"Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them. Torture is how you get bad information, not good intelligence. Torture is how you set back America's standing in the world, not how you strengthen it."
"at least mccain, obama are clear..."
“Timothy McVeigh was one of the worst killers in U.S. history. But at least we had fair procedures for him.”- attorney general john ashcroft in 2003, new york times
"administration officials split over stalled military tribunals"
"Well, it's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in."- vice president dick cheney, october 2006, white house radio day
"interview of the vice president by scott hennen, WDAY"
"The Democratic-led Senate voted 51-45 on Wednesday in favor of a bill calling for the Central Intelligence Agency to adopt the US Army Field Manual, which forbids waterboarding..."the associated press, today
"white house to veto senate ban on waterboarding"
"The president will veto that bill."- dana perino, white house spokeswoman, today
"white house to veto senate ban on waterboarding"
"...we now know that there will be one difference between Obama and McCain in November. One will never tolerate torture; the other just did."andrew sullivan, today, the daily dish
"mccain: against torture, but"
And this is hardly the first time that McCain has taken the "against torture, but" position. Remember when Congress passed an amendment to the defense appropriation (Jan 2006) forbidding cruel/unusual/degrading punishment? The one that McCain personally got through Congress, and Bush threatened to veto, but they would have had an override, thanks in large part to McCain's advocacy? Right. So remember when Bush signed it even though he didn't want to, so yay victory? And then signed his signing statement (those things he likes to have which usually say something along the lines of "I have no intention of enforcing and/or following this law"). Remember what McCain's response was? Nothing. After passing this amendment was his full-time job.
ReplyDeleteI always hope that this will get mentioned when they talk about McCain's ostensible "anti-torture" stance.
xx amy h.