Two Days After Defending Waterboarding, Lieberman Now Claims He’s ‘Strongly Opposed’ To It
Two Days After Defending Waterboarding, Lieberman Now Claims He’s ‘Strongly Opposed’ To It
In a letter to President Obama today, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) asked him to resist prosecuting Bush administration officials who wrote legal memos authorizing torture. “Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects,” wrote the three senators.
Acknowledging that the Office of Legal Counsel memos were “deeply flawed,” the three senators claim that they have always been “strongly opposed” to torturous interrogation tactics like waterboarding:
We disagree, however, with Administration statements suggesting that the lawyers who provided such counsel may now be open to prosecution. Some of the legal analysis included in the OLC memos released last week was, we believe, deeply flawed. We have also strongly opposed the overly coercive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that these memos deemed legal. We do not believe, however, that legal analysis should be criminalized, as proposals to prosecute government lawyers suggest.
The idea that Lieberman would sign his name to a letter claiming that he has always been “strongly opposed” to waterboarding is surprising. In fact, just two days ago, he told Fox News that in some situations “we ought to be able to use something like waterboarding“:
Q: First of all, is waterboarding torture?
LIEBERMAN: Well, I take a minority position on this. Most people think it’s definitely torture. The truth is, it has mostly a psychological impact on people. It’s a terrible thing to do. … I want the president of the United States in a given circumstance where we believe somebody we’ve got in our control may have information that could help us stop an attack, an imminent attack on the United States like 9/11 or, god forbid, worse, we ought to be able to use something like waterboarding.
Watch it:
In the past, Lieberman has defended the use of waterboarding in select situations. “You want to be able to use emergency tech to try to get the information out of that person,” said Lieberman, adding that “it is not like putting burning coals on people’s bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological.”
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Just remember, kiddies: Rome wasn’t dismantled in a day.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:02 pmTalking out of both sides of his jowls…
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pmMy goodness – Lieberman is a politicking whore. He’ll say whatever is convenient and tries to play both ends against the middle. We ought to be able to use waterboarding on Lieberman.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 pmMeh, he can say whatever the hell he wants. It’s not like he’s ever getting elected to anything ever again.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 pmThis guy is the biggest joke ever!!! It’s amazing what he’ll say when John McCain isn’t around compared to what he claims when he is.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 pmas soon as you liberals understand that waterboarding is a season pass up close to any given water park, we can move on from this tediousity.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 pmLeibermann is spinning like a…dradle.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:12 pmlets hope ned delmonte the liberal beats him out – LAUGH
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:13 pmWould have serious negative effects ? Your damn right it would push the Repugs up to about 22nd century before they held the White House again. I think they underestimate the extent the people hate being brand as a nation of cowardly torturers
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 pmAmerican Patsy Says:
Things are looking worse and worse for the d’s…
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
How so? Elaborate, please.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pmHey, there’s a villain in batman comics who is a copy/paste of Liebermen: Two Faces.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pmoh Joe . . . you should have just kept your mouth shut . . . now you have both feet up to your ass there, and we can’t tell which hole is speaking now . . . ‘though I have an idea.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 pmgood point patsy. lets bring back the republicans and theyll clean this mess up in no time, show us how its done! conservative leadership is the most beautiful glowing jewel, apart from my balls.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 pmPoor old LIEbermann is stuck the ’70s when the deluded cry was “if the president does it, then it’s not illegal”. Of coarse this is as false in a democracy of laws now as it was then. Basically that’s a dictatorship.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:33 pmLIEberman is a Putz’s putz; a shmuck’s shmuck.
‘Nuff said.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:33 pmJoe Lipstick is afraid of his State voters. Time to act like Joe never followed Bush/Cheney even McCain. Most of the Cheney suck ups are now acting like they don’t know Darth Cheney. Lose your Power lose your friends.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:34 pmi love your accuracy patsy. if you say “etc. etc…” you KNOW the list of reasons must be HUGE. i respect your kindness by to-be-continuing it. it saves the thread. you are a good decent fellow and worthy of a free scoop of my freedom fries.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:35 pm15. American Patsy Says: pelosi, harmon, etc. etc….
