WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush defended his administration’s detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects on Friday, saying they are both successful and lawful.
“When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we’re going to detain them, and you bet we’re going to question them,” he said during a hastily called appearance in the Oval Office. “The American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That’s our job.”
Bush was referring to a report on two secret memos in 2005 that authorized extreme interrogation tactics against terror suspects. “This government does not torture people,” the president said.
The two Justice Department legal opinions were disclosed in Thursday’s editions of The New York Times, which reported that the first 2005 legal opinion authorized the use of head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings, known as waterboarding, while interrogating terror suspects, and was issued shortly after then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took over the Justice Department.
That secret opinion, which explicitly allowed using the painful methods in combination, came months after a December 2004 opinion in which the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” and the administration seemed to back away from claiming authority for such practices.
Full Story Here:
Bush Says US ‘Does Not Torture’
Keep telling yourself that Mr. Bush, you’re just delusional enough to actually believe it, and if you keep saying it over and over, loudly, in your most sincere voice, you might get a few of the Bush Bots on board too, they generally believe anything you say…
Look, I am NOT trying to bash Bush but this was a stupid statement for him to make, he has just placed himself in a position to accept full responsibility for any and all acts of torture that may surface in the future, “The American President stated, ‘We don’t use torture’, and WE want him held accountable…’, there’s a very possible lead line for an MSM story, and it CAN happen, it’s not that I disapprove of forceful methods of interrogation, IF some asshat has information that could save this nation from a terror attack I believe we need to extract that information by any means necessary, no questions asked, if it saves American lives, USE IT, and tell the whole damn world that we DO use whatever method we MUST use to extricate any information a terrorist may have, don’t give your detractors a NEW field of fire to blast you on, and Mr. Bush, you have NO idea of WHAT really happens in those places that don’t exist…
What a President actually KNOWS as opposed to what really happens on a national security level is rarely the same information, Presidents are kept in the dark on many operations simply so they can maintain a plausible deniability factor, and this BOLD statement by Mr. Bush may make him seem like a noble and PC man to some, but to others it makes him look like a fool because they suspect otherwise concerning the use of torture, and to a few others it supplies them with all the ammo they need to provide 100% confirmation that it really DOES exist, and when a POTUS has the enemies that this POTUS has, there are people waiting in the wings to come forth with anything they have that may even remotely embarrass the office of POTUS, you would think that Mr. Bush’s advisers would have made that clear to him before he made this statement, but with Bush, who knows, maybe they DID and he ignored it, being the decider and all…
Mr. Bush may have given an executive order for U.S. Intel personnel to NOT use torture, but are ALL of our Intel people obeying that order?? Did he order them to not allow foreign operatives to use it under their supervision?? Simple semantics?? Sure, but if you’re looking at the BIG PICTURE, Bush has, once again, let his words place the office of POTUS in a precarious position…
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Bush probably doesn’t know. In the military, senior officers only know what is fed up to them. NCO’s, only tell officers what they want them to know. I never briefed my superiors on every detail. I only gave them what they needed to know and that was basically “mission accomplished”. Junior officers only tell senior officers what they want them to know. Generals only know what their staff briefs them on.
You really want to know what is happening in the streets of Iraq? Talk to the enlisted folks and junior officers. They’ll tell you what’s happening.
BobF, I couldn’t agree more… The POTUS is a mushroom, keep him in the dark and feed him bullshit, but this statement by HIM sure left his ass hanging on a limb… A thin limb… If the guy would just STFU he’d appear at least 50% more intelligent…
Again, that gets back to “it’s not PC to say we do _________” — fill in the blank. No politician will, any more, shove something un-PC-like into the public world because they simply don’t have the guts. I couldn’t agree more: we DO what we NEED to do WHEN we need to do it, for the safety and security of our NATION, not just a handful of persons. And you know what, as one of those citizens the government SHOULD be trying to keep safe? I WANT my government to do PRECISELY THAT.
I accuse Bush of being one of the worst communicators ever established in the White House. He knows nothing about propaganda — and make no mistake, “working the press” and “working the world” is PRECISELY what I want my President to do. You need to know WHEN to hit hit hit hit the press in statement after statement, trot out the party line and then hammer it home clearly and firmly. Then you need to know when to stop.
BZ
The US has always employed torture as a means to an end or just because your buddy/buddies were killed or injured. It goes with the territory!
You are the NCO in charge of a patrol. You come under sniper fire. One of your buddies dies. Then you capture one of the bad guys. You want to know who, how, and where more of the bad guys are. The guy you captured won’t talk. That’s when the cigarettes, lighters, and knives come out. You find out what you want to know and then kill the guy you captured.
Then you never unless you’re stupid include any of this goes in your after action report. You just give the details that you know your superiors want to hear. Bush most likely doesn’t know what I’ve just laid out. A lot of people who never served in the military don’t know this happens and when it does come out they’re all shocked. Well as the saying goes, ‘Walk a mile in my boots before you judge my actions’!
However Bush should never ever open his mouth if he can get away without commenting. Bush doesn’t have enough on the ball to be either a convincing liar or the teller of the unvarnished truth. “NO COMMENT,” should be Bush’s stock answer.
Basti left out the P-38 can openers…
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