Hayden Dismisses Waterboarding As ‘Uninteresting For The CIA,’ Calls Torture ‘A Legal Term’
Hayden Dismisses Waterboarding As ‘Uninteresting For The CIA,’ Calls Torture ‘A Legal Term’
According to a November 2007 CNN poll, 69 percent of the public believes waterboarding is a form of torture. But yesterday on Meet the Press, CIA director Michael Hayden was dismissive about whether the CIA’s waterboarding constitutes torture. “We have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years,” Hayden said, concluding that it is “an uninteresting question for the Central Intelligence Agency.”
When asked about the broader issue of torture, Hayden referred to it as just a “legal term,” saying that the ongoing public discussion on “torture” per se tends to “cloud the debate”:
Well, first of all, we’re not talking about torture, all right? I mean, torture is a legal term. Now, there are some things that are illegal that are not, that are not torture. And so we cloud the debate when, when we throw the word torture out there, I think, in a far too casual way.
Watch it:
Hayden’s claim that torture is largely a “legal term” underscores the administration’s approach to detainee treatment. Instead of considering it a moral or leadership issue, the Bush administration has repeatedly narrowed the legal definition of torture to fit its aims.
Later in the interview, Hayden said he is unaware of how the Justice Department currently defines waterboarding’s legality — because he hasn’t asked:
RUSSERT: Do you believe now that the Justice Department allows the CIA to engage in waterboarding?
HAYDEN: I don’t — the real answer is — I’m going to be very candid — I have no idea. And do you know why? Because I’ve not asked. And, and I know that previous opinions may no longer be extant because there have been a series of changes in American law since those opinions were issued.
Hayden claimed that waterboarding is “uninteresting” to the CIA as they haven’t waterboarded in five years. But if this is the case, then why did CIA officials leave “open the option of reinstating” the tactic as late as this year?
Transcript:
RUSSERT: Do you believe that waterboarding’s torture?
HAYDEN: What’s more important is what the Department of Justice believes, and, frankly, the question of waterboarding, I’ve, I tried to point this out in as many ways as I can publicly, is an uninteresting question for the Central Intelligence Agency. We have not–and I, I made this public last month–we have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years, and only three people have been waterboarded in in the life of the CIA’s interrogation program.
The issue with the Army Field Manual is not the false dichotomy that, that some people want to create, that on the one hand you’ve got the Army field manual and on the other hand you’ve got the licensing of torture. That, that’s not the choice at all. The Army has listed–and by the way, the real debate, the real impact for us isn’t on the list of things you’ve forbidden. That’s fairly uninteresting to us.
What’s critical for the Army Field Manual, were it to be applied to CIA, is what’s authorized and limiting the CIA only to what’s authorized. No one claims that that list of authorized techniques in the Army Field Manual exhausts the universe of lawful interrogation techniques that the republic can draw on to defend itself.
[…]
RUSSERT: As you know, many in Congress disagree. They think the CIA should abide by…
HAYDEN: I know.
RUSSERT: …what’s in the Army Field Manual.
HAYDEN: Right.
RUSSERT: Because they don’t want U.S. servicemen who are taken in captivity by others to be tortured.
HAYDEN: Right. Well, first of all, we’re not talking about torture, all right? I mean, torture is a legal term. Now, there are some things that are illegal that are not, that are not torture. And so we cloud the debate when, when we throw the word torture out there, I think, in a far too casual way.
[…]
RUSSERT: Do you believe now that the Justice Department allows the CIA to engage in waterboarding?
HAYDEN: I don’t–the real answer is–I’m going to be very candid–I have no idea. And do you know why? Because I’ve not asked. And, and I know that previous opinions may no longer be extant because there have been a series of changes in American law since those opinions were issued.
RUSSERT: So anything the CIA would do would be approved and signed off by the Justice Department?
HAYDEN: It would have to be approved and signed off as lawful, consistent with our Constitution and our international obligations.
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CIA as they haven’t waterboarded in five years…and yet another confession to WAR CRIMES by the Bush Administration.
