White House says always treated prisoners "humanely"

[Barrett808]

WASHINGTON A White House spokesman says it's always been U-S policy "to treat detainees humanely."

The comment comes as the Justice Department releases a new memo on torture. The new document backs away from the department's narrow definition of torture as "excruciating and agonizing pain."

The new legal memo also drops claims from 2002 documents that said President Bush could override American anti-torture laws during wartime. The earlier memos also said U-S personnel had several legal defenses against criminal liability in such cases.

Critics in Congress and legal experts say the earlier documents created a legal framework that contributed to abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The White House spokesman says it's always been policy to follow the Geneva Conventions or their "spirit" when they don't apply.

(more)

http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=2751400

[Walt Starr]

1. they're throwing the shit down the memory hole

in preparation for the Gonzales confirmation hearings.

[bpilgrim]

33. If the DEM Leaders don't FIGHT this tooth-n-nail

i will consider them to be ENABLERS and JUST AS guilty as the implementers :argh:

peace

[Turbineguy]

2. Yeah

and now bend over so we can shove this splintery damage control plug up your kazoo!

[VegasWolf]

3. I guess pictures lie. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. You treat dogs "humanely"

It seems they phrased it that way on purpose. To remind everyone that these humans are suppose to be no better than dogs.

[TahitiNut]

5. Well put It's the same as the "kind" slaveowner paradigm.

Putting a benevolent, patronizing facade on fascist and autocratic ideologies is the habit of this regime.

It's similar to why I detest "Gone With The Wind" with its sympathetic portrayal of slave-owners, the indolent wealthy, and the trials and tribulations of a spoiled victim of war who had far, far more wealth than those who died in the mud to protect her "lifestyle."

[chelaque liberal]

35. Side note-I'm so glad to hear someone say that about GWTW.

I have hated it since the first time I say it as a kid, and could not understand why anyone would romanticize it. (I'm a white woman who grew up in MN.) I thought those characters were terrible people. I guess that is when I first realized I was different than most of the people I knew.

[TahitiNut]

40. I've had the very same opinion since I first saw it as a kid.

It appalls me that these people are depicted sympathetically. Poor little Scarlett, narcissist in the extreme, actually does manual labor herself for about a year and we're supposed to admire her fortitude? Bullshit. This is an alcoholic character who never did a thing for herself, from earning and preparing her own food to dressing herself - who, from beginning to end, demonstrates not the slightest compassion, generosity, real courage, or personal responsibility. Admirable? Sympathetic? Nonsense. And the male characters, from Ashley to Rhett, "gentlemen"? Hogwash. I don't know of another movie that portrays a more detestable array of character attributes in such an appallingly bankrupt fashion. Wealthy people of privilege who exploit the lives and labors of others - the worst of human parasites. Four hours of saccharine maggot droppings on celluloid - not a minute of which was filmed in the South (unless you count Southern California). If that's at all what southerners remember yearningly, then Sherman didn't do nearly enough - not by two orders of magnitude.

[VegasWolf]

25. Exactly, well said! n/t

[indepat]

6. Every action and policy are humanely implemented

[truebrit71]

7. Just exactly HOW fucking stupid do they think we are?

..Hey! Morans! WE SAW HOW HUMANELY YOU TREAT PRISONERS!!!!


FUCK YOU AND THE STUPID MONKEY YOU WORK FOR!!!!

[Chicago Democrat]

8. Redefining "humanely" as torturing, raping and killing innocent people

without any review whatsoever!

FUCK BUSH!

[The Judged]

9. 2004 Re-uglican Lexicon Dialect guide: "humanely" means like savages!

[Elidor]

10. I promise to always treat neocons "humanely"

A guy's gotta let off some steam now and then, don'cha know!

Actually, I think this is all part of a program to make Gonzales appear kinder and gentler before his confirmation hearings. When someone points to the torture memos, they'll be able to say that the memos in question are no longer operable and Gonzales isn't such a bad guy after all.

To hell with any democrat who votes to confirm that POS.

[Cinletharwi]

11. "We have always been at war with Eurasia" n/t

[Mr_Spock]

12. It's always been Bush policy to lie whenever possible.

Always.

[demgrrrll]

13. Are they all just insane? I find no other explanation for these insults.

Prince Prospero can dance away at his Masque of the Red Death ball but he can't lock the truth out forever.

[ogradda]

14. should also be titled:

"white house lies again".

