. From Closing Argument in Favor of Dismissal of the Case Against Mohammad Jawad
Discourse.net has some interesting posts on related topics.
A senior Justice Department official, charged with reworking the administration's legal position on torture in 2004 became so concerned about the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding that he decided to experience it firsthand, sources told ABC News.
According to retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, "There is no question this is torture -- this is a technique by which an individual is strapped to a board, elevated by his feet and either dunked into water or water poured over his face over a towel or a blanket."
Bush Administration Blocked Waterboarding Critic
I have two points regarding this article.
Point 1: It's really nice to hear about people who are thorough about their jobs and investigate things properly.
Point 2: It figures that the Bush Administration removes the people who are actually good at their jobs.
You know, the news is really depressing. Still, it's important to know that McCain is against banning waterboarding (double negatives suck, but I can't really say that McCain is for waterboarding, just that he doesn't want to ban it).
2 comments:
I am really concerned about the possibility of McCain being elected president: not for his personal characteristics, but rather his views on judicial behavior and what he considers reasonable behavior on the part of states. I really don't want the sad policies of the Bush administration to continue: 9 years is enough.
Some related reading: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/nkk/documents/gitmovanityfair.pdf and http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/nkk/documents/dartmouthmagbio.pdf (from Neal Katyal's website)
At first, I thought McCain would be ok as president - I respect him, which is a lot more than I can say about Bush! But the more I hear about McCain, the more scary he sounds.
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