Perino: ‘We Did Not Torture’
Perino: ‘We Did Not Torture’
The Bush administration repeatedly insists that it does not practice torture: “We do not torture,” President Bush declared in 2005. The U.S. “is not torturing any detainees,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said last April. Dismissing a Red Cross report describing interrogation techniques that were “tantamount to torture,” Bush proclaimed last year, “Haven’t seen it, we don’t torture.”
Today, Perino took the Bush administration’s torture denials to a new level when she insisted that it had never engaged in torture:
PERINO: This president has said that we did interrogate terrorists, and we did so to protect the country from possible imminent terrorist attack. We did not torture.
Watch it:
It is simply a lie to say that the United States “did not torture.” Even setting aside the infamous Abu Ghraib incidents, Bush’s own CIA director Michael Hayden confirmed that his agency had subjected at least three detainees to waterboarding. And as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has explained, waterboarding is clearly torture:
All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today. … It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.
There’s no question that waterboarding — a technique the Bush administration admits committing and says it would “definitely want to consider” reusing — is torture, and McCain is hardly alone in his judgment:
– Malcolm Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor of prisoner of war survival programs: “Waterboarding is torture and should be banned.”
– Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Secretary: “There’s just no doubt in my mind — under any set of rules — waterboarding is torture.”
– Four retired Judge Advocates General (JAGs), in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT): “Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal.”
Perino is trying to rewrite the sorry history of the Bush administration. Luckily, President-elect Obama has promised to “make sure that we don’t torture” — a vow that entails a robust investigation into Bush’s deliberate decision to implement a torture regime.
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At least Scotty's nose grew when he lied under orders from Georgepetto. I wish Dana's hair would instantly fritz when she told a fib.
It depends on what your definition of torture is. Condi led several changes.
It depends on the time frame I referred to under "did." And I had my fingers crossed when I spoke.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pmDana:
YOU ARE A LIAR.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:16 pmIt is torture listening to Barbi Perino tell lie after lie after lie...Do they think the entire planet hasn't been paying attention to the last eight years? These people are dispicable. terrible human beings...
November 18th, 2008 at 3:17 pmThere is one way to settle the question without doubt. Waterboard Bush and Perino and then ask them if they have been tortured.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:17 pm“George Bush’s record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pmHe will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens’ faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been."
Jack Cafferty
Let's hope Obama's promised "robust" investigations is more competent than Bush's promised "robust" Katrina post mortem.
Bush set a low standard, one surely Barack's team can beat.
Frances Townsend omitted the hospital facility with the highest number of patient deaths. Tenet Healthcare's Memorial Hospital housed LifeCare's long term acute care unit where 24 people perished.
LifeCare-purchased by The Carlyle Group weeks before landfall
Tenet-got a new board member in the last year, Jeb Bush
Dana might as well have said, "We did not investigate." You can find a better Katrina timeline on TP than in Fran's robust report. Apparently Mrs. Townsend left out the "ro", delivering a "bust" to the public.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:20 pm"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America."
"Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood."
"The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation."
Jimmy Carter
November 18th, 2008 at 3:21 pmPerino: ‘We Did Not Torture’
Dana, you torture logic every time you open your mouth.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:22 pmI wish the media would simply cease showing up for these bullsh*t fests. They're pointless.
Let the lying Perino spread the Bush/GOP feces on an empty room.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:22 pmNow that's a flat-out lie.
Resign immediately.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:23 pmPerino: ‘We Did Not Torture’”
- - Au contraire, mon ami.
"Indeed, I was struck by the similarity between the abuse they suffered and the abuse we found inflicted upon Bosnian Muslim prisoners in Serbian camps when I sat as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, a U.N. court fully supported by the United States. The officials and guards in charge of those prison camps and the civilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment were prosecuted—often by former U.S. government and military lawyers serving with the tribunal— for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in extreme cases, genocide," - Patricia M. Wald, foreword, Human Rights Center's report on former Gitmo detainees.
