Rice Disputes That America’s Image Has Been ‘Tarnished’ By Torture: ‘I’m Going To Have To Object’
Rice Disputes That America’s Image Has Been ‘Tarnished’ By Torture: ‘I’m Going To Have To Object’
Today in an interview with NPR, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued her Bush Legacy tour, sticking up for the administration’s national security policies. In particular, she downplayed the fact that President Bush hasn’t lived up to his stated desire to close Guantanamo Bay, saying that it’s “not easy” to do.
When reporter Michele Kelemen then asked Rice about another issue that has “tarnished the U.S. image” — the torture of detainees — Rice objected, insisting that it wasn’t a problem because the United States has never tortured:
Q: And Guantanamo wasn’t sort of the only issue that tarnished the U.S. image. There is also the treatment of terror suspects, waterboarding, other methods of torture or –
RICE: Well, you know that I’m going to have to object, because the United States has always kept to its international obligations, which include international obligations on the Convention on Torture. The United States, the President, was determined after September 11th to do everything that was legal and within those obligations, international and domestic laws, to make sure that we prevented a follow-on attack.
Many top Bush administration officials have long been trying to insist that the United States has never engaged in torture. However, even setting aside the infamous Abu Ghraib incidents, Bush’s own CIA director Michael Hayden has confirmed that his agency had subjected at least three detainees to waterboarding. In 2004, the Red Cross documented “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment of detainees while inspecting Guantanamo Bay.
In other attempts at hagiography in recent weeks, Rice has claimed that removing Saddam Hussein was a “great strategic achievement” and the United States is still “very well-regarded” around the world.
Transcript and audio below:
Q: The State Department lawyers have been working in recent years to deal with prisoners in Guantanamo Bay — detainees — to get them home. Do you think the Obama Administration is going to have a hard time keeping its pledge to close down Guantanamo given what you know about this process?
RICE: Well, the President, President Bush, wanted to close down Guantanamo and said that he wanted to do so. It’s not easy, because there are some very dangerous people there. There are people who have said to prison officials, If I get out of here, I’m going to go kill Americans as quickly as I can. Well, those are not people that you want to let out on the street. We’ve had a very active program. We’ve reduced the Guantanamo population. We’ve returned a lot of people to their countries of origin. We’re trying to do that in a responsible way so that we don’t return people to places where there are questions about how they would be treated, which has been, for instance, the issue with the Uighurs and relocation of the Uighurs. So it’s not so easy, but I believe that it will be closed in time, and it’s just a matter of doing so in a safe and responsible way.
Q: And Guantanamo wasn’t sort of the only issue that tarnished the U.S. image. There is also the treatment of terror suspects, waterboarding, other methods of torture or –
RICE: Well, you know that I’m going to have to object, because the United States has always kept to its international obligations, which include international obligations on the Convention on Torture. The United States, the President, was determined after September 11th to do everything that was legal and within those obligations, international and domestic laws, to make sure that we prevented a follow-on attack.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
poor condi. maybe at one point she could have convinced people that she was an academic, above the fray; yet she is just a bushie at core and will carry that burden for the rest of her career.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:34 amPlease fix this thread…Voice play’s with each touch…Jeebos I can’t stand the sound of this lieing sack of bush crap…..Blessings
December 10th, 2008 at 11:34 amShe is as guilty guilty guilty as her fantasy husband and will roast in hell with him
December 10th, 2008 at 11:35 amDoes she forget that there were pictures of Abu Ghraib?
December 10th, 2008 at 11:35 amWell Condi, I meet your objection and raise you one.
Reputation implies relationship, i.e. other people interpreting U.S. actions. America’s reputation in the world is measurably lower. Treatment of persons in our custody is clearly a factor.
Bush acted, often with Condi leading the way, and the world reacted. Take the buck, Ms. Rice because it clearly rests with you and your boss.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:36 amWould Condi be so kind as to repeat those statements in the dock at The Hague? Please!
