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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTed Cruz thinks Bush torture memo is US law:
To set up an interview with a former Abu Ghraib interrogator who wrote a confessional book, Amy Goodman on Democracy Now played clips of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz answering whether waterboarding is torture.
Trump, as usual said he would do much worse.
Ted Cruz' answer surprised me, not in that he approved of torture, but that he used the Bush era torture memo definition of torture as if it were the law of the land.
SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, under the definition of torture, no, its not. Under the law, torture is excruciating pain that is equivalent to losinglosing organs and systems. So, under the definition of torture, it is not. It is enhanced interrogation, it is vigorous interrogation, but it does not meet the generally recognized definition of torture.
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/7/a_torturer_s_confession_former_abu
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/7/a_torturer_s_confession_former_abu
From John Dean's article on the torture memo:
The memo defines torture so narrowly that only activities resulting in "death, organ failure or the permanent impairment of a significant body function" qualify.
http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/dean/20050114.html
http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/dean/20050114.html
The Army's own Interrogation Manual has a pretty simple rule of thumb for figuring out if something is torture:
If your contemplated actions were perpetrated by the enemy against US Prisoners of War, you would believe such actions violate international or US law.
http://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm34-52.pdf
http://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm34-52.pdf
You would think the son of a pastor might be familiar with the concept of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
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Ted Cruz thinks Bush torture memo is US law: (Original Post)
yurbud
Apr 2016
OP
ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)1. Gads, and he's a senator? We should require at least a city council seat for experience in
the legislative process, how a law becomes a law, 101.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)2. Here's a simple test:
Were Japanese officials executed for doing it? If the answer is 'yes', it's a war crime and illegal.
The answer is 'yes'.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)3. A better test: Ted Cruz is subjected to it and still says it aint torture with a straight face