Feith Lies To Congress: ‘I Championed A Policy Of Respect For Geneva’
Feith Lies To Congress: ‘I Championed A Policy Of Respect For Geneva’
In May, British international lawyer Philippe Sands told Vanity Fair that Iraq war architect Doug Feith was instrumental in the Bush administration’s shredding of the Geneva Conventions. Feith “took the steps to ensure that none of these detainees could rely on Geneva,” Sands said.
In a house hearing today, Feith disputed Sands’s interview, calling it a “twisted account.” “I strongly championed a policy of respect for Geneva, and I did not recommend that the President set aside Common Article 3,” he claimed. Feith said Sands had “smeared” him:
So Mr. Sands’s account about me is fundamentally wrong. This is important not because that account smears me, it’s significant because it exposes the astonishing carelessness or recklessness of his book and his Vanity Fair article.
In his opening statement, Sands said Feith’s claim “is not an accurate statement.” “I did interview Mr. Feith for my book,” Sands explained, volunteering to make available the “audio and the transcript” of his interview to the committee. Sands said that Feith told him that detainees were not to receive Geneva protections “at all”:
This is what he said to me: “The point is, the al Qaeda people were not entitled to have the Convention applied at all. Period. Obvious.”
Watch it:
Feith has tried to whitewash his role in the administration’s torture program before, for example, telling right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt that he was “extremely strongly pro-Geneva convention.”
Another torture architect who has worked closely with Feith has tried a similar attack on Sands. Last month, John Yoo said Sands had falsely claimed he interviewed Yoo, claiming it “reflects on the veracity of the balance of the book.” Sands in fact never made such a claim and was quoting Yoo’s statements from a 2005 debate.
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This poor country is so beat up and bruised by these awful human beings. Please find me a table so we can put impeachment back onto it. Please…..
July 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pm…..and Tommy Franks looks like a genius AGAIN!
July 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pmNow, Congress. Tell the Attorney General to arrest Doug Feith and prosecute him for perjury. And if General Mukasey refuses, impeach him for gross dereliction of duty and failure to honor his oath of office (even though, I am beginning to understand, it may not be not be legally binding).
July 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pmFeith Lies To Congress: ‘I Championed A Policy Of Respect For Geneva’
Hmmmm. Geneva. Geneva. Was she the secretary in Darth Cheney’s office with the big boobs?
July 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pmastonishing carelessness or recklessness
Wait a second.
astonishing carelessness or recklessness
!?!?!?!?!?!?
This is worse than Lady Rothschild calling somebody else “elitist” as an insult.
That’s Dougie “The Stupidest F#@%ing Guy On The Planet” Feith referring to anybody else’s actions, ever, as “astonishing carelessness or recklessness”.
I knew irony was dead, but I didn’t think it was going to stop up the sewers and stink this bad.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:47 pmFeith has tried to whitewash his role in the administration’s torture program before, for example, telling right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt that he was “extremely strongly pro-Geneva convention.”
Well, I hope that Hewitt tore him a new one, given the disdain with which the Right hopes the pussified geneva Convention.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:48 pm…Sorry — that should be “given the disdain with which the Right HOLDS the pussified Geneva Convention”
July 15th, 2008 at 7:49 pmFeith loves Israel FIRST!
July 15th, 2008 at 7:49 pmWhy is Feith even showing for these hearings? He really is stupid, huh? Republicans don’t show for Dem hearings! What a silly man! Oh well, I guess lying to “Congress” is an “improvement”.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:53 pmI want to applaud the Think Progress innovation of actually using the words ‘Lie’, ‘Liar’ and ‘Lies’. I am so sick of hearing that someone ‘misrepresented the facts’ or was ‘misinformed’ or any of the other dodgy ways to report inaccuracies from government officials (when they indeed get reported at all!). Keep up the good work!