Bush/Cheney/Hayden
March 31st, 2008 at 5:07 pmHague Trials ‘09
Why is this F!ck wearing a uniform? I don’t want some glittery, grinning military robot getting anywhere near my civilian government. Besides his lying and BS, he needs to remobe his uniform or QUIT!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:07 pmHayden Dismisses Waterboarding As ‘Uninteresting For The CIA,’ Calls Torture ‘A Legal Term’
You mean kind of like “assault” and “murder” are ?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:08 pmSo if I cut your eyelids off and blew a fan on your naked eyeballs for two days while I burned your nads off with sulfuric acid, we would looke to a legal definition to determine if I was a tad out of bounds?
What if I jam a glass rod up Bush’s ass and follow it with a swift kick? Would that be a “legal” question?
Let’s push that envelope a little, shall we skinhead?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:10 pmWe need new, more intelligent leaders for our Intelligence agencies. I will be glad to see these guys on the road with oliver north.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:10 pmThis man represents extremely well the cavalier attitude by the Bush admin. towards torture, destruction of Geneva Conventions, and the main reason why the U.S. is so deplored in the world, with most people dumbfounded by these Bushies’ constant references to God & christianity. They are neither god-like nor christian. Their God must be putting up blockades to refuse their entrance into their heaven, and they are too deluded or stupid to realize it. Sad, hateful people.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:13 pmReally, if torture is “uninteresting” for the CIA, as this idiot states, then the CIA must be abolished.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:14 pmI hope he enjoys his war crimes trial. He will get to testify in so many others.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:16 pmHAYDEN: It would have to be approved and signed off as lawful, consistent with our Constitution and our international obligations.
Follow me on this: A Bush shill (Hayden) asks a bush department of watercarriers (DOJ) to approve an illegal request to torture innocents and he claims it is consistent with our Constitution and international obligations. Does this include the Geneeva Conventions? Does this include habeas? Does this include absolute immunity for halliburton? Does this include spying on American citizens? Does this include warrentless snoops? Does this include adding the Quakers to a terrorist watch list? Does this include a no fly list of almost one million names? Does this include having a f!cking nazi wear his god-damned uniform so we all get the vapors seeing this small, balding, stupid robot spouting BS to the very people (you and me) who pay his salary. TAKE OFF THE F!CKING UNIFORM! We are not scared of the facists any longer. TAKE OFF THE F!CKING UNIFORM!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:17 pmJesus Christ…these people make me sick to my stomach.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:17 pmWhat a chilling turn on the concept of “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
On the other hand, anyone notice how much this guy looks like a character from The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show with the chrome dome and scrawny body wearing the wide epaulets and campaign ribbons? He is like a less friendly sounding Captain Peter Peachfuzz although the good captain made more sense.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:18 pmTHANK GOD THESE IDIOTS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S COMING…..
THEY’RE ALL SO DELUDED WITH THEIR SUPREMACY THAT THEY HAVEN’T FIGURED OUT THAT THEY ARE GOING TO BE IN JAIL IN LESS THAN A YEAR.
HAYDEN IS GOING TO FIND OUT FIRST HAND HOW “INTERESTING” IT ALL IS.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:20 pm“Torture” = legaleze?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pm“Legal” terms, as defined by the likes of John Yoo.
To paraphrase Tricky Dick Nixon, “If the Bush administration even WANTS to do it, that means it’s not illegal.” Morality doesn’t matter. Even, effectiveness doesn’t matter.
If a country will tolerate torture being committed in their name, they’ll tolerate anything - and we certainly seem tolerant of torture, only 69% of us think waterboarding is torture? How many of us think it’s wrong, illegal, immoral, intolerable???
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pmMan if we only didn’t waterbaord maybe they wouldn’t have behead all those Americans!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pmpaleolib - Not a Rocky & Bullwinkle (my favorites) character.
Elmer Fudd.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:27 pmHAYDEN: “We have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years…”
Probably because they so successfully got away with waterboarding, they’ve gone on to more aggressive torture techniques. It’s not like the CIA or this administration will ever be held accountable for even the worst torture.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:31 pm15-spew is where you should have stopped. You are not fooling anyone nonspeller.Your sentence structure and bad grammar give you away, DOOFUS!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:32 pmIf these “morans” are stupid enough to admit to torture then they deserve to do time.