Wald served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1979–99) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (1999–2001). Judge Wald was also a member of the President’s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004–05)
November 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pmTechnically, she's right when she says "we" did not torture. But this would be the first time in the Bush Presidency when the Imperial 'WE' was not the standard mode of thought.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pmThe chickens will come home to roost once the Fox leaves the Henhouse.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pmPerrino is a LIAR. Then again being a liar is an absolute pre-requisite to be the Bush Administration Press Secretary. The outstanding attribute of the Bush administration is thier total disregard for truth and the American public. Not only do they lie virtually constantly they dont even go to the work to make up believable lies. They just spew out whatever bilge floats to the top of their head. Its bad enough they just lie as a matter of course at least they could stop insulting our collective intelligence. They act like we are as gullible and brainwashed as the trolls that come here to show how completely they have lost all touch with reality
November 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pmCrusty; I would PAY GOOD money to be an eyewitness to that.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:27 pmBush's minions lie out of misguided loyalty. Prisoners must be extriniscally motivated by fear of imminent death to lie. Waterboarding is such a fear inducing method. Bush used it numerous times.
America prosecuted the enemy for waterboarding our servicemen during WWII.
Bush's "zero tolerance" for lawbreakers doesn't reflect in a mirror. That's what happens when you don't have a soul.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:27 pmThis is very simple.
Waterboarding is torture. It doesn't matter who uses it: the Spanish Inquisition, Pol Pot, China, etc. It is torture, period.
The United States has used waterboarding in "interrogations" of terrorist suspects.
Therefore, the United States, under the direction of the Bush/Cheney administration, has authorized and used torture.
No amount of spin can change it. It doesn't matter WHY it was done, only that is was done. America has tortured prisioners. It is something of which we all should be ashamed and those responsible for it - directly or indirectly - should be held to account.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:27 pmTorture will be the one issue that Chimpy and Darth can be tried for. I sure hope Obama gets pressured to do it - at least a commission. If it isn't done, then the precedent is set - and a very dangerous one.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:27 pmTranslation:
"We did not torture," i.e. a legally protected independent contractor performed the illicit task, but they were held to strict confidentiality and we destroyed the video evidence.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:29 pmIf you are doing something to someone's person for the intention of getting them to confess or give you other information in order to get you to stop doing it, then you are torturing them.
There were a lot of very creative methods that have been used throughout history to try to make torture easier. Some of them, including slowly crushing someone's torso by gradually piling rocks on them, do not cause any marks at all, and wouldn't qualify as torture under Bush's definition, even though those methods kill. Perino's claims that such "noninvasive" methods aren't torture are of no more validity than similar claims made by Torquemada, Pol Pot and others through the centuries.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:30 pmThere is a lot of focus on waterboarding, which is clearly torture; but the sensory deprivation can make a person who is knowingly participating in an experiment have a psychotic breakdown in 48 hours. It's all heinous,unacceptable, criminal, and EVIL.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:33 pmIf we do not torture and we did not torture then there is no reason to pardon anyone for torture. Might be a good question at next press conference.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:37 pmDaaaaaana,
November 18th, 2008 at 3:39 pmbetter watch the lies or the cancer will eat you from the inside out like it did the last one who held your position.
There is a special place in hell reserved for people such as Bush, Cheney, Perino, Abu Gonzalez, etc...I think they all consider themselves Christians too.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:46 pmwiley Says:
There is a lot of focus on waterboarding, which is clearly torture; but the sensory deprivation can make a person who is knowingly participating in an experiment have a psychotic breakdown in 48 hours. It’s all heinous,unacceptable, criminal, and EVIL.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Good point and lets not forget that the Taguba report also cited electric shocks to genitals and forced sodomy with chemical lights. People were beaten to death and sleep depravation. Solzenitkin said the Soviets had made all other forms of torture obsolete with their use of sleep depravation. What is truly insidious about that is that sleep depravation so fries the brain that it makes interrogation useless so when THAT kind of torture is being used it doesnt even make SENSE if we are actually trying to get information. You put it so succinctly and I couldnt agree more. Torture is evil and what else needs to be said?
November 18th, 2008 at 3:48 pmI wish one of these so called reporters would for once stand up, grab their stuff, and start walking toward the door and when Dana asks where s/he is going, said reporter turns around and says, "I'll be back when you stop fu(king lying. I'm really sick of it."
sigh. I know campers, I know.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pmOf course, a president can be impeached for stating that he did not have sexual "RELATIONS" with that woman, a statement which was misleading but not a lie.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:53 pmYet, we have an entire administration continuing to lie that torture was never used.
