Feith: ‘We Took An Extremely Strong Pro-Geneva Convention Position In The Pentagon’
Feith: ‘We Took An Extremely Strong Pro-Geneva Convention Position In The Pentagon’
Since writing his new book, Iraq war architect Doug Feith has consistently tried to rewrite the history of Bush administration foreign policy, blaming its failures on others. Feith continued these gross distortions yesterday, in a three-hour interview with right-wing radio talker Hugh Hewitt.
It is well-known that the administration’s torture program violates the Geneva conventions, which even conservatives admit. Feith told Hewitt the administration was “strongly pro-Geneva convention,” and so was he:
FEITH: We took an extremely strongly pro-Geneva Convention position in the Pentagon. And what I said when I briefed Secretary Rumsfeld on this, and briefed the President on it, is we have troops all over the world. There is no country in the world that has a stronger interest in promoting respect for the Geneva Conventions than the United States, and there’s no institution of the U.S. government that has a stronger interest in that than the Pentagon. … [T]hey are a part of the law of the United States, they’re treaties in force, and I thought the Pentagon had an extremely strong interest in promoting respect for the Geneva Conventions.
Listen to it:
If Feith had such respect for the Geneva Conventions, then why did he help the administration evade them? In his new book on the administration’s torture program, British international lawyer Philippe Sands interviewed Feith and reported that Feith “took the steps to ensure that none of these detainees could rely on Geneva.”
Sands told Vanity Fair that Feith’s argument against Geneva “prevailed,” as the President signed an order turning Guantanamo into a “Geneva-free zone.” Feith seemed unrepentant:
The Common Article 3 restrictions on torture or “outrages upon personal dignity” were gone. “This year I was really a player,” Feith said, thinking back on 2002 and relishing the memory. I asked him whether, in the end, he was at all concerned that the Geneva decision might have diminished America’s moral authority. He was not. “The problem with moral authority,” he said, was “people who should know better, like yourself, siding with the assholes, to put it crudely.”
“As he saw it, either you were a detainee to whom Geneva didn’t apply or you were a detainee to whom Geneva applied but whose rights you couldn’t invoke,” Sands noted. “That’s the point,” Feith admitted.
Furthermore, Feith reportedly sought the help of torture advocate John Yoo, then at the Justice Department, in evading the Conventions. Judge Advocate General lawyers, who rejected Feith’s views, “said he had a dismissive, if not derisive, attitude toward the Geneva Conventions,” according to lawyer Scott Horton.
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Should Fieth be allowed to drive a car? No seriously!! This guy is frackin stupid!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pmFeith is incapable of telling the truth. And he’s the stupidest f_cking guy on the planet.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pmI am totally amazed that Feith’s tongue doesn’t burn out of his head with the amount of bald faced lies that pour out of his mouth.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pmIt’s the usual and tiresome republiscum trick: make up a lie and repeat over and over again. About 30% of the US will buy it every time.
I can’t decide which is more disgusting - Bush and his moronic criminals, or the brain-dead dolts that still support them.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pmMight be a good place to quote the (paraphrase) “some of the notions of the Geneva convention are ‘quaint’” memo
April 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pmFeith is still the dumbest man on the planet.
What I don’t understand is why he wants to remind us of that fact. At every chance he gets.
It’s like watching “Home Alone” where the burglars just won’t give up, and have to keep doing stupid things -except nobody dies.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:18 pmThe lies of the Bush Administration continue unbated.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:19 pmThis is a classic right wing word game. The idea is that the “enemy combatants” are not *covered* by the Geneva Convention. If you believe this then you can at once support the Geneva Convention, even while torturing enemy combatants in your custody.
However, I believe it is intellectually dishonest to argue that there is any such thing as “enemy combatants”. Making up a new name for your prisoners of war does not magically make them into anything other than prisoners of war. The reality is that all these prisoners should have been afforded their rights under the Geneva Conventions and to the extent that we renditioned, tortured, and even killed prisoners in our custody, we violated the Geneva Conventions.
