Comments on: Ashcroft: Waterboarding ‘Consistently’ Seen As Legal, Refuses To Say Use On U.S. Troops Is ‘Unacceptable’

By: curious

curious — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:12:42 +0000

If he is claiming water boarding is legal, then he is lying. My father was a prisoner of the Germans in WW2. He spent quite awhile in that concentration camp. Water boarding was
a part of their arsenal of punishments. I will take my fathers word on this. It was considered torture at that time and it still is. Perhaps Ashcroft would like to try it out for a couple of hours then make the same statement.

And since I was originally from Missouri, I know Ashcroft. This man was one of the most disliked and seriously conservative politicians in MO. Even in that conservative state. This man is a Baptist minister. And like most neocons and religious nut cases, he is deranged. He is a Republican first, and a man of god, and American way down the line. And a human being lost somewhere in the mix.

And he managed to breed children. Why do these people always breed more?

By: nanlichi

nanlichi — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:13:46 +0000

“They ARE the enemy. And should be given no quarter.”

Nor dimes.

Nor nickles, even.

How about drawn and quartered?

I agree with chingebush (love the name BTW) that these dickweeds are the enemy. They have done more harm to our country and killed more Americans than Osama.

Remember him? Tall Saudi guy, beard, dialysis machine, 9/11? Yeah, that guy.

By: BlackbirdHighway

BlackbirdHighway — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:31:40 +0000

When McCain was “detained” and “aggressively interrogated” in Vietnam, he denounced the US, the troops, and the war.

Now, thanks to the Bush administration, those statements ae considered valid! So, there you go, McCain hates America! He said so himself.

By: Briseadh na Faire

Briseadh na Faire — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:06:38 +0000

“They ARE the enemy. And should be given no quarter.”

Nor dimes.

Nor nickles, even.

By: rogus

rogus — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:44:01 +0000

…in 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.

By: Daddy-O

Daddy-O — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:24:09 +0000

‘…Ashcroft and his fellow travelers have “sold all the soldiers and sailors at risk of capture and subsequent torture down the river”?

No one could have predicted!

#76 in a series…

By: Max-1

Max-1 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:41:23 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ashcroft is supplying us with a new definition of what “is” is.

Dear John Ashcroft,
What law provided for the basis of criminal prosecutions BY the USA against Japanese and US Service men for engaging in water torture?

If it was criminal enough for the USA to prosecute then, what has changed?
… the definition?
… or your use of the definition?

What else do you call it when a bank robber strikes… A withdrawal?

By: chingebush

chingebush — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:33:31 +0000

You guys are not even trying to look at it from Ashcroft and Bush’s side. Their kids are not going to war, so when they are asked if it would be ok to torture American soldiers, they are honestly saying, “Sure, why not?”

Truth be told, they have no more allegiance to American soldiers as they do to Enemy Combatants (whatever the fck that is). Truth be told, Bush and his cabal of evil incubi do not respect or honor America, they honor themselves.

They ARE the enemy. And should be given no quarter.

By: Ditch Mitch KY

Ditch Mitch KY — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:25:07 +0000

Ashcroft is an embarrassment to the human race.

By: aspenbrock

aspenbrock — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:34:35 +0000

Is it only me, or is it just completely obvious that the Bushies have in fact already tortured American soldiers?

There are reports of American soldiers or citizens held in “black site prisons” are there not?

This would explain these answers.

By: dan_allnews

dan_allnews — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:19:56 +0000

“having to deal with evil chemistry and the like”
Such as that between Madonna & A-Rod?

By: Jess Wonderin

Jess Wonderin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:10:12 +0000

I keep waiting for the Perry Mason moment in these hearings . . instead it becomes a mutual jerk-a-thon punctuated with the occasional game of dodge ball . . . .

By: Bad Eye

Bad Eye — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:01:31 +0000

5th Estate:

Great post. I keep waiting for something…ANYTHING…to come of all these hearings that Congress keeps holding, yet…nothing. I hate to say it, but it just feeds the Republicans’ claims that the Dems are putting on dog-and-pony shows.

Do something, you bunch of damn pussies!

By: 5th Estate

5th Estate — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:22:52 +0000

I like Maxine.. but this is another example of what lousy prosecutors politicians usually are. Because they spend their working lives hedging answers, they always hedge questions too.

Instead of the passive “Do you think that if these techniques were used on American soldiers that they would be totally unacceptable and even criminal? ”

she could have put him into a corner, thusly:

So as you agree that waterboarding isn’t torture under US law. So you must also agree that if a another country adopted the same legal definition of waterboarding as the US then the US would have no legal argument to complain if an American citizen was subject to the same treatment.

This is what prosecutors do, they force their witness to make definitive statements to establish the argument. ANd they keep at it to build the argument and bring it to its logical irrefutable conclusion,

What politicians do is give the witness the chance to re-direct the line of investigation by asking the witness to provide a goddamned alternative argument which prevent the interrogator from establishing THEIR argument first!

Politicians avoid direct questions and logical arguments, that’s why they ask indirect questions and can’t present logical arguments and that;s why these investigations go NOWHERE!.

By: Namtillaku

Namtillaku — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:54:40 +0000

When cavemen vote other cavemen into office, what kind of behavior can you expect from them? Subhuman, tribal, hateful, and xenophobic. We’ll be LUCKY if we survive ourselves.

By: questioneverything

questioneverything — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:44:21 +0000

These people can say the law is anything they want and members of congress won’t bat an eye. We have one party under the great corporations of the world. America is gone.

By: Briseadh na Faire

Briseadh na Faire — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:35:30 +0000

Hey, what’s the problem? Now our young men and women in uniform can be treated to a little “swim” at the hands of “the enemy.” Why, after a day in the hot Iraqi sun, it should be a welcome relief!

In fact, why doesn’t the Army just put a waterboard on each and every recruitment poster:

Waterboarding: it’s not just for torture anymore.

Of course, now that the Federal Government is doing it, everybody will want to do it: State troopers, local sheriffs, you name it. Hell, even Supreme Court Justice Scalia says it doesn’t violate the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment (because it’s done before anyone is convicted of a crime).

Innocent until proven waterlogged.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

By: TheRadicalRightisRadicallyWrong

TheRadicalRightisRadicallyWrong — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:23:52 +0000

Bilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
——————————————————————————–

This is something that Obama MUST do!

Bilbo, I would like to agree with you but after Fisa, I’ve given up on hoping he will do the needful thing.

Let me rephrase that, I couldn’t agree with you more but I won’t hold my breath that he will.

By: HeelingToPort

HeelingToPort — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:59:51 +0000

What can one say. Ashcroft probably thinks that the Spanish Inquisition was both legal and justified. So much for democracy and the American way, which went by the wayside with BushCo.

By: pete

pete — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:56:14 +0000

Any Flag Officer with ANY balls would hand in resignation papers, conditional on Chimpy’s sworn testimony, by noon tomorrow. Don’t worry about legality of Constitutional precedent.

Bushco owes every honorable warrior in uniform the plain truth if not blood. And if he doesn’t want to end like Hitler, alone in a bunker and ordering make-believe troops into combat, HE DAMN WELL BETTER TELL THE EFFING TRUTH!!!