Bush: Officials Told to Stay Within Law

[Barrett808]

SEA ISLAND, Ga. - Addressing advice the White House got suggesting torture might be allowed for some terrorist interrogations, President Bush said Friday he ordered U.S. officials to act consistent with law and international treaties.

"What I authorized was staying within U.S. law," Bush said at the conclusion of the G-8 summit meeting here. The president said he doesn't recall seeing Justice Department advice about the conditions for such torture.

Asked repeatedly about it, Bush sidestepped a question about whether he thought torture was immoral, saying that his instructions were "to adhere to law. ... We're a nation of law" and "you might look at those laws."

The direction he provided was to "conform to U.S. law" and to act consistent with international treaty obligations, Bush said.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040610/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_prisoner_abuse

Title was: "Bush Claims No Recall of Iraq Torture Memo"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=544&e=2&u=/ap/20040610/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_prisoner_abuse_1

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. what a crock!

n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

If he has Alzheimer's perhaps he should step down?

What a dumbass.

[htuttle]

2. "I don't recall", "I don't remember"

See! He's ALREADY channeling Reagan!

[HuckleB]

15. Hee hee! LOL!

Talk about an appropriate title for Ronnie's biography. (Please note that I am only referring to his evasiveness while in office, and not the illness that took his life.)

[ALago1]

3. Talk about invoking Reagan!

He's using his stockpile of ambiguous avoidances now!! :)

[Shakespeare]

4. And the follow-up question SHOULD have been:

"Sir, you say that you are required to conform to the law, but these memoranda were seeking to find a way to justify torture under the law--how do you defend that?"

[Liberal Veteran]

7. Follow-up questions? That's sooo 20th century.

Bush and his handlers do not allow the press to pursue a line of questioning.

[indepat]

5. If it were within US law (i.e., the Geneva accords) why did GWB need to

authorize it? What am I missing here?

[Liberal Veteran]

11. Not accords...Geneva Convention.

They are two different things.

The accords were related to Israel/Palestine and Vietnam/United States.

The convention is the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians in war time.

A friendly reminder from Anal-retentive Man.

[indepat]

50. P;ease pardon my ignorance

[Malva Zebrina]

6. Hitler also loved to claim that he did nothing that was outside the law

He just changed the law to comply with his desires and fascism.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

12. He was also heard to say

that the earth is flat and the moon is made of gouda. That man just wants to make me :puke:

[Disturbed]

14. 42 pages?

I would believe that he didn't read 42 pages. They prolly handed him a two sentence memo short version and he signed that.

[banana republican]

47. You are missing pages

the document is more than 42 pages. There are two versions of the memo one 42 and another that is longer.

[nolabels]

34. More quotes from * ?

(snip)
"By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell -- and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed. -Adolf Hitler"

"'The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life' -Hitler"
(snip)
http://www.miniluv.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=471

Yuk for the site but what the eh, there only quotes x(

(snip)
"Great liars are also great magicians"
- Adolf Hitler

"How fortunate for leaders that men do not think."
- Adolf Hitler

"People have killed only when they could not achieve their aim in other ways ... there is a broadened strategy, with intellectual weapons ... why should I demoralize the enemy by military means if I can do so better and more cheaply in other ways?"
- Adolf Hitler
(snip)
http://www.military-quotes.com/Hitler.htm

[arwalden]

8. Bush* Is A Criminal... His Aggressive And Evasive Answers

convince me that he's in this up to his neck.

-- Allen

Fellow Texans, I am proudly standing here to humbly see.
I assure you, and I mean it- Now, who says I don't speak out as plain as day?
And, fellow Texans, I'm for progress and the flag- long may it fly.
I'm a poor boy, come to greatness. So, it follows that I cannot tell a lie.

Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.

[benburch]

9. "I Did NOT have Sado-Masochistic Relations With That Prison"

Time to impeach this asshole.

[TLDHOME99]

29. Hilarious, benburch!

:toast:

[HuckleB]

10. Thanks for confirming your total lack of character, Mr. President*.

I fart in your general direction!

[louis-t]

35. Ha! I love that line!

[Solly Mack]

13. Was the "I don't recall" in honor of Reagan?

Heres a clue, Shrubya: Reagan lied too.

[Disturbed]

19. "I don't recall"

That should be on Raygoon's tombstone.

[ChompySnack]

16. Which means he has seen it. He's going down.

We know that he can't read well, so there must have been someone who read it to him. Condi perhaps?

The torture scandal goes straight to the top of his pointy head.

These guys are cornered animals now, how are they going to try to change the playing field to avoid prosecution? Will the congressional Republicans continue to back the torturer in chief?

Do they think 54% Dem, 35% Rep is bad? Try 60% Dem, 10% Rep!