Our rule of law depends on sharing common language, and courts are filled with cases which hinge on the interpretation of words in laws and contracts. However, I don’t know of any other time in the history of our nation when the meaning of common words like “torture”, “pollution”, “prisoner of war”, and even “Vice President” have been cast into doubt.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:19 pmHey, Feith! Wipe your chin; there’s still a little bullsh!t on it.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:19 pmOh, PUH-lease.
And I’m Miss America.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:20 pmTrying the Jedi mind tricks again, eh?
“We are strongly pro Geneva Convention…” (hand wave)
April 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pm“We have never tortured…” (hand wave)
Hopefully this guy’s a$$ will be invoking the geneva convention when his cellmate is pimping him out for commissary priveleges.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pmThis is the perfectly logical next step in Neocon/Republican projection. Liberals screwed up the war. Poor homeowners unfairly took advantage of the banks trying to help them (again because of the liberals and their “ownership society”). The Bush Administration is a staunch defender of budget surplusses, civil liberties, treaties and the Constitution. Etc. Etc. Etc.
The world that they describe when they talk is almost a perfect negative to the world that they act in.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pmlol
I pray for the day one of these Neocons gets arrested in another country for war crimes.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:22 pmThis war criminal deserves only one of three things: a wall and a blindfold, a guillotine with a dull blade, or a noose. That goes for all of them.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:23 pm“strong Geneva convention position”?? Guess this moron never heard of Common Article 3 then because we grossly and flagrantly violated Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions on Torture under his tutelage and Bush’s blessings! Now these two are reaching for defacto exoneration - not going to happen. The Hague as well as this country will be holding trials once Chimpy and Co. are not protected by executive privilege.
Let the trials begin!
April 24th, 2008 at 4:23 pmFrankly, each of these criminal “architects” need to be strung up by their gonads since they don’t believe in the Geneva Conventions on torture at all as evidenced by their actions.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:24 pmDoug Feith’s not going to do very well in a typical american prison. Just take a look at this wuss and you know what’s going to happen to him.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:25 pmBullsmith,
Exactly. Bush will not regulate nicotine through the FDA because -get this- they say it will send the message that it’s okay to smoke.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:26 pmThese people are professional liars and manipulaters.
Well to be fair, they did take a strong position for what other countries like Iraq should do. The problem is in his dishonesty, he doesn’t state that their pro-position stopped when US personnel were involved… The neocons are so individually deceptive, and immoral, it’s hard to believe they aren’t all in jail by now.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:26 pmI am continually floored by the selection by Chimpy of some of the least qualified, immoral, and seemingly cluelessness of every damn one of his appointments. Isn’t there anyone in this administration with a brain and worthy of the position we’re paying them for?? This is appalling and embarrassing for every american.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:26 pm21: It only applies to others, don’t you know about american privilege? Just like every other treaty we’ve ever signed, it’s all hypocrisy and totally bogus. It’s all about providing the “appearance” that we’re adhering to these codes of conduct; never about actually following it.
We’ve become international experts in the art of hypocrisy and have brought debouchery, lying and stealing to an unprecedented height.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:28 pmWhat a pathological liar!! I think its time to frog march him to Gitmo. Have Rummy join him as well.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pmJust like anti-nuclear proliferation treaties we’ve signed….hah! Of course, we don’t want anyone else to have the nukes while we produce away. Now that we’ve shown our true self to the rest of the world with screwing them financially through intentionally created bogus sub-prime mortgages, absolutely no one will trust this country ever again. The adage “our goose is cooked” will take on new significance in the near future.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pmFeith: ‘We Took An Extremely Strong Pro-Geneva Convention Position In The Pentagon’
Translation-Now that we are caught doing WAR CRIMES, I’m trying to wiggle my way out of it.