This is how BushCo propagandizes. They say “it’s only against the law. It’s not like it’s a big deal or nothin’.”
They state the obvious and in the process make us all casual deniers and accomplices.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:32 pmWhile we’re indulging in semantic minutiae, asshat, could you define “is” for me?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:32 pmAS USUAL, THE COWARD, TIM RUSSERT SITS IDLY BY WHILE 60 MINUTES EXPOSES THE TRUTH
March 31st, 2008 at 5:32 pmIs this man still in the military while being the Head of the CIA?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:39 pmspewstereotypesofliberalideas Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Man if we only didn’t waterbaord maybe they wouldn’t have behead all those Americans!
Nimrod, this was never about how our ‘enemies’ act, it is how WE act. Is that so hard for you to understand?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pmStratRat Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
It’s all about how our enemies act!I’m glad Donald Rumsfeld made the decision he did. He’s a real leader!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:52 pm“Torture is a legal term” all right…When you are the torturers. Unfortunately, Bush will wind up pardoning these sick bastards. Afterwards they will be damn sure not to step out of this country to any place that would deliver them to the Hague.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
March 31st, 2008 at 5:53 pmWhat do you expect from a clown who looks like an alien from an old Star Trek episode? Lol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talosians
Just saying . . .
March 31st, 2008 at 5:56 pm“We have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years,” Hayden said, concluding that it is “an uninteresting question for the Central Intelligence Agency.”
Don’t worry everyone, the CIA is still on their game. They find it much more interesting to punch someone while they are under water.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:56 pmRumsfeld a real leader. So much so that he’s where? If the close minded neconpoops didn’t see value in keeping the Great Liar around why does anyone else?
Remember, “we know where the wmd’s are”? another liar that will be remembered as one of the great architects of the Bush Iraq debacle.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:57 pmspewstereotypesofliberalideas Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 5:52 pm
It’s all about how our enemies act!I’m glad Donald Rumsfeld made the decision he did. He’s a real leader!
I truly didn’t think you had what it took to be an American. I was simply trying to give you some idea of how the world sees our behavior. You have drunk way too much kool-aid for anybody to assist you, so we will leave you alone. Please do thoughtful people a favor though: Please don’t precreate (that would be make babies) and please don’t vote. You clearly do not have an ounce of patriotism for this country.
BTW, I don’t think Rumsfeld ever wore a uniform either. How come you chickenhawks always get ‘romantic’ for the ‘fraidy cats?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:58 pmdid you catch the line about not needing to profile the brown people anymore?
yea, the terrists the come into the country now will be blue-eyed blondes…
well, those aren’t HIS words…
but, to be sure - TRUST NO ONE.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:00 pmHayden gives new meaning to the term “ignorance is bliss.” Perhaps his reasoning is that if he ever gets hauled in front of a war crimes commission, he can then claim that he had no knowledge of what was going on under the auspices of the Bush administration. That line of defense did not hold up too well at the Nuremberg trials, when German soldiers and military officials were subsequently hanged for their actions.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:00 pmWhat a pathetic piece of crap. His defenders are as bad.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:03 pmoh yea…
* * *
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AIR AMERICA RADIO !
* * *
thankyou thankyou thankyou!
… how could i forget?
March 31st, 2008 at 6:05 pmThat must be why he was fired in total disgrace.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:08 pmThe dumbing down of America, brought to you by the Republican party leadership. It is so easy to avoid responsibility when you are a poor dumb little boy who can not understand that big, complicated world. Of course, why would you want to look at what is or is not torture. Too complicated, too legalistic to bother our pretty little, bimbo heads over. Gosh, mister, can I use the same logic with murder, rape and theft?