Abu Graihb.
Water boarding.
Sleep and sensory deprivation.
Humiliation.
And possibly the worst torture of all, unwillingly displaced from one's family FOR NO REASON, with NO TRIAL, with NO RELEASE.
Un fcking believable.
Yet to this day, there are those that President Clinton's private life is more serious than the crimes of Cheney & Co.
Again, un fcking believable.
They just don't consider it torture when we do it.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:55 pmWho cares what this dimwit Bu$hco shill says? The press should stop attending these White House briefings - does anyone expect to hear anything but lies?
November 18th, 2008 at 3:56 pmDanaBot is just marking time until she gets her Medal of Freedom from Shrubby and can start her new gig as a FauxNewsModel in February.
Politicians in general and conservatives in particular aren't too familiar with this newfangled Internet thingy. It wasn't too long ago that an inconvenient fact could easily slip through the cracks and vanish forever. In this day and age, politicians should NOT be allowed to get away with "I don't recall" and "I never said that."
Any journalist who has been paying attention to politics for the last eight years should automatically assume that any politician they interview is going to BS them and have the appropriate clips queued up and ready to play.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:58 pmHow sad for our country and the world. We have gone from the "shining city on the hill" to the dungeon.
(shakes head) We will never recover from what this administration has done.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:03 pmEvery time this sock puppet opens her mouth it's torture.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:04 pm“Perino: ‘We Did Not Torture’”.....say what????
So, is Perino playing with words???
Meaning that "WE" means "Perino" "did not torture", well, she "tortures" us with her lies and propaganda.
But BUSH/CHENEY have "ordered" "torture" and detainees have died from it.
IMPEACH, IMPRISON FOR LIFE, BUSH/CHENEY.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:05 pm"We did not torture"
... by which she means herself, personally.
Of course, anyone who's watched a WH press conference in the past year would likely disagree.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:06 pmDid everybody miss the article from this morning's ThinkFast thread?
Two advisers to President-elect Barack Obama say his administration is “unlikely to bring criminal charges against government officials who authorized or engaged in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists” during the Bush administration. As Spencer Ackerman notes, the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act preemptively barred nearly all such prosecutions.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:06 pmTorture has not - by any means - been limited to waterboarding. We have routinely manacled captives to the ceiling for days at a time. When you see prisoners in earmuff, gloves and goggles, that is for sensory deprivation. It's toruture. Stress positions are torture.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:07 pmI just can't believe this is even a subject for debate. In the last century, waterboarding was prosecuted as torture in American courts. Defendants included U.S. Army officers.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:08 pmLink to this morning's ThinkFast thread:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/11/obama_advisers_no_charges_like.php
November 18th, 2008 at 4:09 pmNotice none of our media stood up to dispute it and call Perino a lying cancer that has willingly eroded any scrap of credibility the US had.
They know to keep in line.....
Maybe she'll get a job hawking check-cashing joints...it's a perfect fit.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:11 pmOkay, Dana, if we don't torture, then where are we sending people to get tortured on our behalf?
November 18th, 2008 at 4:15 pmAs Jonathan Turley pointed out on Countdown last night, if Bush issues a blanket pardon for unnamed people over the issue of torture, he is admitting that torture occured. If he doesn't issue said pardons, I hope the Obama adminstration investigates the hell out of all of this sickening situation.
Although I doubt anyone person or group of people will go on trial for torture, I want it on the records that yes, Bush did authorize torture and was aware that it was being carried out.
Having said that, I would love to see Georgie undergo some of these "enhanced interrogation techniques" and see if he still agrees that they are "techniques" and not torture. While we're at it, let's see if we can make a vessel pop in Cheney, too.
PEACE
November 18th, 2008 at 4:17 pmHey, spencers mom, I've been wondering about that myself. If Bush were to pardon himself, it would be an admission of guilt, which he may be physiological incapable of pulling off.
It would not surprise me if a lot of people who could serve as witnesses against him died in single vehicle accidents or fell out of 12th story windows. It seems that he would only pardon people if he could gain something from it.
The man is one sick puppy. If there were a cure for his pathology, it would be too cruel to cure him now.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:38 pmPERINO: "And I don't bleach my hair."