December 10th, 2008 at 11:38 amTrust, but verify.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:39 amBushco wanted to creat a world of terror so that it would benefit their private interests. The “detainees” aren’t the big problem. The big problem is that they have numerous family and friends who now hate the USA and are willing to act on that hate. This seems to be what bushco wanted and now they have it.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:39 amThey kept all the obligations?
Splendid, well they wouldn’t mind an investigation, then (besides all the destroyed evidence… but still).
December 10th, 2008 at 11:40 amgreat screen shot!
yes, please fix the audio… i’ll click IF i want to hear it…
thanks!
.
and, while i might have your attention, TP – think you could give that meeting with GORE & OBAMA a little ink? is there any?
the blago deal pushed it out of the way, unfortunately…
December 10th, 2008 at 11:43 amAh, there it is again. According to those directly connected to the 9-11 process, (before and after) anything is justifiable.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:47 amObject all you want, you stupid neocon twit – that doesn’t change the truth.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:51 amAh the Bush Administration, still winning over hearts and minds. How very diplomatic of you Condie. The record shows that you not only sat in on but ran those meetings at the WH with fellow international war criminals Ashcroft, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and their complicit lawyers.
From the Washington Post:
“Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding….”
“As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/04/10/BL2008041002069.html
And yes Condi, they do hang women too at dem Hague! Having your lawyer say that it’s not a crime does NOT absolve you of the responsibility of your actions!
December 10th, 2008 at 11:56 amI think “Matthew Alexander”, his pseudonym, may disagree with Condi.
An excerpt from this ex-interrogator (or ‘gator as they call themselves)’s book “How to Break a Terrorist”:
“I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq….How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me — unless you don’t count American soldiers as Americans.”
December 10th, 2008 at 11:58 amHow quickly they forget their demonizing Saddam Hussein for torturing and killing Iraqis.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:01 pmThis Lie-gacy Tour-rette can’t end soon enough.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pmFollow-up Questions:
Just how HAS the good ole US of A kept it’s obligations regarding torture ?
As the Bush WH insists that everything it has done is within treaty, can the Hague use this to UP THE ANTE TO INCLUDE deliberate intent ?
December 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pm“There are people who have said to prison officials, If I get out of here, I’m going to go kill Americans ”
Well after 5 years in Gitmo, I have to admit I might be a bit peevish too.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pmAnd Condi breaks into song about GWB:
Fish got to swim, birds got to fly,
I got to love one man till I die.
Can’t help lovin’ dat man of mine.
Tell me he’s lazy, tell me he’s slow,
December 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pmTell me I’m crazy, (maybe I know).
Can’t help lovin’ dat man of mine.
Conid is our planet’s view into what life is like in a parallel universe.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm“it’s not easy”. which is code word for: “it’s not easy enough for president bush”
December 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm“i’m just a simple president”
December 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pmAnd true to, ah, form, I counted, ah, at least 9, ah, Ahhs, from Condi.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pmcan this pathetic excuse for a journalist show any more deference to a criminal?!
where’s the follow up to: “i’m going to have to object….”??
“uh, excuse me dr. rice but I AM GOING TO HAVE TO CUT YOU OFF RIGHT THERE”
December 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pmCorrection to me at ah, #23. Make that, 12 ahhs.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pmRICE: Well, you know that I’m going to have to object, because the United States has always kept to its international obligations, which include international obligations on the Convention on Torture. The United States, the President, was determined after September 11th to do everything that was legal and within those obligations, international and domestic laws, to make sure that we prevented a follow-on attack.
__________
Getting John Yoo to write a memo that redefined torture as “equivalent to organ failure or death” does not meet either the letter or spirit of the Convention on Torture, as well as numerous other anti-torture treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory.
