New Bush-Era Torture Memo Released, Raises Questions About What Has Changed And What Hasn't

[UpInArms]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Ruby the Liberal (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- A six-year-old memo from within the George W. Bush administration that came to light this week acknowledges that White House-approved interrogation techniques amounted to "war crimes." The memo's release has called attention to what has changed since President Barack Obama took office, but it also raises questions about what hasn't.

The Bush White House tried to destroy every copy of the memo, written by then-State Department counselor Philip Zelikow. Zelikow examined tactics like waterboarding -- which simulates drowning -- and concluded that there was no way they were legal, domestically or internationally.

“We are unaware of any precedent in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or any subsequent conflict for authorized, systematic interrogation practices similar to those in question here," Zelikow wrote. The memo has been obtained by George Washington University's National Security Archive and Wired's Spencer Ackerman.

<snip>

But while Democrats are using the memo as evidence of a new post-torture era under Obama, human rights activists, civil libertarians and opponents of excessive secrecy say they see many ways in which the country's moral compass is still askew -- and in some ways even more so than before.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/torture-memo-bush_n_1408612.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

[originalpckelly]

1. It's the dripping waterboard.

The equivalent of the smoking gun in this.

[sdgrtht]

2. Spam deleted by uppityperson (MIR Team)

[The Wielding Truth]

3. The Bush years need corrected. Fox insanity needs to be held responsible for propaganda and

the Tea Party needs to be made aware that they have been led into a dark and dangerous place.

[idwiyo]

4. K&R

[90-percent]

5. Ultimately

Last edited Sat Apr 7, 2012, 08:40 AM - Edit history (3)

America suffered from acquiring a stupid and venal President that surrounded himself with stupid venal people.

It's easy to see Dangerous Dick Cheney viewed the world as a battle between good and evil super heros and the good guys had to resort to medevil tactics that unraveled 240 years of American Conduct in War.

9-11 CHANGED EVERYTHING

Our forefathers died to preserve and protect the constitution, and here goes Dr. Evil Dick Dastardly dismissing the valor of all those that gave their lives to preserve and protect America, and the values it used to stand for.

The entire GW Bush Cabal walks free amongst us, and even gets a new heart transplant now and then, and we the American people are left as SUCKERS in the wake of their destruction of lives and the wrecked principals of our formerly somewhat great country.

I mean, geeezzzz, after WW2 American Courts sentenced Japanese War Criminal Water boarders to DEATH BY HANGING and executed those convicted of this heinous war crime.

And then in the era of GW Bush OUR FUCKING TAX DOLLARS PAID FOR AGENTS OF OUR COUNTRY TO TORTURE those we considered WOT suspects?

you want stupid: Who's the fucking dolt that thought it was good to water board Khalid Sheikh Mohammed hundreds of times down in Gitmo? Hundreds of fucking times? How could any court of law anywhere admit evidence that came from HUNDREDS OF WATERBOARDING SESSIONS? This is exactly analogous in stupidity to Salem Witch Trials with all that rock throwing and drowning and use of fucking superstition to determine witch-ed-ness! What did they learn at waterboarding session #97 that they couldn't get in session #1 through #96, for example?

There does seem to be a small amount of schadenfreude enjoyment to see the shallow wreck of a man GWB is now, in his rare public appearances these days. I hope some day he sobers enough that he can truly comprehend his notorious place in America's history. Really wrap his mind around all the human misery he caused and how he was played like a marionette by Cheney's greedy and stupidly evil agenda.

-90% Jimmy

GWB's rank in cosmic history is in the same region as Al Capone, Jeffrey Dahlmer, Mark David Chapman, and Idi Amin

[Gibby]

6. Republicans lied America into war, then committed wholesale war crimes

They should be brought to justice for their deceit and the poisonous evil they unleashed upon the world.

[Overseas]

7. K&R.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Locking - Dupe

Original at http://www.democraticunderground.com/101489829