Ray McGovern: Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?

[laststeamtrain]

Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?

By Ray McGovern
December 11, 2008

You’ve got to hand it to them. Torture aficionados at the White House and CIA have conned key congressional leaders into insisting not only that torture-lite would be a swell idea, but advocating that the overseers of torture be kept on.

From change-you-can-believe-in, we seem to be slipping back to fear-you-can-trade-on.

Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has publicly warned those in charge of the administration transition that “continuity is going to be pivotal in keeping us safe and secure.”

Thus, he argues, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael Hayden should stay in their posts.

If that were not enough, Reyes told Congress Daily’s Chris Strohm that he had advised the Obama team that some parts of what Strohm referred to as “CIA’s controversial alternative interrogation program” should be allowed to continue.

Using some of the same euphemisms and circumlocutions employed by the ersatz-lawyers hired by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, Reyes fired this shot across the bow of Barack Obama’s transition ship:

“It gets back to a world that is very dangerous. … There are some options that need to be available. … We don’t want to be known for torturing people. At the same time, we don’t want to limit our ability to get information that’s vital and critical to our national security. That’s where the new administration is going to have to decide what those parameters are, what those limitations are.”

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/121008b.html

[mkultra]

1. sounds like reyes is a DINO

[TheWraith]

8. More like one of those who thinks hawkishness is just good politics. nt

[Oak2004]

9. More like an idiot

I seem to remember that in the course of figuring out committee assignments his stupidity emerged, but that it was politically impossible to keep him out of the job.

Stupid people don't belong in Congress, because sociopathic con artists gravitate to them and use them for their own ends.

[Peace Patriot]

2. I wonder what the correlation is between fascist Congresspeople spouting

disgusting, criminal, treasonous opinions, and Diebold and ES&S touchscreen voting systems, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushwhack corporations, with no audit/recount controls.

Anybody know how they 'count' votes in his district?

Think about it. Saxby Chambliss. All Diebold touchscreens; zero transparency. There are likely others. We need a study of this.

[Riverman]

3. Will Holder Write the memo in support of torture light?

He did represent as a private attorney Chiquita Brands in a civil case in which the corportion admitted guilt in funding death squads in Columbia, South America. Should Holder be confirmed as the next Attorney General considering that record in his recent background? What are his views about the Geneva Convention, and US laws prohibiting torture? The Senate should be asking such questions and many more before confirming him as Obama's Attorney General.

[ixion]

4. I was very sad when I saw that Obama was going to continue to fight shadows on the wall

I was hoping that we'd get over that and get back to reality. Alas, much as the so-called 'war' on drugs continues to shred the fabric of our society, so will it's ugly younger brother, the so-called 'war' on terror continue to shred the fabric of our international society.

Our Epitaph:

Humans: not too bright, really.

[BeFree]

5. could be that

... reyes is thinking ahead, Ahead to the day when bushco members are being interrogated.

doubt that, but it is a thot.

Obama must end the whole torture as a solution idea, and methinks he will. He pretty much said he would end it.

[pmorlan1]

6. Remove Reyes

Let's hope the new Congress gets a new chair for their Intelligence Committee because Reyes is obviously unfit for the job.

[mopinko]

7. and this is obama how?

don't see where this has anything to do with obama.