The bush administration ordered the deaths of over 1 million people, most of which were women and children.
The bush administration turned America into a torture state.
The bush administration acted like Josef Mengele.
I got you “etc….” right here, pal…
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 pm“Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects,” wrote the three TRAITORS.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 pmElizabeth de la vega, just now on countdown.
sounds like we should rethink that demand for a special prosecutor…
she was not in favor because the whole thing could get buried,
there could be no public narrative, and NO guarantee of indictments…
help!
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:46 pmLieberman… the Zionist Facist Lier!
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm“Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects,
What you believe is irrelevant they broke laws and should be prosecuted.The End.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pmpatsy, if you say it must be true. treason – check; inside trading – check
what else have they done!?!?! i’m eating this up!!!
in order to assure the reliability and honesty of your answers, be sure NOT to include one shred of evidence.
can you do that for me? my conservative mind is too slushy to go to waste.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 pmLieberman speaking and dog sh##*ing in Israel is the same thing…
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 pmyee haaah!
ben nelson, nebraska – WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD!
THANK YOU, KEITH.
he takes nelson to task, smacks hiim good, for trying to equate the work he and rachel do with the fox liars…
it was great.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 pmpatsy, youre on a roll. thanks for getting my pipe up.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 pmMaybe we should waterboard Joe Lieberman once so he won’t be so mixed up on how he feels.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:53 pm“Two Days After Defending Waterboarding, Lieberman Now Claims He’s ‘Strongly Opposed’ To It”
Yup, spoken that a true GOP koolaid drinker and flipflopper. Joe Six Pack’s words is not worth the dime in my pocket.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:55 pmThe DNC’s token neo-con speaks again.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pmLIEberman is Israeli. Not American. Period. Amen.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm24. American Patsy Says:
is that what truthout is saying, now?
No, The Lancet, 2004 and 2006. There was no connection between Iraq and 9-11 so bush invaded a sovereign nation based on a flat-out lie. Bush even failed to torture such a link out of his victims.
Suck on that, patsy.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 pmahhhhh yes, pay close attention to what we in connecticut are used to seeing: joe liberman getting ready to throw his BFF’s under the wheels of the bus now that it’s no longer expediant for him to have them around
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:08 pmWould someone please waterboard this man until further notice or until he turns purple. Joe Lieberwhores’ credibility has gone down faster than a Las Vegas hooker on Superbowl Sunday. He is a posterboy for two-faced, slime bag politicians.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 pmWould someone please waterboard this man until further notice or until he turns purple. Joe Lieberwhores’ credibility has gone down faster than a Las Vegas hooker on Superbowl Sunday. He is a posterboy for two-faced, slime bag politicians.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 pmJoe is the kind of person who says what he thinks you want to hear. Problem is, times have changed and everything Lieberman says is documented, many times digitally, and available to the masses online. And there he is, surprised when someone points out what a finger-in-the-wind putz he is.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 pmI grew up in Connecticut. I am ashamed of that fact everytime this pig opens his mouth.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 pmLieberman is a bad joke as are most all of our politicians of today. They get their marching orders from their corporate owners through paid lobbyists (a gray area of legalized bribery). This all started with the PNAC neocon whackos in the 90’s. They laid out all these grandiose plans for invading Iraq. These morons couldn’t plan a child’s birthday party. This will eventually go back to 9-11 given that they offer some people immunity to testify. Bush/Cheney wanted to use any means, no matter how sadistic, to get the detainees to admit a tie between Iraq and al Qaeda. Even with all the times they waterboarded the detainees, they didn’t get one single admission to my knowledge. Not one! There is a sickness permeating our government and it needs to be vanquished.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 pmAmerican Patsy Says:
How so? Elaborate, please.
pelosi, harmon, etc. etc….