Hey, why would anyone want to know whether water boarding is legal? We have not done it in 5 years (if you can trust the administration.) It is not like we would ever want to do it again (although top administration officials have already said that they want the option on the table.) Besides, the law has changed and it may not be allowable now anyhow (although there is that signing statement saying that the law will not limit inherent presidential authority.) It is not like we are still in an unending war against terror which has been the justification to use these methods (OH GOD, 100 years McCain on the horizon.) Better we wait until the president tells us to torture and we only have days to make the decision based upon what John Yoo comes up with in a private office and as a secret legal opinion.
What about those other limits on torture? No big deal. Those are just the big legal words. If we all stop talking about it, it all gets better - See.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:08 pmYeah, why is the CIA director, a civilian position, wearing a military uniform?
March 31st, 2008 at 6:20 pmOur country is being systematically destroyed from within. No scruples or misgivings about anything. Torture has been reduced to just talk show fodder and a parlor game for semantics junkies. Our government has turned itself into the defacto be-all, end-all for whatever they want to destroy and why. And it is all by plan. No challenges. No questions of any real value. So, why am I more cynical than ever before? All so a few CEO’s and their special friends can have it all.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:23 pmraymundohpl Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I guess Wal-Mart will have the exclusive on the soon-to-be all-the-rage brown shirts?
March 31st, 2008 at 6:25 pmkrazeeinjun Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 5:56 pm
What do you expect from a clown who looks like an alien from an old Star Trek episode? Lol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talosians
That was the first thought I had: The Menagerie!
I can’t repeat my second thought in polite company.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:35 pmYou were supposed to learn in kindergarten that two wrongs don’t make a right.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:39 pmRUCerious Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Yeah, why is the CIA director, a civilian position, wearing a military uniform?
Remember, Bush only speaks to audiences which cannot leave during the speech. That would limit his potential audiences to purely military venues. In that mold, bush loves thrusting the omnipotent power of the military into our faces. Maybe, he thinks, we will listen more closely to a fascist in uniform. The fact that Hayden is never asked about this on camera is the final “tell” that the America you and I grew up with, is all but gone. Before Bush, a civilian post going to a uniformed military man would have been tantamount to treason. A choice would have been offered: Lose the uniform or take the job. Welcome to bush’s Amerikkka
March 31st, 2008 at 6:41 pmGuys, I’m pretty sure spews is just a sock puppet of themanwhocantspell,FLAG HIM and disregard.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:43 pm42real impressive, you mean like they do in Saudi Arabia,home of shrubs oil buddies???
O.K. rotgut gin, Saudi’s=bush buddies are O.K. then???
March 31st, 2008 at 6:50 pmYou morons don’t know history,or the crap our government has done as far back as the 50’s. Hell most of the time you have difficulty stringing a sentence together.You are good for proving how STUPID ditto-heads and fixed noise fans are. Thanks for the laughs. 8=)
Gin,
Not all Muslims are extremists. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Many are progressive. Many are against the poor treatment of gays and women. If we engage folks with patience and understanding, as we should have in the beginning, we can make progress.
As for Think Progress’ coverage of atrocities, you haven’t been around here very long if you think there is a bias for any one group.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
March 31st, 2008 at 6:55 pmreal impressive,proving that neo-cons can’t read and comprehend…or chew gum and walk at the same time. Funny webpage there chuckles,lots of laughs. :)
March 31st, 2008 at 7:09 pmReal Progressive
What’s the matter….no one visiting your site? I checked it yesterday and had to knock cob webs out of the way to get in……
looked like you had what 3, maybe 4 posts.
So you think you will be real smart and lure people from TP ove to your hate filled blog where English is the second language after goofball…….
March 31st, 2008 at 7:10 pmFred, you get to the point where you have to laugh at these MORONS! Don’t wrestle with a pig because you both get dirty…and the pig likes it! Or don’t have a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:13 pmspecialist f Says
I agree…..I’ll just flag the troll…..
March 31st, 2008 at 7:18 pm>Flag me I’ll be back Spevcialist traitor!
One you dropped out of high school, you couldnt eat bugs for a dollar to get attention anymore, could you?