That’s what you snakes do…wiggle your way out of your crimes.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:32 pmThis dude just looks like a clueless sycophant and moron, doesn’t he? If you listen to him speak, it’s apparent that when it comes to personal maturity, professional expertise, and the ability to see the big picture, he’s focused on the lint in his bellybutton.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pmFeith said “respect the Geneva conventions” not follow them. I can respect someone else’s opinion, doesn’t mean I have to accept it as fact. That’s what he and the other Republican Monarchs are doing: treating the Geneva conventions like opinion and not something to be seriously followed, like you would laws or treaties. Hell, they can respect the shit out of the Geneva conventions, doesn’t mean they will follow them.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pmI’d also say that Feith’s new “spin” about the Geneva Conventions is a direct result of the information they are receiving from the international community regarding “war crimes”. They know they will be frogmarched soon and are trying to change history. If you observe what they single out and focus on, you can be certain that things are moving in the direction to which they are personally pointing.
In this case, the Geneva Conventions on Torture are foremost on the minds of at least a dozen Bush administration officials who know they will spend time in prison soon.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:34 pmOLie-ly shows his own cluelessness by suggesting that “respecing the opinion of the Geneva Conventions” is somehow different than “following them”. I beg to differ.
The fact is that we’re a “signatory” to these conventions and, as such, it is not about respecting the opine presented in them; rather, it’s all about adhering to them and we have not - therefore, we’re clearly in violation and those whose legal opinion directed us to do so, will fall with the rest.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pmThey also know that even a McNasty presiduncy will not protect them from the international tribunal which will be convened about their violation of Common Article #3. It matters very little who gets into the white house where international law is concerned.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:37 pm“Waterboarding part of our navy seal training”
Donkeydickface:
Just how f***ing stupid are you, anyways?
Yes, they’re trained this way in order to prepare them for what may happen to THEM if captured - and morons like you only make it more LIKELY it WILL happen to them.
Why do you gutless wingnuts hate our troops so much and encourage our enemies to torture them?
April 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pmlol yeah and it’s called “drowning torture”
April 24th, 2008 at 4:41 pmWhy does Feith hate the truth?
April 24th, 2008 at 4:41 pmFeith’s retirement funding model is through rewriting history. We should leave the bulk purchases of his books to Rupert Murdoch.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:41 pmGuido the Loving OBGYN Says:
I pray for the day one of these Neocons gets arrested in another country for war crimes.
Maybe we could do a sting operation by sending them a letter stating they have won the Dumbell Peace Prize, and the ceremony is in Feb 09, at Den Hague…They are just dumb enough to show up.
Where’s my prize!??
April 24th, 2008 at 4:45 pmFeith needs the spotlight and a pulpit to justify himself and his own brilliance.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:45 pmThat, given the opportunity he simply confirms his reputation as the “dumbest f-ing guy on the planet” (which comes from Gen. Tommy Franks who was actually prepared to invade Iraq with 40,000 soldiers if Rumsfeld really insisted and therefore qualifies as at least a shithead) precisely because Feith is SO STUPID he is completely unaware of his own stupidity, even when fellow ’stupids’ tell him his stupid! That’s how STUPID he is.
In case Douglas Feith gets to read this:
Doug! Mashed “potatoe” is msarter than you! No? Still not getting it?….)sigh(
April 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pmTommy Franks let this guy off too easy. Feith is the Wile E. Coyote of this administration, sawing away at the branch on which he is sitting.
April 24th, 2008 at 4:54 pmMore delusion. Just the other day Bush admitted he okayed torture as laid out by several high-level Bushies. Now this guy says everything was pro-Geneva? These people have no conscience & no remorse, & certainly no honesty. What appalling “role models” for young people.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:00 pmDonkeyface Says:
Waterboarding part of our navy seal training
Correct AssFace. And Navy Seals who have been waterboarded say it is torture. Now you run along and get waterboarded before you run your AssFace about something you know nothing about.
I know waterboarding is torture - because I did it myself
April 24th, 2008 at 5:07 pmIt all comes clear to me now….
Republicanism isn’t a party, it’s a religion!
See? See?
They mindlessly adhere to anachronistic doctrine.
They speak of things that don’t exist. Denial of reality/science is a prerequisite.
They make claims that have no basis in reality and cannot be proven on this plane.
