DOOMSDAY AND DOUBLESPEAK

SOME TIME BEFORE the next Doomsday, the United States must decide what kind of nation it officially is and whether it thinks only the means of barbarity can prevent the end of civilization.  The last Doomsday September Eleventh will be forever cited as reason we might need to torture our enemies.  The so often cited past and future
ticking bomb scenario is a cover for the moral implosion our society suffers now.  The natty arguments for our need for torture leave us lost in our dread.
BUSH AND CHENEY ARE simply dishonest about torture.  Why all the denials we don’t do it? Why the need for an exemption?

President Bush said Monday that he was "confident" that he could reach an agreement with Senator John McCain over legislative restrictions on American interrogations of captives in the fight against global terrorism.
Mr. Bush added that "we want to make sure we're in a position to be able to interrogate without torture" because there are "people who still want to hurt us."

DEFENSE OF THIS DOUBLESPEAK has been left to Stephen Hadley.  Our policy is clear.  No torture. The orders are out there. No torture. But we might need to defend  but not discipline some Jack Bauer clone who takes the law into his own hands. Senator Lindsey Graham is doing heavy lifting for torture in the media for the White House.

"We've got a problem here: How do you protect the operative in the field who is making snap, quick decisions under stressful circumstances to protect their own freedom?" Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and ally of Mr. McCain, said Sunday on the NBC News program "Meet the Press."
"I'm willing to provide a defense to an operative who is acting reasonably and responsibly, following the law, making hard judgment calls," Mr. Graham said. "What we cannot do, what Senator McCain cannot allow to happen or our country cannot allow to happen, is to create immunity or exceptions in the law that has protected us for 60 years."

WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM HERE with morality.  And with language. Sorry, Lindsay Graham.  The operative in the field who tortures is not acting reasonably and you are creating an exception and immunity.
[Meet the Press transcript] The rest of the world looks upon as exercising an American case of exceptionalism. Do we accept the conventions against torture or not?

TORTURE ROUNDUP
IRAQ DENIES TORTURE  The Iraqi Interior Ministry insisted Monday that none of the 625 prisoners discovered last week in an Iraqi detention center had been tortured or abused, despite assertions by American officials to the contrary.
BRITISH NOBLES ON RULE COMMON DIGNITY  British lords rule torture unacceptable in court. LORD HOPE: "Torture is one of most evil practices known to man. Once torture has become acclimatised in a legal system it spreads like an infectious disease, hardening and brutalising those who have become accustomed to its use ... Views as to where the line is to be drawn may differ sharply from state to state. This can be seen from the list of practices authorised for use in Guantánamo Bay by the US authorities, some of which would shock the conscience if they were ever to be authorised for use in our own country.

SUKABI at All Spin Zone has some additional worthy reads.

TORTURE FOR DUMMIES Kinsley rips Krauthammer.  Needs to be read in full, excerpt won't cut the salami. Or would cut it too thin.

Comments

[comandante agi]

Come on Heretik, the president emphatically stated last month, "We do not torture".

We all know that his word is gold.

[Kvatch]

But now, he apparently agrees with McCain on the subject. So should we soon see Mr. Hadley cease his efforts to modify the McCain amendment language? Not counting on it.