At least one high-profile attorney says the declassified Department of Justice memos detailing interrogation techniques prove the U.S. did not torture, even as the ACLU and some lawmakers claim the memos are proof positive the Bush administration did.
David Rivkin, a constitutional lawyer and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, released a statement Friday saying the release of four memos provides a "great benefit" to the former president.
"This data is analyzed in great detail to establish that the use of these techniques does not inflict either physical or psychological damage," said Rivkin, who served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. "The conclusions (the) memos reach -- that the specific interrogation techniques used by the CIA did not constitute torture -- are eminently reasonable."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/04/17/attorney-claims-justice-memos-prove-did-torture/
Hi,
Our Tampa paper ran the story reprinted from the New York Times. Lets just say the first sentence started with "describing brutal interrogation techniques" and went downhill from there. Once into the text, the techniques were such things as sleep deprivation, releasing insects into their room to frighten them, putting them in small confining rooms etc. Most all the techniques, including waterboarding for that matter, are designed to scare the hell out of the person being interrogated. Torture, in my opinion, is the kind of stuff like electric shock, pulling out fingernails with pliers, beatings, the kind of things the other guys do. I would love to teach a class and get some of these nitwit newspaper columnists and show them the difference. By the time I got done, they would understand what torture is really all about.
Typical New York Times garbage by the time I got finished.
Now I wanted to scream. Why was there no mention of the brutality the terrorist inflict upon innocent civilians? Why was there no mention of the fact that terrorists were specifically excluded from protection under the Geneva Convention because they do not fight under the rules of war? Why was there no mention of the fact that journalists, one of their own kind, were beheaded by Muslim terrorists?
You can go on and on but the damn liberals think these folks should be treated with kid gloves like US citizens, which they are not. They gave up all their rights when they decided to become terrorists. I could care less what methods are used to extract information. If it saves the life of one innocent civilian or one American man, woman or child, then it is damn well worth the effort.
As one sign said at the Tea Party this week, "There is no cure for stupid!"
Amen to that,
5412