Back on the subject…One of this administrations leading legal minds, John Yoo, has asserted that the president has the right to sexually torture children…trolls, please keep that in mind when ranting about how nasty saddam was..you people would willingly give our president the right to do everything he did..
March 31st, 2008 at 7:25 pm> http://thinkprogresswatch.wordpress.com/
As others pointed out, dont post over there unless you want mr. pee to have your email address…. not like his laughable site is little more than the incredibly pathetic mr. Phee cutting and pasting his own pseudo-liberal posts on this site and occasionally taking a real poster out of context..
March 31st, 2008 at 7:27 pmOh man, did you guys check out the spelling on that lame site, cripes, what an idiot, he goes to great length to prove his stupidity.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:34 pm> http://thinkprogresswatch.wordpress.com/
BBWWAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHAAAAAAHHHAAAA!!!!!!!
Nice place for a troll circle jerk! When is this year’s convention neoturds? Which one of your Mom’s will let you host it in your basement?
Funniest
March 31st, 2008 at 7:35 pmThing
I’ve
Seen
All
Month (next to their posts here, that is)!
Wait a minute idiots. The president has the right to do whatever he deems is in the best interests of God’s chosen people and nation. This is a divine mission by a divinely chose people led by a demi-god chosen by God himself. How dare you question anything that this country does! How dare think of imposing mere mortal rules of morals, ethics and law upon a God commanded mission to rid the earth of HIS enemies and spred HIS dominion on earth. We kill who we want, we beat those who resist us into sumbmission and we torture whenever the mood strikes us because God has chosen King George as our leader.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:39 pmIs it me, or does this fu(k look like Turd Blossom in a uniform?!
March 31st, 2008 at 7:54 pmHayden talks a good stick, but he’ll do anything the boss says–another little Napoleon.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:40 pmI just love a bastard in a uniform. It wasn’t just a legal term at Nuremberg, where this paintywaist should should be made to step up to the gallows himself. How far down these a-wads have brought our nation. Incredible.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:50 pmHayden is correct. The term “torture” does have a legal definition under U.S. and international law:
Article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture define torture (and does not specifically reference waterboarding).
Moreover, 18 USC Sec. 2340 define ‘torture.’
March 31st, 2008 at 9:03 pmspewstereotypesofliberalideas Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Man if we only didn’t waterbaord maybe they wouldn’t have behead all those Americans!
WHO beheaded WHAT Americans?? That’s a pretty general statement of SOMEONE committing MURDER?
George W. Bush is a WAR CRIMINAL, MURDERER and a COXUCKER punk TRAITOR to the USA.
GREAT demagoguery, though!!
March 31st, 2008 at 9:32 pmExley Says:
March 31st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Hayden is correct. The term “torture” does have a legal definition under U.S. and international law:
Article 1 of the UN Convention Against Torture define torture (and does not specifically reference waterboarding).
Moreover, 18 USC Sec. 2340 define ‘torture.’
So, when the US prosecuted Japanese for waterboarding, and also the US soldiers that got prosecuted for waterboarding,
there MUST have been a UCMJ statute used to CONVICT these people, RIGHT?
Whatever it is, THAT law or statute is what the CIA and whoever did the waterboarding is GUILTY of.
Since these lawz were enough for the US to use to prosecute for WAR CRIMES, the PRECEDENT is pretty much set–TORTURE and WAR CRIMES.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:38 pm> Hayden is correct. The term
> “torture” does have a legal definition
Thanks genius, once again you grace us with your statements of illimitable importance. Obviously I cant speak for the staff at TP, but I doubt anyone of them is diputing there is a legal definition of torture. What I think is being addressed here is the way that it sounds like Hayden is trying to minimize the idea of torture…”torture is a legal term”…ie…. torture is just a legal term…he’s playing word games…. when he says “there are illegal things that are not torture”, i think its pretty apparent he’s trying to push the implication that there are acts of torture which are not illegal. to anyone who says there should be torture just in the one in a million chance we stop a ticking time bomb.. i have two words for ya.. “jury nullification”…any torturer with a semi good reason to torture isnt going to get 12 random people to agree he should be punished..