[Moderator]

17. Please edit your subject line to match the title of the article

Thank you

[Barrett808]

Yahoo just changed the title

That was the correct title when I posted. Nevertheless, I'll change it.

[usg353d]

18. Just like he doesn't recall

Air National Guard duty!

[yellowcanine]

20. Bush sidestepped a question about whether he thought torture was immoral.

What happened to Mr. "no nuance", "says what he thinks", etc. etc. I gues Bush did answer the question by not answering it. Apparently he does believe that torture is sometimes justified.

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

21. What a bunch of effing bullsh*t

Bush makes me sick.

[myrna minx]

22. How about "memos on tape" as read by the author so that he

won't have to hurt his head by reading. :eyes: He's going down. :nuke:

[MallRat]

23. Don't just sit there. RATE THIS STORY A "5!"

This is humiliating... don't let it get flushed down the memory hole!!!

-MR

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. Is he still doing his "tribute to Raygun"? eom

[TNOE]

25. President Bush said FRIDAY

ummm, sloppy reporting - today is Thursday. Pitiful.

[pinto]

26. seems someone asked him about it, he got legal advice, and

responded....

so how come he can't recall...

seems "authorization" on interrogation limits would be a significant decision. and is seems it was in response to something, somewhere....

can't recall?

ugh.

[Catshrink]

27. Like father, like son....

Jr is just like dad.... every time GHWB is asked something controversial or unpleasant he does't remember. Neither did Reagan. While that might have worked for the two old farts, Jr. is too young to have such a bad memory. Or did he do too much coke and booze as a young 'un, before he found Jesus? He has an answer to that: "I don't remember."

[struggle4progress]

28. Story is everywhere!

Bush Claims No Recall of Iraq Torture Memo
<snip> The president said he doesn't recall seeing Justice Department advice about the conditions for such torture. Asked repeatedly about it, Bush sidestepped a question about whether he thought torture was immoral, saying that his instructions were "to adhere to law. ... We're a nation of law" and "you might look at those laws." <snip>
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/8891189.htm


<snip> Asked about a Justice Department memo that said the United States could use torture to interrogate prisoners in the war on terror, Bush said that he cannot recall if he saw the memo. <snip>
http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=D9B09BC0-1C7C-4A09-8848-9E08EAF53315


<snip> "That ought to comfort you. We're a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions from me to the government." <snip>
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5396501


Revelations suggest Bush may have OK’d prison abuse
<snip>
Top officials in the CIA and other intelligence agencies say they were seeking presidential authority before employing more aggressive interrogation techniques on prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan. The memo demonstrates that the White House and civilian leaders in the Pentagon were seeking legal arguments to justify suspending its obligations under both U.S. and international law, and has led to speculation that Bush may have issued a secret presidential finding authorizing techniques that would qualify as torture under most definitions. Indeed, given that torture was apparently used on a systematic basis on prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, and probably in Guantanamo, it appears almost certain that Bush did, in fact, provide authorization for those actions.

If a presidential finding does, in fact, exist, it puts the photos from Abu Ghraib— and Bush’s statements in the wake of their release— in a whole new context. Far from the actions of a handful of bad apples, acting in an “un-American” manner, the prisoner abuse would more accurately be seen as the direct result of a conscious presidential decision to suspend the rules of war that most nations have accepted for more than fifty years. This wouldn’t be a question of what the president knew, and when he knew it. It would be a question of what did the president actually authorize, and did he violate U.S. and international law and treaty obligations in doing so?

The memorandum, which has been blasted by legal scholars, including some in the Pentagon, as riddled with legal errors, appears to be an effort to put a legalistic veneer on the desire by Bush and others in his administration to employ torture in their efforts to obtain information. It was a surprisingly thin veneer, one that purported that Bush, as commander-in-chief, essentially could disregard any law in the interests of national security. Such legal arguments fly directly in the face of more than two hundred years of legal precedent in this country. Our president is not an emperor. As the Supreme Court ruled more than fifty years ago, the president must act within the confines of the law, even in war time.

These latest revelations have elevated the issues involved in the prison abuse scandal to a degree rarely seen. Human Rights Watch on Monday charged that the memorandum may demonstrate actual intent by the administration to violate the Geneva Convention and other unconditional prohibitions on torture, which is considered a war crime.
<snip>

http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=1038



Torture memo puts focus on Nevada judge

A legal memo advising the White House that torturing al-Qaida captives "may be justified" in the war on terror has focused attention on Jay Bybee, a Nevadan who signed the document as a top Justice Department adviser in 2002.
<snip>
An authority on constitutional and administrative law, Bybee, returned to Las Vegas last year as a judge on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bybee didn't respond to a request for comment on his role in producing the memo. A secretary at Bybee's Las Vegas office says the judge was unavailable and would have no comment.

