11/12/10: (New) UN special rapporteur says waterboarding is torture

[Solly Mack]

Juan Mendez is the new United Nations special rapporteur on torture. Juan Mendez was tortured by electrical shocks in the 70's. He is the first special rapporteur on torture to have been tortured himself.

Mr. Mendez takes over for Manfred Nowak

Interview with Juan Mendez.


On Bush and his: 'the lawyers told me so'...


JUAN MENDEZ: Mr Bush hides behind the fact that he is not a lawyer and he has this folksy you know kind of cute way of say, well the lawyers told me it was legal, as if he didn't know that it's immoral. You know? Immoral and illegal. I mean he can't really hide behind his lawyers.

I mean he was very hypocritical of him to say something like that. I mean it's been so clearly established that those memos were, they don't even deserve the name of legal memos because they are completely flawed from the legal reasoning. But even worse they are morally flawed as well.

-SNIP-

On waterboarding (torture) being a crime.

-SNIP-

JUAN MENDEZ: I don't think there is any question, any serious question. I mean it's a question of severity. If you think that waterboarding is not severe mistreatment you don't really know what waterboarding is. But you know if just with the definition that it's designed to create a sensation of asphyxia, you can tell that it's severe. There's just no other way.

I mean if you then redefine upwards the severity standard to say that it's only severe if it's organ failure or death, then you know you're really very clearly distorting the sense of the words and you know words have to be interpreted in treaty language, they have to be interpreted in their plain meaning and their plain meaning couldn't be more clear in the case of waterboarding.



You can listen to the entire interview here.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Oh shit. I was (smirk) clueless. Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R)

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Sneer." - xVP Dickie 'Five-Military-Deferments' Cheney (R)

[SpiralHawk]

3. "They had it comin. They did not worship RepubliCorp Boots. Sneer." - Condi (R)

[Solly Mack]

15. Thank you!

I mean that.

[originalpckelly]

4. So the guy who specializes in torture for the UN thinks it's torture.

Well, DUH! Thank God for the UN. I wonder if they'll actually do anything about it?

[Solly Mack]

5. The UN Security Council could call for the formation of a tribunal

and then one of the members could veto it. The Council has five permanent members (China, France, Russian, UK, US) and ten non-permanent members. (elected to serve a set amount of time) G'head. Guess who would veto.

The UN could give support to universal jurisdiction attempts (by a signatory/signatories) to uphold CAT (Convention Against Torture). By openly supporting a nation's attempt to bring the Bush administration to justice for their crimes. I believe that each time a spokesperson for the UN declares waterboarding torture - they are politely reminding the states of their obligations.

Now, as to the impact of such declarations....We'll see.

[amborin]

6. K&R

[Solly Mack]

9. Thank you, amborin

[chill_wind]

7. There must be some misunderstanding. The Holder Justice Dept

just explained to the world that Yoo was just some well-meaning desk jockey who merely used "poor judgment".

Standing by Yoo (for a second time):

11/9/2010

Separately, the Justice Department advised the House of Representatives and Senate judiciary committees that it had reviewed newly found e-mails sent by Bush administration lawyer John Yoo and stands by a conclusion that Yoo did not commit professional misconduct in authorizing CIA interrogators to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics. The department's letter to the committees, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, stood by the earlier finding that Yoo had merely exhibited poor judgment.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40091824/ns/us_news-security

Reports: DOJ Torture Memo Probe Clears Yoo, Bybee

February 1, 2010

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/reports_doj_review_clears_yoo_in_toture_memo_probe.php




John Yoo is Sorry for Nothing.
Torture Policy
Tuesday, Mar 10, 2009
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/kamiya/2009/03/10/john_yoo

"The U.N. Convention Against Torture, to which the U.S. is a signatory, defines torture as the infliction of "severe pain." The U.N. Convention is implemented in U.S. law (18 U.S.C. 2340). Yoo's legal task was to find legal grounds to define "severe" in such a diminished way as to allow the Bush administration to torture without fear of punishment. This was no easy task: There simply is nothing on the books to support such a redefinition. But when there's a war on terror to be fought, creative minds find a way.

Yoo came up with one of the most bizarre, illogical and specious arguments in the history of law. He dug up a federal statute that had absolutely nothing to do with the issue he was examining, seized upon a passing reference in that statute to "severe pain" that was not and could not possibly be interpreted to be a definition of that state, and then asserted with a straight face that this reference supported a radical redefinition of "severe pain." To compound this, he then lied about what the statute actually said.

In short, he simply made up a torture-friendly definition of "severe pain," and then found a way to justify it.

The statute Yoo cited, 42 U.S.C. 1395, regulates insurance benefits under the "Medicare and Choice" plan. It defines an emergency medical condition as one "manifesting itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) that a prudent layman" could reasonably expect that without immediate medical treatment, the individual displaying those symptoms would be at serious risk of losing their health, suffering serious impairment to bodily functions, or suffering serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. From this bureaucratic definition of "emergency medical condition," Yoo magically derived a new, torture-friendly definition of "severe pain."


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K & R. As always, thank you Solly Mack. This is a very important development, and I hope the paid RW trolls don't get this one buried, for sure.

[Solly Mack]

8. That can be said of everyone who commits a crime. If only the ones

who ended up in prison knew of the "poor judgment" defense.

It's pathetic. It really is...

[leftstreet]

10. K&R

Excellent links

[gratuitous]

11. Chances of Juan Mendez being invited to speak on the Sunday talk shows

Zero.

[Solly Mack]

13. Very true

[spanone]

12. we have a confession over here folks.....it's on youtube...here's the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjUasA6xeVc

[Solly Mack]

14. Thanks, spanone

[malaise]

16. Arrest him

To the Hague.

[Solly Mack]

17. Works for me