Snowdon is a dummy

Frank Apisa wrote:

Walter is going to defend his country wherever possible even if it involves contorting some things to show it in its best light, Revelette,

I'n NOT defended anything here. I'm just giving my opinion about published reports and facts.
And fact is that our foreign intelligence service seems to have acted outside the law - that's what the parliamentary committee is investigating.
The domestic agencies (both federal as well as especially those of some states) - well, they stumble from one scandal to next one. But as far as I know, that's not related to Snowden, the Snowden documents or similar. But it could be, too.

but this president at least stopped that.

Many of the Americans here have much more negative to say about our country than positive

You are much more positive in your views and comments about Germany...than negative.

Frank Apisa wrote:

You are much more positive in your views and comments about Germany...than negative.

No doubt - otherwise, I would emigrate.

Exactly!

US: Torture Treaty Shift Significant but Inadequate
Treaty Prohibitions Apply Wherever State Has ‘Effective Control’

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Submission to the United Nations Committee against Torture
OCTOBER 20, 2014 Written statement
Letter to President Obama on Convention against Torture
OCTOBER 29, 2014 Letter
While the Obama administration is distancing itself from discredited Bush-era interpretations of the Convention against Torture, it is still unwilling to accept its full obligations under the treaty. The US should explicitly accept that the treaty applies anywhere the US exercises ‘effective control,’ including any detention centers overseas.
Laura Pitter, national security counsel
(Geneva) – A US statement on compliance with the Convention against Torture on November 12, 2014, improves on previous US positions on the treaty’s application but falls short of international obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. The US is appearing for its regular review before the United Nations Committee Against Torture on November 12-13 in Geneva.

Ahead of the review, Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations wrote to President Barack Obama to urge him to reject the position advanced by the administration of George W. Bush that certain obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment only applied within US territory.

“While the Obama administration is distancing itself from discredited Bush-era interpretations of the Convention against Torture, it is still unwilling to accept its full obligations under the treaty,” said Laura Pitter, national security counsel at Human Rights Watch, who is attending the US review in Geneva. “The US should explicitly accept that the treaty applies anywhere the US exercises ‘effective control,’ including any detention centers overseas.”

(CNSNews.com) – A State Department official told a United Nations panel Wednesday that the United States “did not always live up to our own values” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and she announced that the U.S. now acknowledges that a ban against torture applies in areas beyond its sovereign jurisdiction, including Guantanamo Bay and on U.S.-registered ships and aircraft.


“As President Obama has acknowledged, we crossed the line and we take responsibility for that,” acting legal adviser Mary McLeod told the Geneva-based U.N. Committee Against Torture, a body of legal experts that monitors implementation of the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

“The United States is proud of its record as a leader in respecting, promoting, and defending human rights and the rule of law, both at home and around the world,” she said. “But in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we regrettably did not always live up to our own values, including those reflected in the convention.”



McLeod announced a change in government policy, that the U.S. now acknowledges the extraterritorial application of the convention’s article 16, under which each state party commits to prohibiting cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment “in any territory under its jurisdiction.”

She told the committee the U.S. understands that its obligations extend to certain areas that are beyond its sovereign territory but in which it exercises control as a governmental authority.

“We have determined that the United States currently exercises such control at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and with respect to U.S. registered ships and aircraft,” she said.


[/b]“There should be no doubt,” McLeod concluded, “the United States affirms that torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and punishment are prohibited at all times in all places, and we remain resolute in our adherence to these prohibitions.”



The announcement marks a shift from the stance of the Bush administration, which told the Committee Against Torture in 2006 that the provisions of the convention were geographically limited to America’s de jure territory.

The committee at the time responded that the U.S. “should recognize and ensure that the provisions of the convention expressed as applicable to ‘territory under the state party’s jurisdiction’ apply to, and are fully enjoyed, by all persons under the effective control of its authorities, of whichever type, wherever located in the world.”

In his remarks to the committee Wednesday, U.S. assistant secretary Tom Malinowski also touched on the post-9/11 period.

“We do not claim to be perfect,” he said. “A little more than ten years ago, our government was employing interrogation methods that, as President Obama has said, any fair-minded person would believe were torture.

“At the same time, the test for any nation committed to this convention and to the rule of law is not whether it ever makes mistakes, but whether and how it corrects them,” Malinowski said.

Today, he said, “U.S. national security agencies now arguably have more explicit safeguards against torture and cruelty than those of any other country on earth. They can and should be a model for others.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a briefing in Washington that the stance announced in Geneva on article 16 of the convention was “in contrast to positions previously taken by the U.S. government.”

“We have established laws and procedures to strengthen the safeguards against torture and cruel treatment,” she said. “We’ve stated how applicable we believe the convention is and our own laws are.”

Asked whether that meant compensation or apologies would be offered to people who had been held without charge for years, or who had perhaps been waterboarded, Psaki said, “I don’t believe that was a part of the discussion, no.”

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. delegation appearing before the committee in Geneva had also clarified the U.S. view that the convention continues to apply when a state is engaged in armed conflict.

The 10 current members are the Committee Against Torture are experts from China, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Italy, Mauritius, Morocco, Nepal, Senegal and the United States.

I only wish you would not be so quick to give up on believing in the country of your birth and choice.

Quote:

I only wish you would not be so quick to give up on believing in the country of your birth and choice.

My so any exercise of the right to address misdeeds by our government is giving up believing in his country???!!!!????

Only cheer leading type support for the current government is valid for anyone who love his nation?

Not believing in the current leadership and the current government due to their own behaviors is not the same as not believing in the nation and what it can be and should be if we can get some honest people into power that will follow the constitution both by it letter and it spirit.