You are lying, Condi. There is no other term for it. The U.S. tortured detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanomo – or we sent detainees to frenemies like Syria and Egypt to do the torturing for us. You’re either thoroughly ignorant, or lying through that gap in your teeth.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pmWhen the United Nations charges the Bush Administration with War Crimes and Torture, they will explain to Connie exactly what she’s done. Let’s hope Connie lawyers up for this case. Connie has a girlfriend in Israel maybe she can dodge the law by liviing there? I know Hillary didn’t have much to say to Connie at their meeting. Connie could only report on how it felt traveling all over the World taking messages for Cheney and of couse playing the piano for her host. Hillary isn’t one for small talk with an idiot, she ate and had to run leaving Connie to finish her free meal.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:20 pmThere is a sadistic subtext to African Americans having to lie to cover for the failings of an inept man-child of privilege. There are those who take pleasure in the humiliation of Powell and Rice. And you know that beady eyed, blotchy faced Bush, on some shallow level, takes pleasure in handing such an economic, environmental and foreign policy mess to the first black president.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:20 pmdamn! it still talks! …
OT –
UPDATE 2-US House Dems blast FCC chief’s management
Reuters – 1 hour ago
By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – A group of congressional Democrats blasted the chief US communications regulator for his opaque and unpredictable management on Tuesday citing a report they hope will spark reform of the Federal Communications …
FCC Chairman Abused Power, House Probe Finds Washington Post
Congress Says FCC Chairman Abused Power, Played Favorites with Verizon Gizmodo
TheStreet.com – Seattle Post Intelligencer – FierceWireless – FierceTelecom
all 232 news articles »
http://news.google.com/?ncl=1279002326&hl=en&topic=h
the AP calls it a “scathing” report…
December 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pmNot my cookie jar; Not my hand.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pmBill-O, the bloviator was on NPR this AM as well and I heard him before I realized Condosleeza was going to be on. I figured Bill-O would be the winner of the days yucky person award but when Condi came on Bill-O fell by the wayside in a big way.
Condi is the pits. She has nothing positive to show for her time over the last 8 years. Nothing.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:37 pmmy distain for this woman is so emense, how anyone could just plain lie to the american peple and continue to hold george bush in a favorable light is beyond me,,,
December 10th, 2008 at 12:40 pmRICE: Well, you know that I’m going to have to object, because the United States has always kept to its international obligations, which include international obligations on the Convention on Torture. The United States, the President, was determined after September 11th to do everything that was legal and within those obligations, international and domestic laws</, to make sure that we prevented a follow-on attack.
Sure. Like violations of the Geneva Conventions, and the Convention on Torture, FISA, the First, Fourth and Fifth Articles of the Bill of Rights, and many other laws, statutes and treaties. The U.S. “didn’t torture” because they continue to use the definition from the (withdrawn) 2002 memo that defined torture only as treatment resulting in organ failure or death. By depending on the “unitary executive theory,” they are basically saying that whatever the President rationalizes as necessary for national security is automatically legal, no matter what the actual law says.
Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Gonzales, Bradbury and a number of others need to be tried in the Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity if the U.S. refuses to prosecute.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:42 pmWow! I didn’t know that the United States had an international obligation to torture!
December 10th, 2008 at 12:50 pmBlind, lying, more of the same. Will these people just leave the mess for the grown-ups and shut up? That line about “It isn’t easy…” seems top be the one note they have left. Oh, what about “No one could have predicted…”
Go away, Rice.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:56 pmHow many pairs of shoes does this loser get if she says this versus what the Magna Carta and International law says??
This wanker is SO stupid it’s amazing she can still breath on her own…
December 10th, 2008 at 12:57 pmI have never heard so much unrebuked, fatuous horse-shit in my whole life as during that ‘interview” with Condi Rice this morning. The way Keleman’s tongue was working, you’d have thought that chicken-legged bint Condi had a prostate that needed licking.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:04 pmThere is a sadistic subtext to African Americans having to lie to cover for the failings of an inept man-child of privilege. There are those who take pleasure in the humiliation of Powell and Rice. And you know that beady eyed, blotchy faced Bush, on some shallow level, takes pleasure in handing such an economic, environmental and foreign policy mess to the first black president.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:20 p
Bullshit.
