Bush says torture still necessary

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Bush says torture still necessary
David Edwards and Andrew McLemore
Published: Sunday January 11, 2009

With days left in office and an abysmal approval rating, President Bush is still defending the use of torture.

In an interview on Fox News, Bush told Brit Hume that he approved enhanced interrogation tactics for suspected terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

"My view is the techniques were necessary and are necessary," Bush said.

The Bush administration has faced scathing criticism from those who say waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation tactics approved by Bush to be torture.

The president disagreed with notion that such tactics amount to torture.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_says_torture_still_necessary__0111.html

[stillcool]

1. That should make it easier for..

the prosecution, no?

[KakistocracyHater]

38. he promised us he NEVER tortured or ordered

someone else to do the torturing for him....:sarcasm: He said he never did, now he's changing his tune again....like stay the course

[graywarrior]

2. He gets to torture us for another nine days

[liberalmuse]

3. Let's have him waterboarded, then.

I'd like everyone in his administration and elsewhere who signed off on torture to have their own philosophy thoroughly tested on them. In a just Universe, Bush and his cohorts would be at the Hague, waiting for trial, then execution.

[eyesroll]

5. Um...you are aware there is no capital punishment in the ICC, right?

And "the Hague" is a city, not a court, right?

Just asking.

[elocs]

11. Please, do not confuse people with the facts. Thank you. n/t

[Diana Prince]

10. Torture them until they admit the lies told to get us into this situation. nt

[MrsBrady]

4. only 8 more days - and HE will stop being the President, which it torturing me!!!!

:puke:

[DavidDvorkin]

6. This is why prosecution IS necessary.

[1monster]

7. But--but, I thought he said the his administration didn't approve of torture!!!

:sarcasm:

[machI]

20. It is Republican semantics. By Bush's definition of interrogation, it was not torture.

Torture is something done in Third World Countries, like Cuba.

[jwirr]

8. You know he may be right! Won't we need it to get the truth out of

him and chainy. :sarcasm:

[MsLeopard]

9. Exhibit A for the prosecution - K&R

In his own words - I approved torture. Send him and the rest of the cabal to the Hague!

[Faygo Kid]

12. Nine days. Please, let us make it to Jan. 20.

I still think some very bad things will happen this week.

Bush should be jailed for the rest of his miserable life.

[Solly Mack]

13. There is nothing to debate.This isn't a case of a difference in opinion

Waterboarding is torture. Bush is a war criminal.

The media, and others, are using language like, "scathing criticism from those who say waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation tactics approved by Bush to be torture" to suggest the idea that maybe it isn't torture and it's all a matter of opinion.

It's an established fact - and an established legal fact - that waterboarding is torture. And not just waterboarding.

Anyone pretending otherwise , with word or with deed, is doing nothing more than spreading lies to cloud the truth and giving Bush and Cheney a pass on war crimes.

Language matters.

[xiamiam]

18. I think the media enablers should also be held accountable...defending a crime on tv because one has

a position to do so is just wrong..

[Solly Mack]

34. I think they should answer for their actions also

[Baby Snooks]

19. Not according to Nancy Pelosi...

You all need to read her comments along the way and accept reality and reality is thanks to her there will be no prosecution of anyone. I'm surprised Scooter Libby was prosecuted. Although in a way he really wasn't. He was more or less scapegoated. And then had it all commuted by the president who more than likely will pardon him in the end. To keep him, the one man who was prosecuted, from testifying against anyone else.

This whole matter is so hypocritical. You cannot condemn Bush without condemning Pelosi. And yet few are willing to condemn her.

[Bette Noir]

26. I'm willing.

She lost me the minute she said, "Impeachment is off the table." D@mn collaborator.

[Solly Mack]

33. When I say anyone and everyone - I mean anyone and everyone

and I have read her comments and I have spoken out against them

And I am not the only one on DU that has...evidence abounds of it.

You're right...the entire matter is hypocritical.

[bread_and_roses]

22. Well said. (n/t)

[acmavm]

14. For a guy who frigging lied about it even occurring in the first place, he sure

is proud of his policy of torture now.

But I guess he can hardly say anything else. That would be a one-way ticket to the Hague.

[bluesmail]

15. Okay. Guilty. By admission. Now you can prosecute.

I read where he made a deal. What kind of deal? Esoteric. The internets were talking about it a year ago.

[Jefferson23]

16. It is incredible that he basically admits to it. If the MCA of 2006 is found unconstitutional,

Bush is fucked.

[alfredo]

17. OK, so when you are arrested for crimes against humanity, you will

not complain about being water boarded or stripped nude, shackled to the floor, hooded, subjected to cold conditions, extremely loud music, strobe lights being doused with cold water, and kicked for no apparent reason. Then you should not mind being stripped, hooded, hung by your wrists, then beaten to death.

[WhiteTara]

21. I hope his interrogators

remember his words and torture the hell out of him. Maybe a few sessions on his favorite waterboard.

[GreenArrow]

23. He, like Cheney, is simply rubbing our faces in it

since he knows -- and has known, all along -- that the whole lot of them is getting away scot free.

"You don't like it? Waddaya gonna do about it? Who cares what you think. Heh heh heh..." Or, in the Dick Cheney version,
"go fuck yourselves".

[Bette Noir]

24. His a$$ needs to be in jail, pending trial.

[all.of.me]

25. He's the one who needs to be tortured.

See how HE likes it!

[yurbud]

27. it should be so easy to get Bush to incriminate himself. Just say, "Only and idiot and...

worse president than your father would do X," and then he will defend X as being smarter than anything his dad did.

[Kablooie]

28. He can say this because he's immune from any kind of prosecution.

Not legally immune but no one will ever get any official government response to this criminality.
Never.
Count on it.

Bush, Cheney and their minions are totally untouchable no matter how much people cry out.

[lonestarnot]

30. Oh no they are not.

:eyes:

[Kablooie]

36. Hope you're right and I'm wrong. But I don't see Obama putting any importance in this.

Too many other things to deal with right now.

[okiru109]

29. how else are we gonna make the world a better place?

and catch OBL?

can you name 1 great civilization that hasn't prospered and lived in peace that didn't torture?

look how swell the Israelis live... people need to be realist here and give bush the credit he is due.

turning the cold war hot, inflaming the middle east, the torture decider and looting the economy.

he hada tough job don't you know.

[Politicalboi]

31. I would love to see Bush/Cheney

Water Boarded live on TV pay per view. Ask them about 9/11, the 2.3 Trillion dollars gone missing 09/10/01, and the lies leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Then after the W/B we can send Bush and his whole regime to Iraq for a trial like Saddam got.

[donheld]

32. It is still necessary

Only if we get to see Bushie, Cheney, Rummy, etc get the same treatment.

[marshall]

35. I guess it all depends on the meaning of "torture"

Arguing over the meaning of words has become a regular past time in DC. I guess on some level just being behind bars is torture. So we have to decide where we draw the line.

[burrowowl]

37. PROSECUTE BU$HCO!

All of them and for Crimes Against Peace (Iraq War)!
And Senators, even Democrats, for aiding and abetting!
SAVE THE HONOR AND INTEGRITY OF THE UNITED STATES!

[whopis01]

39. As much as I disaprove of torture, I have to agree with him

It may still be necessary to waterboard Bush and possibly even shove a red hot poker up his ass a time or two.