Harry Reid Says Cheney Tortured, But Proposes Letting Him Off

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/42439

Harry Reid Says Cheney Tortured, But Proposes Letting Him Off
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2009-05-08 20:10.


Christiane Brown interviews Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in this audio clip.

Reid says torture has been committed, but that the top priority should be delaying, and that certain people just shouldn't be prosecuted, even if that means failing to follow the law. Brown is brilliant and relentless. Reid is as pathetic as you'd think he'd be when confronted by a real journalist. Reid wants nothing done until November 2009 when the Senate Intelligence Committee produces its report, after which he's open to starting more committee investigations, panels, or commissions, but not necessarily prosecutions.

Here's a key segment:

Reid: Listen, if you ask me my opinion.

Brown: Yeah.

Reid: What went on, waterboarding, torture, of course it was. I don't want to be drowned. I I think that as afraid of - as afraid of - as afraid as I am with water, frankly probably you could drown me and I would confess to a lot of things that weren't true....

Brown: Isn't it the responsibility of the United States to enforce criminal law if it appears that war crimes have occured?

Reid: No matter how I personally feel about torture, I think that we as you've indicated that we are a nation of law. And that's why we have to get the facts and then have people render legal decisions which certainly don't take very long, render opinion as to whether or not what was done was wrong, illegal, immoral, and you know all the other issues.

Brown: Well let me ask you, Senator Reid, you've seen the evidence come forward. We've heard Dick Cheney himself say he waterboarded and he'd waterboard again.... Isn't that therefore an obvious and admitted crime right there in the face of the American people?

Reid: Something everyone has to weigh is this, we're a nation of laws and no one can dispute that, but I think what we have to, the hurdle we have to get over is whether we want to go after people like Cheney. That's a decision that has to be made....

Brown: ...Isn't it our obligation if he's violated the law ... ?

Reid: There are a lot of decisions that are made that are right that may not be absolutely totally within the framework of law. For example with President Nixon....

[Vidar]

1. What a pathetic creature Reid is!

[spanone]

2. ' even if that means failing to follow the law'....please, tell me this is the onion, please

[LakeSamish706]

3. Why is F*** tard still the leader of the Senate? Both he and Pelosi she have been...

put out to pasture after this last election....

[TheBigotBasher]

8. I think Pelosi has been brilliant this term.

Time and time again, she has delivered on issues where Reid has failed (eg the budget, the Recovery Act).

My only remaining issue with Pelosi is torture, if she was complicit, she should go down with the rest of the Rethug war criminals. I would tend to believe that she was innocent and kept out, but I am not a blind loyalist.

[LakeSamish706]

10. I still can't forgive her for standing by while the Bush Administration raped and...

pillaged our country and for taking Impeachment off the table.

[TheBigotBasher]

11. Plenty of time for criminal prosecutions after they have gone.

Win the election first, which the Democratic Party did. Deal with the consequences after.

I want a full War Crimes tribunal. The UK has been promised a full enquiry, I want it to be full.

http://thebigotbasher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/submitted-on-friday-still-not-up-i-want-a-uk-war-crimes-investigation/

Wish me luck - I'm fighting Downing Street on this.

[LakeSamish706]

12. I wish you and all those that are in a position to do something soon the best of luck. n/t

[TheBigotBasher]

14. I can see the 750 Soldiers being used as an excuse.

Brown is the most unpopular Prime Minister since the days of Cromwell (he beats Thatcher on that). Now he could use this as an excuse to go after Blair, who he hated, but I doubt he has the strength any more. The Conservative Party voted with Blair, so I doubt that they will do much. The Liberal Democrats get no where in our Parliamentary system.

If we get a hung Parliament (with the way electoral boundaries work against the UK Conservative Party that is possible despite their lead), it would be relatively easy for the Lib Dems to push for this.

This is a matter of courage. Whether any Parties have it is a different matter.

[LakeSamish706]

15. Is that the same as Canada with a minority Govt. then? n/t

[TheBigotBasher]

19. Don't know yet.

Brown can call the General Election whenever he wants, but the latest is June 2010. Cameron is an old style Tory, which puts him to the left of NuLabour and very much to the left of the GOP. The issue I have with him is his cow towing to the Daily Mail about the repeal of the Human Rights Act. Britain has become a Police State. That is not an understatement. I doubt, given the position of Cameron on the Human Rights Act, whether he would overturn that.

[The Straight Story]

So if I torture my neighbor....

:)

[Solly Mack]

4. " we're a nation of laws and no one can dispute that"

I can and will dispute that as long as the guilty, ALL the guilty, are not prosecuted.

[Andy823]

5. Looks to me like

Reid may be worried about what may be coming out about him! I just wonder how many other democrats are worried about what may come out about "THEM"?

I say start the investigations, and let the chips fall!

[dem629]

6. Reid is just pathetic.

If these people aren't going to enforce the laws that they enacted, then they don't deserve to be our leaders.

I guess Reid knew, too....

[DemoTex]

9. Reid ain't just pathetic .. he, like Pelo$i, is guilty of war crimes.

Smoke on that pipe a while.

[ProSense]

16. That's absolute

nonsense.

[LakeSamish706]

7. I just had to add something to this... If a law maker thinks that we should not follow...

the laws they make, what do we need law makers for anyway?

[Canuckistanian]

13. William Butler Yates covered this

The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

Harry has to be thrown out. He's pathetic.

[JonLP24]

17. I wish he was as tough on Cheney as he was on organized crime back in the day

Now he is just spineless.

[ProSense]

18. This is a very good interview.

Christiane Brown was excellent.

I know what Reid is attempting to do, but he's awkward as hell in his comments. It's OK to try to avoid declaring Bush, Cheney and others guilty without due process, but Reid's clumsy statements are conveying the wrong message.

[autorank]

20. Oh, that means Reid is part of an effort to obstruct justice

Reid is a pure and simple right wing corporatist. He's apologizing for their programs, he's
losing vote after vote after vote. He might even be a member of the Chicago Black Sox.

[Enrique]

21. he's saying what Obama is saying

Obama and Holder are not prosecuting for the reasons Reid articulates here.

[jillan]

22. Makes me wonder if he is hiding something -

I can't help but wonder how many people knew.

[Kablooie]

23. He should let Cheney off and then kiss Cheney's boo boo and make it better.

[DLnyc]

24. Ried says Cheney was tortured? Serves the bastard right!

Don't so much like the idea of letting him off, though.

[ColbertWatcher]

25. Didn't someone once say that Reid never sticks to his word?

If I were Cheney, I'd consider Reid's statement to be a threat!

LOL!

[gulfcoastliberal]

26. I wonder what

Freddie Stubbs thinks about that kind of logic.

[pat_k]

27. From the guy who proudly "cut off" the "impeach bush program"...

...no surprise.

Reid in the Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1116/p11s01-usmb.htm">Nov 15, 2006:

"One of the things that we were able to cut off pretty quickly is the 'impeach Bush' program," said Reid, referring to some Democratic activists who have that goal. "That was because of two words: Dick Cheney," he joked.

[magellan]

28. I knew Reid was whacked but I never pegged him for a torture apologist

Reid: There are a lot of decisions that are made that are right that may not be absolutely totally within the framework of law.

:wtf:

[rhett o rick]

29. Reid and most in Congress believe we are a nation of laws. But that enforcement differs depending

on which class you are in.