TORTURE, Was 2nd Bush Crime-Used To Produce ALIBI For Illegal War (Paul Craig Roberts)

[kpete]

Torture and the American Conscience

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Torture is a violation of US and international law. Yet, president George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney, on the basis of legally incompetent memos prepared by Justice Department officials, gave the OK to interrogators to violate US and international law.

..........................

Cheney claims, absurdly, that torture was necessary in order to save American cities from nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. Many Americans have bought the argument that torture is morally justified in order to make terrorists reveal where ticking nuclear bombs are before they explode.

However, there were no hidden ticking nuclear bombs. Hypothetical scenarios were used to justify torture for other purposes.

We now know that the reason the Bush regime tortured its captives was to coerce false testimony that linked Iraq and Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda and September 11. Without this “evidence,” the US invasion of Iraq remains a war crime under the Nuremberg standard.

Torture, then, was a second Bush regime crime used to produce an alibi for the illegal and unprovoked US invasion of Iraq.

more at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05282009.html

[OneGrassRoot]

1. K&R n/t

[Echo In Light]

2. K&R

[DCKit]

3. The definition of "conspiracy".

We'd be doing the country a great service if, at the very least, all BushCo* lawyers were disbarred. They're simply criminals who passed the bar, and none too bright, to boot, making any comic book villain look like an actual criminal mastermind by comparison.

On the other hand, subverting any concept of U.S. and international law for a place in the WH or VP's office and the approval of their benefactors doesn't speak highly of their collective maturity or fitness to practice, either.

Hey R.I.C.O., where are you?

[Senator]

4. We can count them. But they all remain unprosecuted. n/t

[annabanana]

5. "too egregious to prosecute" is the same as "too big to fail"

BOTH utter nonsense.