John McCain admits US under George Bush violated the Geneva Convention

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Run time: 07:14 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjBZcaT3c7o   Posted on YouTube: April 26, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 27, 2009 By DU Member: Amerigo Vespucci Views on DU: 1296

 

John McCain admits US under George Bush violated the Geneva Convention
By John Amato Monday Apr 27, 2009 9:00am

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/john-mccain-admits-us-under-george-bus-0

John McCain admitted to Bob Schieffer on Face The Nation that the US violated the Geneva Conventions under George W. Bush regarding the abusive treatment of prisoners.

You know, that torture thing.

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (Ranking, Armed Services Committee): First of all let me repeat what you just said, Bob. I have opposed torture. It's violation of the Geneva Conventions. I worry about treatment of Americans in future conflicts.

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: The-- the allegations are that they gave the wrong counsel that’s and—- and that bad things were done. And we violated fundamental commitments that the United States of America made when we signed the Geneva Conventions. And we disregarded what might happen to Americans who are held captive in the future. And by the way, those who say our enemies won’t abide the Geneva Conventions they will if they know there’s going to retribution for their violation of it.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask you about this quickly, Jay Bybee who was one of the people at the Justice department that wrote the memos that gave the CIA what they call the legal reasons to go ahead with all this, he’s now a federal judge. We understand that he very much regrets, or at least he’s told people, he regrets having written those memos. Do you think that he should be impeached or do you think that he should resign or you-- you think he should be left alone?

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Well, a resignation would be a decision he would have to make on his own. But he falls into the same category as everybody else as far as giving very bad advice and misinterpreting fundamentally what the United States is all about, much less things like the Geneva Conventions. Plus--under President Reagan we signed an agreement against torture, we’re in violation of that...

So tell me what are the penalties for violating the Geneva Conventions? John McCain freely admitted that our great country violated the agreements we signed up for. Is it an act of vengeance that the people who broke those treaties should be prosecuted or is it just following the law?

[digidigido]

1. The Senator gives the proper answer but doesn't realize it applies to us

"and by the way, those who say our enemies won’t abide the Geneva Conventions they will if they know there’s going to retribution for their violation of it."

How can we justify retribution to our enemies if we don't punish our own?

[burning rain]

2. Maybe he's as much as admitting it's...

merely retribution and not justice. And that universal justice is a null concept in his book.

[jeff30997]

3. "he regrets having written those memos"

Sure he does now that he can feel the heat.

And McFlip-flop = puke:

[Liberal_Christian]

4. So... what we did in fact was torture, torture is wrong, we should not torture...

but it's ok to get away with it?? Is that what McCain is saying? What are his positions on law enforcement? Commit a crime and just as long as you know you are not suppose to do it, you get off scott-free? I don't fully understand his reasoning. If we let people get away with things they are not suppose to, how is that in any way preventative?

[JDPriestly]

5. Two counterarguments

1) If we are to move on with regard to the torture crimes, why not move on with regard to drug crimes and other victimless crimes first?

2) The argument is not about punishing people who gave advice (the lawyers). It is about whether we should punish those who authorized the torture including high level members of the Bush administration who sat around a table and decided to ask the lawyers for opinions on the legality of the torture, letting the lawyers know just what specific acts of torture they wanted the memos to OK. It's the top guys who should be tried. The lawyers should just be disbarred. They should simply lose their jobs. There are just too many lawyers out there with integrity who may have lost jobs or walked away from clients or jobs because they would not produce legal memos or contracts or present legal arguments that were specious or unethical.