Gillespie Claims ‘We Don’t Know’ Whether The Bush Administration Practices Waterboarding

[babylonsister]

:eyes:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/31/gillespie-waterboard/

Gillespie Claims ‘We Don’t Know’ Whether The Bush Administration Practices Waterboarding

Today on CNN, White House adviser Ed Gillespie defended attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey’s legal dodge on whether waterboarding constitutes torture. Mukasey called the technique “hypothetical.”

Gillespie similarly tried to claim that waterboarding doesn’t exist. “{F}irst of all, this technique, we don’t know that it’s used by the government or is used by the government,” he said. “That’s never been confirmed by the U.S. government.”

Host John Roberts called out Gillespie’s dodge, noting, “It’s widely held that waterboarding was what broke Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to get him to divulge all of the information that he had.” Gillespie simply replied, “he fact is the government doesn’t confirm techniques regardless of whether they’re used or not used.”

Watch it/read transcript at link~

While Bush administration officials have refused to publicly say whether or not they waterboard detainees, CIA officials have repeatedly told the media that they have carried out this torture. Some examples:

– In one of the administration’s most high-profile cases, al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed reportedly endured waterboarding two minutes — “far longer than any of the other ‘high-value’ terror targets who were subjected to the technique.” A former CIA officer called it an “extraordinary amount of time for him to hold out.”

– In 2005, the CIA subjected Ibn al Shaykh al Libbi to weeks of “enhanced interrogation.” CIA officials stated that he “finally broke after being water boarded and then left to stand naked in his cold cell overnight where he was doused with cold water at regular intervals.”

– In 2002, “a presidential finding” authorized a list of CIA interrogation techniques, including waterboarding. In 2005, current and former CIA officials confirmed to ABC News that they were trained to waterboard detainees, which entailed “handcuff the prisoner and cover his face with cellophane to enhance the distress.”

Gillespie also tried to insist that waterboarding is legal, claiming that “those who have been briefed on the program in the United States Senate, members of the Intelligence Committee and others who are familiar with the program, have said that it is legal.” Yet as Raw Story points out, earlier this month Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said that they don’t know the details about the administration’s interrogation practices because officials have “refused to turn over key legal documents since day one.”

[maddezmom]

1. I saw that interview yesterday morning

what a tool. :eyes:

[babylonsister]

2. I'm so sick of all the lying, with straight faces no less. And how many

sheeple out there actually believe this crap?

[ixion]

4. I'm sick of it, too. And the sheeple believe it only because the talking heads give it credibility

by not calling it what it is: a lie.

[Toots]

3. If that is the case it should be no problem to say America is against such tactics

Why wouldn't America say that unless the government is indulging in such activity? America had absolutely no problem declaring such activity as torture when the Japanese did it to our American soldiers and in fact prosecuted some Japanese soldiers for just that..

[gratuitous]

5. That seems to be the new line

David "Room Temperature"* Reinhard, nitwit columnist for the Oregonian, played cutesy with the facts in his column today, too. "Gee, we don't know exactly what goes into waterboarding, so how can anyone render a judgment about it; and the administration isn't admitting they even use it." It's pandering sophistry of the worst sort, designed to turn the conversation from a substantive discussion about administration criminality to a pointless discussion of the finer points of torture techniques.

It's torture, plain and simple, and it's outlawed by our Constitution, treaties that the United States is a signatory to, and therefore against the highest laws of our land. No ifs, ands, or buts. And anyone who doesn't recognize that isn't fit to serve in our government, let alone serve as the highest-ranking law enforcement official heading up the Department of Justice. Every counterargument, cutesy locution, and diversionary tactic is nothing more than excuse-making for criminal behavior that this country used to prosecute and punish.

Now we get caught up in "serious" discussions about just what qualifies an "interrogation technique" to be torture. I really, really hate the fucking Republicans for what they've done to this country, and what they've done to our common humanity. And anyone who tries that bullshit "Well, they're not really representative of true Republicanism or true conservatism" nonsense isn't going to have the brains to know what I'm saying in response.

*"Room Temperature" a reference to his IQ.

[Solly Mack]

7. Well said!!!!

[Solly Mack]

6. So, - if I don't admit to stealing the car, I didn't steal the car

the CIA made the claim not too long ago that they "stopped water-boarding" (not that I bought the lie)


We don't water-board so we stopped water-boarding?

Alrighty then

[Skidmore]

8. It has occurred to me more than once that the * administration has

waterboarded congressmen and senators. It's the only way to explain the willing participation of the legislative branch in dismantling this nation brick by brick upon his request. Unless, of course, you take into account craven greed and corruption or just plain gutlessness.

[crickets]

9. A former CIA officer called it

an “extraordinary amount of time for him to hold out.”

So they've done this often enough to have timed benchmarks and records. Disgusting.

[spanone]

10. they know nothing but lies...