Lieberman’s Concerns About Torture Seemingly Limited To Iran

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) on Thursday introduced bipartisan legislation to slap new human rights sanctions on Iran's leaders. But Lieberman's concerns about human rights abuses are apparently limited to foreign shores, since he has defended the use of torture when Americans engage in it. And he's even cracked jokes about it.

"This legislation would authorize the president to deny visas and freeze economic assets of people in Iran who are responsible for the kind of brutality that we're seeing," Lieberman said in an appearance on MSNBC Thursday.

He called the Iranian regime "fanatical" and said "it's time to start targeting the Iranian human rights abusers."

The independent from Connecticut has defended the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning. "We ought to be able to use something like waterboarding," he told Fox News' Greta van Susteren less than a year ago, adding it could be necessary to prevent "an imminent attack on the United States like 9/11 or, god forbid, worse."

While lawmakers are divided as to its constitutionality, intelligence and counterterrorism experts largely agree it's a clear-cut example of torture, which is illegal under US law. The international human rights group Amnesty International denounces torture as "immoral," "cruel" and "inhuman," while the organization Human Rights Education Associates says "orture is a serious violation of human rights and is strictly prohibited by international law."

Lieberman explained his stance by claiming waterboarding leaves no "permanent damage," as Raw Story reported in 2008. "It is not like putting burning coals on people's bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological," Lieberman said.

David Dayden of the liberal Web site FireDogLake noted that Lieberman and McCain's bill "would sanction human rights abusers in Iran" but "not those in America who abused human rights through torture or rendition."

MORE...

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/lieberman-waterboarding-torture-iran/

[Lord Helmet]

1. Lieberman + McCain isn't bipartisan. They are two peas in a pod.

Their embarrassingly selective concern for human rights is absurd.

[tledford]

2. It's so good to learn that psychological damage isn't "real." eom

[no_hypocrisy]

3. And Iran will respond, "We will after you stop first".