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1933258&nav=8faONox0

[Mike Niendorff]

30. Translation:

"We do not deny authorizing the torture of prisoners -- we only deny that we broke the law when we did it."


MDN

[aquart]

49. Bingo.

[Disturbed]

31. Within the Law

If the Pres. ordered that interogations stay within the law then that leads to a dilemma that his top Civilian and Military Commanders ordered "abuse" and torture in all of the prisons on a system wide basis ignoring the Pres. Conclusion: All of the top civilian and military must be fired and charged with War Crimes!

[TN al]

32. Sure he ordered them to stay within US law...

...what he didn't say was that he had ordered, with the opinion of counsel, that us law now said they could torture whoever they damn well felt like.

[saigon68]

33. The mercenaries will get BARBECUED and so will the Troops

TOO BAD SO SAD


The department's lawyers concluded that Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are not protected by the Geneva Conventions because they do not satisfy four main conditions of the treaty itself.


These include requirements to obey the laws of war, wear insignia recognizable from a distance and operate under the command of a responsible individual

And no you MF freepers I'm not against the troops

This is what the military JAG has complained about for a long time NOW

There is no incentive for the other side to do anything better than what we do to them.

IDIOTS

[Solly Mack]

36. You care passionately......your words have always said as much

you just understand better than many just how ugly it can get.

and it can and will get uglier...

[saigon68]

51. I Hope and Pray it doesn't

The reality unfortunately is like you say

It probably will get much worse :-(

[Zhade]

57. It also ensures more fights to the death and less prisoners.

More death. More mayhem. More revenge. More terrorists.

Of course, you know this, I know this, but Joe Freeper, he don't know nothin'!

Fools. They fail to realize that the treasonous fascists they support will be happy to turn on them once their 'useful idiocy' is no longer needed.

[Walt Starr]

37. I did not give instructions to those interrogators,

Halliburton

[Tellurian]

38. Bush meant..."GET AROUND THE LAW".. anyway you can! nt

[Media_Lies_Daily]

39. What he really meant was "to adhere to NeoCon law"....

...with the understanding that dictators make up their own rules as they go along.

Other than that, he's lying like usual.

[AussieInCA]

40. chimpy the morality flip floper....

"Bush sidestepped a question about whether he thought torture was immoral"

Wasn't he out preaching morality at some military institution just a week ago? What a joke.


Vote Bushco 2004 - Christian Fundies for Immoral Torturing!

[Malva Zebrina]

41. of course he saw to it that the law covered his crimes

just like Hitler

and now brags that he instructed people to observe the law.

[Darranar]

42. And there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq...

tons of them. And the Bush Administration knows where they are.

[notadmblnd]

43. I just saw a clip on the News Hour and he was pretty cocky and

arrogant, leaning over the podium like an ape with a snarlign look on his face and kinda swaggering back and forth. "now listen, I'm gonna tell you one more time....My instructions were "to adhere to law. ... We're a nation of law" and "you might look at those laws." blah blah blah blah blah

[Disturbed]

44. Congress has a sworn oath...

to protect and defend The Constitution of the USA.

They must now subpena that order which the Pres. claims that he gave!

Also, Asscrack is responsible for the memo since it came from his office. He signed off on it, which means that he is accountable to it.
He was in Contempt of Congress and lied under oath when he stated that he does not approve of torure. This memo proves that he did approve of torture.

[0007]

52. That's the way I see it, Congress has to perform it's duties.

If so it sure dosen't look good for Ashcroft.

[scared]

45. The problem is................

They are reinterpreting any and all laws to suit what they want to do. All you had to do was listen to John Ashcroft testifying the other day to know that they think certain kinds of torture are perfectly legal.

Bush Ok'd the torture, which he is not saying, instead he is saying he authorized nothing illegal.

[banana republican]

46. Aboslutely Correct

Bush told everyone to stay within the law. The "law" as outlined in the Ashcroft Memo.

[Generator]

54. HELLo I know

It's so infuriating. The whole point is:Bushscum YOU were the one changing the law! So if you changed the law to what is out of accepted bounds of interntational law, then you authorized a change to torture!

It's doublespeak of the highest order.

[truthisfreedom]

48. i did not have sexual relations with that memo.

although i thought about it. a lot.

[Kool Kitty]

53. Let's make a list of all the

shit that this man DOES NOT RECALL: Ken Lay, Weapons of Mass Destruction claims, Chalabi, Osama Bin Laden, these memos...

[charlyvi]

55. But according to * Justice Dept

The President is above the law in time of war, so just exactly what law is he referring to? shrub law? Divine law? HUH???

[Q]

56. Bush* admitted he 'issued an authorization'...

...on the matter of torture. Congress MUST demand that this particular authorization be turned over for examination.

[Junkdrawer]

58. Bush is the supreme law, so any order from Bush is within the law***

*** Paraphrasing the Torture Memo.