Pres Clinton:"You Don't Need Blanket Advance Approval For Blanket Torture"

[kpete]

"You don't need blanket advance approval for blanket torture," Clinton said.

"The president says he's just trying to get the rules clear about how far the CIA can go when they're when they whacking these people around in these secret prisons," Clinton said in NPR's "Morning Edition" interview, recorded on Wednesday.

"If you go around passing laws that legitimize a violation of the Geneva Convention and institutionalize what happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we're going to be in real trouble," he said.

Like other critics, he said information obtained with harsh treatment may be unreliable and adopting abusive practices could lead to captured U.S. troops being subjected to the same.

Even if there were circumstances where such treatment is necessary to prevent an imminent attacks, Clinton said: "You don't make laws based on that. You don't sit there and say in general torture's fine if you're a terrorist suspect. For one thing, we know we have erred in who was a real suspect."

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060921/2006-09-21T122805Z_01_N21305407_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-CLINTON-DC.html

[MrCoffee]

1. tell it like it is, Mr. President.

[katinmn]

2. yes, we do know hundreds have been tortured and later

released because they could not pin a crime on the detainees. We've also seen the photos, we know that prisoners (probably innocent) have died while being tortured in barbaric fashion.

Since we KNOW these things, why does America let the war criminals run free? Why did 20 House Republicans sign legislation that would let the torturers get off scott-free?

[Solly Mack]

3. Why? to maintain the illusion that America is the "good guy"

to further the lie that America doesn't torture, as Bush has repeatedly claimed, to prevent war crime charges, to write the history they want written and not the actual events...and any questioning of detainees also brings questioning of Bush's war on terror..and the "wars"(invasions/occupations)...so, perpetuating the lie helps to deflect the hard questions.Also, any law that can also be used against American citizens allows for greater control of American citizens

Bunches of reasons why...none of them acceptable


and doesn't it just chap your cushion that the language being used in articles and on the news makes it sound as if torture isn't already happening? It does mine

[katinmn]

5. It chaps my cushion, turns my stomach, and raises my blood pressure!

I just sent a letter to my local paper. Even that vent didn't help.

I am so outraged and also pissed at all the silent wussies in the House and Senate of all political ideologies. The politicos care about two things - generating money and getting elected or re-elected.

All I can say is: protest, protest, protest.

Don't forget Oct. 5 World Can't Wait walk-out.

BTW, Here's my LTTE: :-)

Minnesota just caught a whiff of the sulfur that Chavez alluded to at the UN this week

Seventy-seven years after the codification of the Geneva Conventions pertaining to the treatment of prisoners of war, Republican members of the House and Senate plan to change the interpretation of the international law prohibiting torture. They do so to prevent Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, and others being charged with war crimes against humanity.

Minnesota’s own John Kline is one of 19 Republican co-sponsors of the pro-torture legislation. Given that many of those tortured (including a youth who was videotaped being sodomized at Abu Ghraib), have been released and deemed totally innocent, millions of us are aghast that American leaders would choose to endorse such a blatant and morally reprehensible activity. The legislation that will re-interpret Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions includes a provision making the rewritten law retroactive to 9/11/01. Why? It’s been decided by the Supreme Court that the practices of the Bush administration are illegal. Abu Ghraib, Guantanomo, secret CIA prisons, and extraordinary rendition may be punishable as war crimes. Rather than ceasing the illegal activities, the Bush administration seeks to use its cohorts and minions in the legislature to re-write the law.

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday initially voted down the Bush cover-up, but in a move that has become all too common among the Republicans in control, the committee waited until two Democrats left after the vote for a Medicare press conference, and then re-voted, and passed the Bush version of the legislation. When the Judiciary Committee stoops to such vile maneuvers, you know the country is in deep trouble. House leaders plan to bring the Bush plan to the floor next week.

The Republicans and their lock-step enablers in the White House, Senate, and House, including Kline, bring great shame to all Americans. Mr. Kline, torture is barbaric and your support for it degrades our nation.

[Solly Mack]

8. Great LTTE!!!!!

I get a big lump in my throat and I am unable to swallow. The lump is tension, coiled tightly - made up of thoughts like - "What happens when Congress allows Bush a pass?" "How can I say
(feel or think) anything remotely positive about America in such an event?"

I think this is "it" for me, kat. How this plays out won't be just a defining moment for America, it's the defining moment on how I will forever view America. The proverbial straw that breaks the camels back.

My throat's knotting up just typing my feelings out.

[katinmn]

9. Thanks.

I'm with you, Solly. If America as a nation stands for torture, I want nothing to do with it.

The America we grew up with no longer exists.:cry:

[bvar22]

10. And I'm with you, katinmn and Solly.

Hope to see your LTTE in print!

[katinmn]

13. Group hug!

:grouphug: ;)

[gully]

12. Excellent. It is apparent more than ever why oversight is key, and why

Democrats have to win in November! This is such a dark time in our history - it's tough to be in the midst of it and feel like you have no power.

[Supersedeas]

4. when America 'aggressively interrogates' innocent people--who wins the

battle for hearts and minds??

[Hubert Flottz]

6. "adopting abusive practices could lead to captured U.S. troops

being subjected to the same."

And when this starts happening to American soldiers, the soldiers can look at the congressional record and see who's fault it is they are no longer protected.

Why do the top American soldiers refuse to speak out against this insanity? Are they afraid to support their own troops?

[jasmeel]

7. Did you see this gem in that same story?

<Clinton was president during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and on the
USS Cole, all linked to al Qaeda. Critics accused him of doing too little to contain a growing threat of terrorism.>snip

What a fuckin' joke! So if we don't torture we're doing too little? How about the fact that torture gives us faulty information that leads us into faulty fuckin wars and kills tens of thousands of people!!?

:nuke:

[gully]

11. Clinton kept us safe for 8 years without torturing a soul.

Idiots! Hateful ignorant idiots at that. Funny how every incident was considered a terrorist attack when Clinton was in office, but we just had an attack on an embassy in Syria did we not? Don't the R's also claim the insurgents in Iraq are "terrorists?" If so every damn bomb that goes off is an act of terror under their watch, by their standards!

[NMMNG]

14. A voice of reason,

that will no doubt be ignored. :cry: