Who Isn't against Torture?

He never has hidden the barbarity of his methods. Somehow, he's gotten away with it so far.

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government."

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Scenario:

Officials have captured someone who it is strongly believed is aware of the location of a nuclear bomb in Manhattan. In fact, he admits to knowing it while ranting on about how millions of infidels will taste the pain his people have tasted.

Conventional methods of interrogation prove ineffective. He refuses to reveal the location of the bomb.

Desperate to save millions of American lives, the officials resort to torture to induce the suspect to reveal the location of the bomb.

It may interest some of you to know that Alan Dershowitz endorses torture in such instances.

Scenario:

U.S. personnel abuses detainees not only as part of the military interrogation process, but merely to "relieve stress." Everyone in camp knows that if you want to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC ("Person Under Control") tent. In a way it is sport…

One day a sergeant shows up and tells a PUC to grab a pole. He tells him to bend over and breaks the guy's leg with a mini Louisville Slugger, a metal bat.

It may interest some of you to know that the White House wants to veto a Senate bill to ban such "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

When Torture becomes Policy
by Mike Whitney http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8776

Tortured Soul Bush Wants To Torture Others
Opinion: Tortured Soul Bush Wants To Torture Others
Bob Herbert (excerpt)
Bush Watch
10/12/05

Last Wednesday, Senator McCain rose on the Senate floor and said: "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, states simply that 'No one shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.' The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the U.S. is a signatory, states the same. The binding Convention Against Torture, negotiated by the Reagan administration and ratified by the Senate, prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

"On last year's [Department of Defense] authorization bill, the Senate passed a bipartisan amendment reaffirming that no detainee in U.S. custody can be subject to torture or cruel treatment, as the U.S. has long defined those terms. All of this seems to be common sense, in accordance with longstanding American values. But since last year's [defense] bill, a strange legal determination was made that the prohibition in the Convention Against Torture against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment does not legally apply to foreigners held outside the U.S. They can, apparently, be treated inhumanely. This is the [Bush] administration's position, even though Judge Abe Sofaer, who negotiated the Convention Against Torture for President Reagan, said in a recent letter that the Reagan administration never intended the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment to apply only on U.S. soil."

The McCain amendment would end the confusion and the perverse hunt for loopholes in the laws that could somehow be interpreted as allowing the sadistic treatment of human beings in U.S. custody....The president, who has trouble getting anything right, is trying to block this effort to outlaw the abusive treatment of prisoners.

...'cuz he's a piece of ****.

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/october2005/111005torture.htm