With all due respect, Senator Levin...
...you are not exactly correct.
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/29/levin-calls-cheneys-cia-document-claims-a-lie
Dick Cheney said that the Bush Administration's "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e. torture of prisoners) worked, and saved lives. You think he was lying because torture did not produce good intelligence information or save the lives of US citizens from potential terrorist attacks. While your assertion is indeed correct, that is not what Dick Cheney said.
It is well documented that torture is unreliable for extracting truthful information, but is very useful for extracting false confessions. Those false confessions are the "success" that Cheney is referring to. Torturing prisoners into "confessing" to a link between Iraq and 9/11 was a key "justification" for going to war against Iraq.
In setting up and implementing this scheme to march to war under false pretenses, people like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales and others could be convicted of treason and war crimes. These offenses can result in the death penalty under US law. Therefore, torturing prisoners into false confessions and then rebranding the word "torture" can save their lives.
So, with all due respect Senator Levin, I accept your rationale, your arguments and your intent. But I must confess that I find your statement about Dick Cheney lying to be technically incorrect.
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/29/levin-calls-cheneys-cia-document-claims-a-lie
Dick Cheney said that the Bush Administration's "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e. torture of prisoners) worked, and saved lives. You think he was lying because torture did not produce good intelligence information or save the lives of US citizens from potential terrorist attacks. While your assertion is indeed correct, that is not what Dick Cheney said.
It is well documented that torture is unreliable for extracting truthful information, but is very useful for extracting false confessions. Those false confessions are the "success" that Cheney is referring to. Torturing prisoners into "confessing" to a link between Iraq and 9/11 was a key "justification" for going to war against Iraq.
In setting up and implementing this scheme to march to war under false pretenses, people like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales and others could be convicted of treason and war crimes. These offenses can result in the death penalty under US law. Therefore, torturing prisoners into false confessions and then rebranding the word "torture" can save their lives.
So, with all due respect Senator Levin, I accept your rationale, your arguments and your intent. But I must confess that I find your statement about Dick Cheney lying to be technically incorrect.
posted by zblog at
6:27 PM
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