November 18th, 2008 at 4:38 pmWhatever she's doing she's not "rewriting history" - "we do not torture" has been the W party line since it changed the definition of what constitutes torture. She's just not playing with the proper definition, but then the Political and Media Establishment have allowed the Unitary Executive to alter a plethora of definitions with impunity and pretend that the absurdity presented has some modicum of truth such that it should be entertained as serious and discussed.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:39 pmMore Orwellian revision of history going on at the White House. Rewriting everything to exonerate themselves from their countless lies and deception.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:45 pmThey committed war crimes - no doubt.
Somebody please tell me that Presidential pardons carry no weight in an International war crimes tribunal.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:48 pmQuote from Washington Post:
November 18th, 2008 at 4:54 pmThe Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects -- documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.
They committed war crimes - no doubt.
Well, I'm not trying to create controversy, but almost every single one of your Presidents, along with their closest advisors, should be hanging according to the Nuremberg trials.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:01 pmSurely Perino must lose sleep over all the lies she spews. How could anyone be this dishonest & not feel at least somewhat ashamed? Check out the "false witness" part in the Bible, Perino.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:56 pmhttp://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_admin_wont_prosecure_Bush_war_1117.html
November 18th, 2008 at 6:02 pmthey'll get away with it
November 18th, 2008 at 6:03 pmThe question is this: would those who support waterboarding want this technique used against our own people who may be captured by our enemies?
Should be an obvious answer.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:47 pmUncle Ho Says: "Crusty; I would PAY GOOD money to be an eyewitness to that."
Uncle Ho, I would pay good money to be the one doing it to Chicken George WTF. You can do his ho.
November 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pmSo, we shouldn’t have waterboarded Khalod Sheik Mohammed?
First of all, waterboarding isn’t even torture as it is normally defined. Second, had we not waterboarded the mastermind of 9-11, thousands of people would have likely died as the result of the terror plot that was discovered as a result of our lawful interrogation!
There is simply no contest here. If I were President I would have authorized the waterboarding and more. Whatever it took to protect the lives of my fellow citizens.
So how many terrorists did we subject to waterboarding? Anyone venture to guess?
November 18th, 2008 at 9:57 pmYou people wouldn't know a "war crime" if it was standing right in fron of you.
Morons.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:58 pmWe live in a radically altered world post 9-11. It's just too bad that most of you can't see that.
Your ignorance is breathtaking!
November 18th, 2008 at 9:59 pmTim Vaculik Says:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, we shouldn’t have waterboarded Khalod Sheik Mohammed?
First of all, waterboarding isn’t even torture as it is normally defined. Second, had we not waterboarded the mastermind of 9-11, thousands of people would have likely died as the result of the terror plot that was discovered as a result of our lawful interrogation!
There is simply no contest here. If I were President I would have authorized the waterboarding and more. Whatever it took to protect the lives of my fellow citizens.
So how many terrorists did we subject to waterboarding? Anyone venture to guess?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You are a liar and a fool. You have no decency I took this same post apart in the other thread I wont bother to do it again but it was a warcrime when we IMPRISONED Japanese officers for doing it you soulless moron and you cannot POSSIBLY know how many terrorists have been tortured since they are not terrorists until 12 people SAY they are after a TRIAL. The Bush administration SAYING they are terrorists doenst MAKE them terrorists. You are a piece of garbage with no decency and WE do know a warcrime when we see one YOU DONT.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:43 pmTim Vaculik Says:
You people wouldn’t know a “war crime” if it was standing right in fron of you.
Morons.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
YOU are the stupidest piece of garbage on this site. You are ignorant beyond human comprehension. You SHOULD know morons from living your life as, well, YOU. Since you are the quintessential moron but that very debilitation precludes you having the intellectual capacity to know who ELSE might be a moron. You are ignorant Tim. You dont know ANYTHING you havent been told to believe by the screechmonkeys that pull your strings and tell you what to think, and I use that term loosely. You are a chatty Cathy doll. The Limoborg pulls your string and you repeat what you have been programmed to spew. You ignorant, soulless, punk. You have no decency and you are stupider than cement swimfins
November 18th, 2008 at 10:48 pmTim Vaculik Says:
We live in a radically altered world post 9-11. It’s just too bad that most of you can’t see that.