[saskatoon]

16. White House-Bush

I sometimes wonder if there is anyone on earth that hates BUSH as much as I do. To all those Fundamentalists out there, tho' I am an Agnostic
I try and figure out if there should be an accounting when one dies and Bush would be standing in the judgement seat in front of Christ what would he have going for him? Give me if you will, something on his side of the ledger

[shanti]

22. you have lots of company, my friend

;-)

[bahrbearian]

15. "It's no different than a Skull and Bones hazing, just letting off steam."

[AFSCME girl]

17. Humanely, my arse!!

BTW, WTF is the "spirit" of the Geneva Conventions. You either follow them or you don't...:wtf:

[two gun sid]

21. Well, I'm not trying to split hairs...

But, the Geneva Conventions don't specifically say not to build naked human pyramids with prisoners.

[Demeter]

18. I'm A Prisoner In My Own Country

and I'm not being treated humanely at all. The constant noise reverberating from the GOP echo chamber is sheer torture. The economic depression is getting worse. And people are getting weirder.

[Fridays Child]

19. They're manufacturing reality, again, and Fox viewers are saying...

"If President God says we're humane, we're humane."

[Pithy Cherub]

20. If the Do unto others rule applied,

would they be OK with the same humane treatment of our military personnel. This WH is beyond any amounts of shame.

[Kokonoe]

23. Umm ...Lie

(The comment comes as the Justice Department releases a new memo on torture.) They did not release the memo. They simply changed the memo.

[daleo]

24. We really need Saigon here, with some of his pictures and comments

Is it humane to terrorize prisoners with vicious dogs and have those dogs bite prisoners testicles?
Is it humane to rape prisoners with foreign objects?
Is it humane to force prisoners to watch their children be abused?
Is it humane to beat prisoners to death?
Is it humane to have guards take trophy photos of those corpses, posing with victory signs?
Is it humane to inject prisoners with chemicals?
Is it humane to force prisoners to perform sex acts?

These guys are insane.

On edit - Is it humane to run a government that claims to subscribe to a universal theory of human rights, then claims human rights simply don't apply to some humans, at some places on the earth?

[lindashaw]

30. You've just described a concentration camp.

[bpilgrim]

34. yep...

Japanese aircraft bombed south Shanghai Station Aug.28,1937.
About 200 people in the waiting room were dead or wounded by the bombing. A crying baby was left alone after the bombing.

Life Oct. 4, 1937

peace

[AFSCME girl]

36. Yes, we do....n/t

[Solly Mack]

26. rewriting history. keep the originals if you got them

only way some children will know what really happened

[jmcgowanjm]

38. White House told torture could be justified

The memo seems to counter the pre-September 11,
2001, assumption that US Government personnel would
never be permitted to torture captives.

The leaking of the August 2002 memo follows a Wall
Street Journal report on Monday which said a classified
March 2003 Pentagon report on interrogation concluded that
the US president was not bound by laws prohibiting
torture.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/08/1086460294204.html?from=storylhs&oneclick=true

After 911-what's changed

citizens lost their rights

and all treaties going back to
Westphalia 1648, declared null and void

that's it.

[NYC]

27. Have they redefined "detainee"?

There's no telling how they come up with convoluted excuses, etc.

...Critics in Congress and legal experts say the earlier documents created a legal framework that contributed to abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba...

That sentence admits abuse. Abuse is not humane. I hope they pay for their lies.

[NVMojo]

28. time to puke, we are being led by decadent bastards...

[Warren DeMontague]

29. 14 Year old boy sodomized... in a friendly fashion, of course.

n/t

[90-percent]

31. humane

Either in a post or on my own I figured out why Bush likes torture, even though our enemies could retaliate in kind to our military people.

He doesn't give a rats ass about the military people who would be taken prisoner and tortured anyway! Our whole military is just some cannon fodder to him and so what if a few of them die of torture instead of car bombs.

-85%

[Calico Jack Rackham]

32. The FBI disagrees

Mr. Bush.

[CRK7376]

37. and pigs will grow wings and fly

someday. Too much evidence out there to support the statement that the USA is using torture on selected detainees. Shrub and Rummy make me sick.

[Supersedeas]

39. to follow the Convention or the invisible spirit..photos are just material

more faith based foreign policy???

[zann725]

41. In a Fascist regime, "humanely" is a relative term.

n/t