There is a child-predation streak.
They are ‘infallible’ because they truly believe, justifying the most heinous of acts in the name of their cause.
Rules don’t apply to them.
Their “Pope du jour” can do no wrong.
They get offended when questioned about proof/validity of their gibberish.
They have their own version of speaking in tongues: Right-wing Noise Machine.
They condemn all others to hell. Or poverty.
They are feckless and shamelessly clueless, believing they are somehow chosen or special over all others. Inheritance/money fosters new believers.
Non-believers must/will be destroyed. They are not worth consideration.
All other living things are here to serve/enhance/amuse them as they see fit.
Domination is a suitably expedient substitute for earned respect/integrity/wisdom.
They would sooner kill to reinforce their beliefs than show mercy that would cast doubt on those beliefs.
They start wars for the same reasons.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:10 pmAnd what will be the next lie Feith tries to propagate?
That it was really those evil, rotten Dems that forced, FORCED I say, Botch & the poor GOOP to torture?
April 24th, 2008 at 5:13 pmOh, and they want tax-exempt status too.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:19 pmWhat should we expect - honesty? No way. All these clowns are lawyers and they know about stuff like the law and things. They have spent the last 7+ years going out on a limb for the Bush criminal enterprise, and now it is beginning to bite them in the ass. Do you expect them to be honest and forthright? Nope. They are all reichwingers which means they can lie, steal, cheat, and worm their way out of trouble. These awful humans have no soul. Only reverence for a king.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:23 pmdid not.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:25 pmTomorrow our favorite war criminal Henry Kissinger will be hosting a fund raiser with Bush Jr. in Connecticut .For a few 1000 you can have your photo taken with a couple of War criminals . See you there .
April 24th, 2008 at 5:26 pmVictor Jara says hello Henry !
April 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pmIf Feith had such respect for the Geneva Conventions, then why did he help the administration evade them?
I dunno…mebbe he needed the work…if you were known as the Dumbest m therf cker on the planet, it’d prob’ly be hard to land a gig…you’d take what you could get, innit?
April 24th, 2008 at 6:17 pmRUCerious Says:
Why does Feith hate the truth?
cuz truth makes faith unnecessary?
April 24th, 2008 at 6:20 pmWhat’s the difference between Bart Simpson and a neocon?
Sometimes, when Bart says “I didn’t do it”; he didn’t do it.
When a neocon says “I didn’t do it” one can be 100% certain he DID do it and, probably, broke several laws to conceal the initial crime.
April 24th, 2008 at 6:42 pmFEITH: We took an extremely strongly pro-Geneva Convention position in the Pentagon
Good! So when you face execution for WAR CRIMES Mr. Feith, you will understand why!
April 24th, 2008 at 7:01 pmFeith is a lying sack of crap, but what else is new, wish they’d waterboard him and the rest of the crew.
April 24th, 2008 at 9:27 pmBlack is white, white is black, two and two make five. Facts and objective reason are irrelevant. These people understand that it is not only necessary to control the current fair topics of debate and coverage in the media but also to rewrite history in order to prove themselves right and worthy of being in power. Look no further than the new Bush library to see the full scale effort to portray the Bush administration’s two-term disaster to our nation and the world as an inspired, bold and visionary moment in the history of mankind. Meanwhile we find out things daily that should merit at least impeachment if not also prison terms for the highest officials in the government and yet nothing ever happens. Yep, land of the free, home of the brave. -B
April 25th, 2008 at 1:02 am.
R E M E M B E R:
Projection works from many angles…
One can “project” wholesomeness while being immoral, too… NO?
“It’s not terrorism when WE do it”… YES?
Or, Howz-about “We don’t torture.”
But then, wasn’t the president referring to a pre-9/11 “don’t torture” mentality?
.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:07 amAre we sure he didn’t say:
“We took an extremely strong pre-Geneva Convention position in the Pentagon”?
Hey Feith! Having the prisoners bend over for the broomstick up the ar** treatment is not taking a position.
May 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm