'We do not torture'* (*As we define it)

[marmar]

from the Boulder Daily Camera:



'We do not torture'*
(*As we define it)

Clint Talbott, for the editorial board
Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The United States does not engage in torture. So, at least, President Bush tells us, with great feeling and palpable indignation.

Two years ago, as Congress was crafting a new law to ban the torture of terrorism suspects, Vice President Cheney persuaded lawmakers to open a loophole for the CIA, which has reportedly overseen the interrogation of several "high value" terrorism suspects.

As a result, interrogation techniques such as "waterboarding" (in which a detainee is subjected to simulated drowning) are illegal if used by, for instance, the Army. But Congress gave the president the power to define "torture" with respect to the CIA.

This is what Bush said in 2005, even as Cheney was doing his back-room arm-twisting on Capitol Hill. "We are trying to disrupt (terrorists') plots and plans," Bush said. "Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture."

Former CIA Director George Tenet, interviewed by "60 Minutes" this year, echoed his former boss: "You know, the image that's been portrayed is we sat around the campfire and said, 'Oh, boy, now we go get to torture people.' We don't torture people. Let me say that again to you, we don't torture people. OK?"

This is, of course, the same George Tenet who famously told Bush that the evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/dec/12/we-do-not-torture/