Both Powell and Rice knew the Busheviks used them to defend policies that, had they been announced or defended by “white” folks, would have been ridiculed and laughed right off th4e stage.
Both Powell and Rice KNEW they were being used as camouflage, and they made no bones about their enthusiastic support.
Spooks by the door, and nothing more…
December 10th, 2008 at 1:08 pmWhy is this war criminal free?
911=Inside Job
December 10th, 2008 at 1:13 pmCondi must be wearing tight Ferragamo’s.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:29 pmThe statements of this WAR CRIMINAL makes my blood boil!!! Rice should be facing an international court on WAR CRIMES and executed because of them! Instead playing piano concerts for that reptile Queen of England, she should be made to see the footage of CIA interrogations, read what the ’school of the Americas’ did in South america, weare a T-Shirt with the iconic image of the 21 century of a prisioner in Abu Grhaib holding eletrical wires and wearing a hood! She should be covered in feses just like those prisioners did on her way to face a death sqaud! All that, just on the premises that this animal ‘objects’ to the facts! And if she continues to deny that the US’s image has been destroyed, she should be made to walk anywere in the world without her security bubble! I dare this war criminal to do so!!!!! HAGUE 2009!
December 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pmHey Rice, get a ‘mushroom cloud and shuv it up your filthy b…
December 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pmI want to see a real reporter asking this animal, this war criminal, Rice, about those secret meetings in the WH, chaired by this scum of the earth! Top officials from this criminal adiministrations were drafting and planing the USA’s torture program. Calling it ‘harsh interrogation methods’… HAGUE 2009! If the USA ever get serious about restoting its international image and begin the road of healing!
December 10th, 2008 at 1:48 pm…and yes! 9/11 was an inside job! I’ll say so until the day the Pentagon release the footage of a 757 hiting its building and someone with a propper scientific background explain the total collapse of WTC 1,2 and 7 in less than 10 seconds and all in similar fashion! Until then, 9/11 was an inside job!
December 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pmHad I been taken from my home or off the street and thrown into prison for no stated reason, being innocent and without any means of release, I would not be very much in love with the bastards that did it to me either. Rice should be in Guantanamo along with Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the regime with no hope.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:17 pmTry this worthless lying traitor for war crimes.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:47 pmThis is why she has been such a bad Secretary of State. On one can take her seriously when she says things like, our torturing of prisoners has not tarnished our immage.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:22 pmCondaLizzard Rice was always the designated liar for this administration when it was time for a lie so ludicrous and so divorced from Reality that even Darth Cheney or Bush couldnt do it with a straight face out trotted the LizzardLady. I guess now its just an instinctive reaction to lie when she sees a microphone.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:06 pmLying to the very end!
December 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pmDarn shame. She sounds as lost and confused as shrubie.
December 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pmThe guy who “told” her that war crimes were okay “under our treaty obligations and under domestic laws,” John Yoo, justly was hounded the Berkeley City Council Yoo yesterday.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:25 pmCloseted lesbian KindaSleazyRice (aka Mrs. Bean) can “object” all she wants, and continuing being a beard for closeted gay bush, but BOTH of them are GUILTY for the atrocities they have committed against humanity.
May she rot in hell with her rotten gap tooth!
December 10th, 2008 at 5:51 pmCondi will be remembered as the NSA who left America defenseless on 9/11.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:41 pmLiar, Liar pants on fire. These people like the minute they open their mouths. It’s a genetic flaw to the rest of us. To them it’s part and parcel of being a Republican.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:03 pmWell regarded, my ass. I wish I’d saved that picture of chimpy at the G8 completely IGNORED by his colleagues. Nice try, Imelda.
December 11th, 2008 at 12:55 amCondi’s spin falls flat. Her other failure is Iraq, now more Shia and affiliated with Iran.
Pentagon Chief Bob Gates is in Bahrain pleading with Sunni nations to work with Iraq. Sad commentary on Bush’s five years of success with the Middle East’s newest democracy.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046159.html
December 13th, 2008 at 11:51 am