March 31st, 2008 at 10:07 pm>to anyone who says there should be torture
sorry i meant “to anyone who says we should legalize torture”
March 31st, 2008 at 10:08 pm“We have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years”… Hayden,
It is the same when Bush insisted that the “USA does not torture”, before Abu Graib… WAR CRIMINAL!!!!!
March 31st, 2008 at 11:51 pm.
Exley et al…
Info on US history regarding the use of waterboarding…
WATCH, LEARN, and WEEP for your Nation, as it is now a Nation of Hypocritical ass wiping WAR CRIMINALS…
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on the Senate floor detailing the precedent already set BY the USA… http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=641
Water torture IS an international WAR CRIME,
Water torture IS a violation of the Eighth Amendment,
Water torture IS a Federal crime…
Ignorance is not bliss, it’s a state of being…
The remedy IS education.
I’m glad to have helped. :)
.
R E M E M B E R:
THEY(sic) HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS…
And so THEY(sic) debate the merits to undermining those very freedoms…
What sort of American argues to be a LESS principled American?
.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:11 amJane E. Schneider at 41:
How about Zippy the Pinhead?
April 1st, 2008 at 1:17 amExley at 60:
I suggest you volunteer for a study to determine if waterboarding is torture. You’re up. Strip to the waist and lie on the board…
April 1st, 2008 at 1:19 am>Strip to the waist and lie on the board…
Stop turning him on…
April 1st, 2008 at 1:26 amThis is the new inquisition.
The religion is consumerism and materialism. Notice they’d never lay finger on the billionaire Saudis. They could orchestrate a terrorist attack and get a stern talking-to, at worst.
These men don’t follow Christ, it’s a charade. But have a retreat with Exxon and Wal-Mart in Dubai, they’ll show and yuk it up about the consumers.
But those tribal, often rural Muslims who oppose opulence and hubris from others, we can treat them like sub-humans. There definitely are some evil people among them, but apparently we’ll respond in kind as long as nobody’s looking.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:58 amIf these people can’t have decency, they must be replaced. The USSR fell and so can we.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:01 amWe can stop a terrorist from doing damage without violating international law and decency.
Blessed are the merciful.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:03 amLet’s waterboard anyone who thinks it’s not torture. Starting at the top with Bush.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:16 amRUSSERT: Do you believe now that the Justice Department allows the CIA to engage in waterboarding?
HAYDEN: I don’t–the real answer is–I’m going to be very candid–I have no idea. And do you know why? Because I’ve not asked. And, and I know that previous opinions may no longer be extant because there have been a series of changes in American law since those opinions were issued.
What a striking statement this is! He might as well as have said, “I don’t know, don’t want to know, and don’t care.” What in the name of God is wrong with these people? I swear, many of them are reincarnated souls from Hitler’s regime.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:58 amThat Mr. Potatohead Russert is always in pursuit of truth and accountability huh?
April 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pmol Ex-crement-ly is talking out his a**hole again…
April 1st, 2008 at 8:04 pmIn saying that “torture” is a legal term, Hayden is basically damning Bush while at the same time failing to understand it is both legislative and administrative (let alone ETHICAL!). In vetoing Congress on 8 March 2008, Bush commented that:
“The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror.”
“This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.”
The problem is that not only is waterboarding by definition a violation of the Convention against Torture (CAT) which the US completely ratified in 1994, it cannot also be employed under the justification of “exceptional circumstances whatsoever” — Part 1 Article 1.1 and Article 2.2 respectively. Additionally, in vetoing legislation which would bring the federal government (through clarifying/restricting the Army Field Manual 34.52), Bush has also violated CAT’s requirement to ensure that legislation, administration and the judiciary prevent acts of torture (1.2.1).
While this may seem legalistic, it is important to remember that once signed, international laws become domestic law in the United States. In the context of the Nuremberg Principles (I and VIb), this makes Bush a “war criminal” in the real sense of the term. In trying to pursue the execution of detainees in Guantanamo under the guise of respecting Nuremberg, he should remember Keitel et al.; he is putting his neck in the noose as well.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 am