According to the Supreme
Court, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (among others)
are war criminals:
The United States Supreme Court in Sosa v.
Alvarez-Machain, said that the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights "does not of its own
force impose obligations as a matter of
international law. However, the United States
has a historical record of regarding
waterboarding as a war crime, and has prosecuted
as war criminals individuals for the use of the
practice in the past. In 1947, the United States
prosecuted a Japanese military officer, Yukio
Asano, for carrying out various acts of torture
including kicking, clubbing, burning with
cigarettes and using a form of waterboarding on
a U.S. civilian during World War II. Yukio Asano
received a sentence of 15 years of hard labor.
The charges of Violation of the Laws and Customs
of War against Asano also included "beating
using hands, fists, club; kicking; burning using
cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head
downward. In addition, the European Court of
Human Rights ruled in February 2008 that local
considerations do not negate the absolute
torture prohibition under international law.
Draco
Lansing, MI
State Journal
[While I'm impressed that
you visited the law library (or the good
software) and while I know that you legal types
believe that almost any DA can get an indictment
against a ham sandwich, it gets real fuzzy
applying rulings that revolve around "uniformed"
enemy soldiers to cases that involve freelance
terrorists. I'm in a very Compassionate
Conservative mood today so I'll leave it at
that. Thanks for the interesting comeback. -ED]
If
only Cheney would answer questions under oath.
LordSummerisle
Des Moines, IA
Register
[Ditto Obama, the Clintons, Pelosi, Franks,
Dodd, Kennedy, Rangel... -ED]
and he STILL denies wrong
doing.
WesleyC
Palm Springs, CA
Desert Sun
[Lanny will never admit that the Clintons were
involved in all kinds of non-sex related
misbehavior. -ED]
Lanny Davis is like Hugo
Chavez: The stench of the devil isn't coming
from their enemies, its from talking out of
their own waaaa! su's.
OreMtn
Great Falls, MT
Tribune
A Wednesday blog,
Edadabadoo? Must have been a slow day on the
lot. Why do you guys get all chubbed up about
torturing people? McCain would have stopped
these deviant practices if he had won the
election, so either way torture via the Leaders
of the Free World is over. Why did it take 183
waterboarding attempts on the fat hairy
mastermind of 9-11 to get life-saving info out
of him? Years from now the truth will come out
that they didn't get that info from him, they
probably got it from a different source.
LennyTang
Lansing, MI
State Journal
[Yeah, you're right about
McCain, but those who feel that we need to have
every option available to defend ourselves
against THE most unprincipled enemy ever would
have protested his policy, as well. I wrote in
my piece that, for now, we've got to accept the
change in policy. But what we're all "chubbed"
about -- besides the fear over a less-safe
America -- is a) the left's inability to let the
issue go at that b) the nastiness of wanting to
punish Cheney and others for doing what was legal and right
as signed-off on by other branches of
government. Since the
intelligence committees of Congress (there's an
oxy -- especially in Pelousy's case) knew about
it and did nothing about it THEN, they oughta
just be thankful that the new prez said he won't
do it any more and be done with it NOW.
To put this thing in its proper perspective, the
question you want to ask about the fat, hairy
dude is "How bad is waterboarding if a pig like
him could survive 183 shots of it? My personal
guess is that they did it kinda for real the
first time and then put him on the board and
threatened to finish the job the other 182
times. It got to the point where every time they
put him in the tub he gave up yet another piece
of the puzzle without having to waste any water
on him.
I hope the truth comes out someday too -- both
sides of it. And while we're there I can't wait
to see the real story about Obama, Rezko, Blago,
Emanuel, Ayers, ACORN and "the missing years in
NYC". The true story of the Clintons' treachery
would be a welcome read as well. -ED]
What amazes me is that
folks even take what Mr. Davis has to say as
anything less than credible but there are those
that will defend him as usual in the mainstream
media. His opines make for press, notoriety and
more money like we all should be so lucky in
doing. Lest we forget that attorneys make the
laws that continue to support attorneys in their
trade and since times are a little tough for the
bullyrag's, they need to try something to make
business happen and it is usually a class that
is taught as an elective in law schools...
boned
Great Falls, MT
Tribune
"A former U.S. Army
psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army
investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were
under "pressure" to produce evidence of ties
between al Qaida and Iraq.
'While we were there a large part of the time we
were focused on trying to establish a link
between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not
successful in establishing a link between al
Qaida and Iraq," Burney told staff of the Army
Inspector General. "The more frustrated people
got in not being able to establish that link . .
. there was more and more pressure to resort to
measures that might produce more immediate
results" You
can read the whole article at
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66622.html.
Regardless of the number of press conferences
Chaney gives the evidence keeps mounting that
the Bush torture program went beyond the license
given them by the infamous Office of Legal
Counsel memos. The evidence shows that the
torture did not produce valid intelligence
information or many of the false confessions
Chaney was fishing for. In fact Chaney did not
appear concerned about the issue of preventing
further attacks. His main motivation seem to
have been CYA. By making himself so visible on
this issue he is increasing the chances of his
prosecution and conviction. You go girl!
donsadam
Tallahassee, FL
Democrat
[So you're in favor
of an ex-Army shrink's tail wagging the dog but
you automatically accuse Cheney (correct
spelling) of worst case scenarios without having
the full facts in hand? Furthermore, you -- and
Lanny Davis -- would deny the former VP media
visibility because his main motivation SEEMS to
be CYA? Nothing's changed, girlfriend. The
left is still as bitterly anti-American as ever.
-ED]
Draco-- Can you point me
to the exact location (page, paragraph) of your
reference? Cause I've read the entire decision
and all three
concurring opinions and every footnote.
Its not in there. There is nothing in that
decision about
waterboarding, much less any reference to
Asano's conviction for
war crimes. The only part of your quote
that I can find is limited to the first
sentence. Regrdess of that, you have to take
these into consideration:1. Asano was convicted
of many crimes of torture, not just waterboarding.
To single out waterboarding as THE primary
offense is disingenuous. 2. Japanese forms of
waterboarding were much more cruel than anything
performed by US agents at Guantanamo. Japanese water torture often
resulted in death. 3. He specifically committed
these acts of torture on a CIVILIAN!
Patastic
St Cloud, MN