Your ignorance is breathtaking!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The problem with unbelievably stupid conservatives like you, besides your galactic level ignorance is that you live in a Pre 1776 world. The standards of decency did not change on 9/11. What was morally wrong on 9/10 was STILL morally wrong on 9/12. The morally retarded, imbeciles like YOU never DID have any sense of decency nor any idea what was right or wrong BEFORE 9/11 and we never expected you to grow either a brain or a soul AFTER 9/11/. You are astonishingly ignorant Timmeh. We already knew that about you.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:52 pmThe USA has tortured! It has done so for decades now! South and Central Americans were tortured by military regimes. These military administrations were placed against democratic governement. They were financed, supported and trained by the USA in the 'School of the Americas'. Bush/Chenney are just another ugly face of these policies. I whish it would be different. Americans are South and Central too!
November 18th, 2008 at 11:52 pmWhenever I hear of anyone making that claim, I think of Meryl Streep in Rendition: "The United States does not torture."
Christopher Hitchens, no winner of the Olaf Award for Pacifism, let himself be waterboarded and said that yes, it's torture. I'm sure it's at the website of Vanity Fair magazine.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:10 am.
So,
Waterboarding isn't TORTURE when done by the CIA or outsourced by the USA? But when done by US Servicemen to the Vietcong it is TORTURE and punishable to the full extent of the law?
I don't get the separation of laws or the different levels of consequential behavior rendered to those who break "certain" laws while others are allowed to break laws at will and convenience because those laws don't apply to them...
... I THOUGHT WE WERE A NATION BASED IN THE RULE OF LAWS, NOT OF THE WHIMS OF MEN!!!
.
November 19th, 2008 at 1:28 amTim Vaculik said:
When we prosecuted the Japanese after WWII for water-torture, what was that a statement of, principally speaking?
When we prosecuted our own US Servicemen in the Vietnam War for the use of water-torture, what was that a statement of, principally speaking?
When the Geneva Conventions specify that water-torture is an act of torture and is illegal, undersigned by the USA, what does that signatory stand for, principally speaking?
Please prove where it is defined that the use of water-torture is NOT an act of TORTURE and IS legal...
Tim Vaculik said:
Again, your use of 'lawful interrogation' and the use of water-torture are not mutually agreeable. While interrogation CAN be legal, some forms such as the use of water-torture ARE illegal, thus rendering ANY use of water-torture during ANY interrogation process an illegal process fundamentally, principally and morally.
Now,
What is the determination of our military concerning the use of intense and harsh interrogation and the results captures from these sessions? Why does the US Military equivocally state that the results garnered ARE UNRELIABLE? Now, if your basing your facts on unreliable information, aren't you as reliable, than, as George W. Bush was on his "reliable" claims from the international community concerning Iraq's WMD's, ties ti al-CIA-duh, imminent threats, smoking guns and mushroom clouds?
Now, what terrorist attack are you referring to? The one talked about during extreme TORTURE?
Tim Vaculik Says:
Radically different is for sure...
... Since America has been hijacked by a radical agenda of ChristoFascists that seek to dominate the global supply of OIL by bruit force.
Tim,
You do realize you're being the faithful American supporting the War Criminal in Cheat... NO? And we're morons...? Moron is too good a word to waste on you, so I won't waste that compliment on you. You already know what and who you are...
... And we all see it, too!
.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:09 am.
Hey everyone,
Tim Vaculik is an apologist for a...
... WAR CRIMINAL 'N CHEAT!
.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:14 amIs it just me....or is there no video after the, "Watch it:"
?
November 19th, 2008 at 7:30 amConsidering Dana Perino lies through her teeth on a consistent basis, why should anyone believe anything she says? She's a pathetic shill for an awful president - an ignoble position for someone lacking the moral fiber to simply tell the truth once in a blue moon. I'd say she's unworthy of discussion, but sadly, she represents the president of the US, so she gets press as the absurd Baghdad Bob to Bush's Saddam...
November 19th, 2008 at 3:48 pm"We don't torture." Dana Perino.
General Douglas McArthur executed several Japanese officers for waterboarding (among other things) American and Philipino POWs. Last I heard, McArthur wasn't a nambipambi librul.
November 24th, 2008 at 10:47 am