Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL): Yes, we tortured detainees and we should do so in future.

[kpete]

Appearing on Hardball just now, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) defended the use of waterboarding -- and unlike other GOPers, he openly used the word "torture."

"I would not limit our intelligence agencies' ability to get information from people," said Schock. "If they have a ticking time-bomb or some critical piece of information that can save American lives, I don't believe that we should limit waterboarding or quite frankly any other alternative torture technique, if it means saving Americans' lives."

Most Republicans, such as Dick and Liz Cheney, adamantly deny that waterboarding constitutes torture or that the United States ever authorized torture, and they also charge President Obama and other Democrats with slandering American troops by using the word "torture." So it's interesting to see at least one Republican who is not afraid to use the word "torture," and who describes it as a positive thing that should be utilized.

Go to the 2:25 mark in the video:

more:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/gop-rep-schock-waterboarding-or-alternative-torture-technique-shouldnt-be-ruled-out.php?ref=fpblg

[BeFree]

1. Yes

And since congress is the greatest threat to the American public, they should be waterboarded starting with this asshole.

[sui generis]

2. props to him for being honest

Don't agree with him in the tiniest bit, but it is definitely more honest. I'd rather know who the monsters are because they volunteer than be a victim of some coward's semantics.

[Orsino]

7. We have built an America in which Shock feels free to say this.

Right-wingers carefully shied away from using the t-word for years, but now they realize they will get away with it. This won't even make national news.

[ensho]

3. may nasty Aaron fall down and never get

a man that is pro torture should never hold power

[gratuitous]

4. Apparently a new video of a captured American soldier is about to be released

That soldier's family should know that if he's been tortured, Rep. Schock fully supports and endorses whatever was done to him.

[Solly Mack]

5. Pathetic

but obviously a lot of people think that way...

You can't allow war criminals to walk around freely and not send the message that it's OK if America does it.

[Mari333]

6. someone draft that little turd

put his priveldged ass on the front lines.

[ipaint]

8. Home of the new Guantanamo, how convenient.

The Obama administration announced today that it will create a new "supermax" facility in Thomson, Illinois, and will transfer to it many of the detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Critically, none of those moved to Thomson will receive a trial in a real American court, and some will not be charged with any crime at all. The detainees who will be given trials won't go to Thomson; they'll be moved directly to the jurisdiction where they'll be tried. The ones moved to Thomson will either (a) be put before a military commission or (b) held indefinitely without charges of any kind. In other words, they'll have exactly the same rights -- or lack thereof -- as they have now at Guantanamo.

...ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero had this to say today:

The creation of a "Gitmo North" in Illinois is hardly a meaningful step forward. Shutting down Guantánamo will be nothing more than a symbolic gesture if we continue its lawless policies onshore.

Alarmingly, all indications are that the administration plans to continue its predecessor's policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial for some detainees, with only a change of location. Such a policy is completely at odds with our democratic commitment to due process and human rights whether it’s occurring in Cuba or in Illinois. In fact, while the Obama administration inherited the Guantanamo debacle, this current move is its own affirmative adoption of those policies.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Schock is one of these freaky nutbags the pubs have been planting in local school boards.

They cultivated him and made a slick politician out of him that they could move up the ladder. Get ready for a lot more to come.

[derby378]

10. There's at least two Democrats running against him in 2010

http://www.carlray2010.com/
http://www.actblue.com/page/dkhirner