As Always,
July 15th, 2008 at 7:55 pmRob
Which is why we’ve tortured and murdered our detainees without trial, while ignoring every law and international agreement.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:56 pmFeith sounds like a real winner…
“..and I did not recommend that the President set aside Common Article 3….”
but instead recommended that we tear it up completely rather than leaving it lying around.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:58 pmOT: The Senate followed the House in voting to override bush’s veto of the Medicare bill. McCain didn’t show up, now, having given the elderly the finger twice in one week.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:01 pmTell your elderly friends and relatives that while they are struggling with out of sight medical bills, McCain doesn’t even bother to vote.
Guido the Loving OBGYN Says: Why is Feith even showing for these hearings?
Well apart from being an arrogant prick, he’s also not in the WH anymore so he doesn’t have the same protections he used-to have, and I;m guessing he doesn;t have the moolah or friends to put up a strong defense, so he’s got to show and try and get some sympathy.
That’s my guess anyway.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:02 pmDidn’t have much respect for the Nurnberg Tribunal statements about illegal wars of aggression.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:19 pmHe may have “championed” Geneva. But he’s not addressing the accusation that he wasn’t all that gung-ho about applying it. He was apparently saving those conventions for special occasions.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:30 pmFeith seems to be trying to save himself by splitting hairs, and he’s not doing it very well.
I think Tommy Franks was right about this guy.
Feith is an uber neocon chicken hawk pu55y who looks like he woke up this morning on the couch at some college republican party where they all sat around and circle jerked to some live Fox News coverage.
Please.
He needs to swing in the same gallows as his co-conspiritors (is that a word?) of the Iraqi invasion and occupation (and no doubt 9-11… see PNAC and who signed it).
Lame ass silver spoon daddy’s boy.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:41 pmThey should all be hanged together or separately.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:03 pmTo Doug (and Addington, and Gonzales, and Rove, and Yoo, and Bremer, and Rummy, and all the co-conspirators…)
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
–T.S. Eliot
July 15th, 2008 at 9:04 pmExcuse me, but you can’t smear somebody with the truth. Besides, if Feith thinks his smear charge has legs he can take it to civil court and sue the pants off Sands on defamation charges. Frankly, the only smearing I see here is by Feith by charging smearing.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:03 pmIs it slander to falsely accuse someone else of slander? Wouldn’t it have to end up in court, with everyone taking an oath to tell the truth, in order to sort it out?
July 15th, 2008 at 10:17 pm“Mr. Sands’s account about me is fundamentally wrong.” If that statement isn’t skirting an issue I don’t know what is. The account is either right or wrong. Republicans play word games to evade and prevaricate so that later they can say someone “misstated the facts.” They are all liars and criminals that should never be allowed back into society.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:45 pmDallasNE Says:
Excuse me, but you can’t smear somebody with the truth. Besides, if Feith thinks his smear charge has legs he can take it to civil court and sue the pants off Sands on defamation charges. Frankly, the only smearing I see here is by Feith by charging smearing.
Exactly. feith is hard at work trying to re-write history and his place in it. He also sees which way the wind is blowing in this country. I suspect he’s hard at work trying to clear his name before the doors are closed on his cell. (hopefully)
July 16th, 2008 at 6:16 amWhiner.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:17 amA couple of items for some of the above posts.
1st, Mukasey has forgotten apparently that he is “The People’s” lawyer. He won’t do jack. All he does is cover bush butt.
2nd, Rove, while also being an arrogant prick, isn’t in the WH either and yet he doesn’t have to testify.
Lying under oath should land his ass in jail but unfortunately all he will get is a stern letter.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:11 pmPhilippe Sandswill be in conversation with Olenka Frenkiel, an investigative journalist with the BBC, at the Frontline Club in London tonight.
We start at 7.30pm UK time Tues 23 Sept and we’ll be streaming it live:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/frontline-club
Thought you might be interested in watching/embedding/joining in the chat. We’re a journalism charity and I’m trying to get the word out to get more folk watching. It’s pretty straightforward to embed on most blogs, if you’re interested and can’t figure it out, please do let me know :)
September 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 am