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:31 pm
So for you, ellaborating a concept is putting two sustantives, followed by two etc. Wow. Relly, wow. I’m blinded by the brightness of your intellect.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:23 pmPersonally, I am amazed at the level of hostility focused on the Bush administration and the effective use of waterboarding as a means to extract useful information from TERRORISTS that would and have cut the heads off of lay people (Daniel Pearl, numerous contractors)and plotted and executed the 9/11 attacks. I wonder those that consider waterboarding torture, how they would feel and to what extent they would go in order to save the lives of those they love? Torture is when you learn that your wife and daughter were blown to bits by the impact of a missilized jet. Oh by the way, for those that think waterboarding is torture, guess we’ll have to stop waterboarding our own troops as a form of training. When the true bad guys are released from Gitmo, I hope that they relocate them in your neighborhoods.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 pmHow you know when Joe Lieberman is lying?
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 pm…. whenever his lips are moving.
Personally, I am amazed at the willingness of wingnuts to convince themselves that “24″ is a documentary and that any statement that comes out of BushCo can be believed.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 pmJoe must have got the ok from John and Lindsey to change his mind.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:51 pmI wouldn’t expect those three clowns to recognize it, but they have put the administration in a position of continued violation of the Convention on Torture, which mandates prosecution. Now that they have admitted illegality of past acts, they have also created an obligation to prosecute while showing their ignorance and contempt for the rule of law. I couldn’t have hoped for better. Thanks, guys!
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:24 pm“I was only following orders” didn’t work for the Nazis. It shouldn’t work for the Bush administration either.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 pmAmerican Patsy Says:
Things are looking worse and worse for the d’s…
…
pelosi, harmon, etc. etc….
…
inside trading and treason big enough?
…
is that what truthout is saying, now?
All put together doesn’t even count as one drive by…
/me pats Patsy on the head
There there, poor apathetic wingnut. I realize how tough things are for you. And as sad as that was, I guess it counts as trying. It must be hard to raise any proper ire when you’ve been so thoroughly crushed. I can’t even imagine.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 pmSo typical
Personally, I am amazed at the level of hostility focused on the Bush administration and the effective use of waterboarding as a means to extract useful information from TERRORISTS that would and have cut the heads off of lay people (Daniel Pearl, numerous contractors)and plotted and executed the 9/11 attacks.
Shouldn’t that read
(Prick Cheney and numerous contractors)who plotted and executed the 9/11 attacks.
If I lie to Congress I am put in jail. If I break Fed laws the same applies. If I murder people well depends where. And if I do any of the above for profit…..;o)
Bush and his yes men or should I say Cheney and his yes men broke so many laws, violated the basic rules of the nation as well as documented fraud etc etc… Why should they walk richer and even more powerful than before?
If we let them get away with their crimes there is no hope for America. Next Repug will create a dictatorship for sure.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:42 pm@43.
I would hardly call waterboarding a way to save people’s lives. It doesn’t work. Besides if we have to resort to torture, we’ve stooped to their level. We invaded a country based on lies and tortured people to try to get information on something that did not exist. Bush & Co are war criminals. There is a reason this stuff is illegal.
The point of “waterboarding” our troops which isn’t even fully carried out is to teach them how to deal with it should they encounter such a situation and as I’m sure those who have experienced it will tell you, it’s not a reliable way to gain credible information.
How can we sit here and be appalled by what other country’s have done to our troops then turn around and do the same?
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 pmLIEbermann wants to do the right thing, but politically it’s not quite the right thing for him to denounce torture. He’s almost there, but he can’t bring himself to do the right thing. it’s too much work – too much to ask. Can’t you see the pained look on his face? He’s trying, but he can’t quite do it.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 pmnuna Says:
Nune you are a moron and a liar. Got any evidence that we ONLY waterboarded people who cut off heads? Got evidence it was effective? No you are a liar and a fool. You cough up the idiocy Rush programmed you with and you are simply stupid. Your whole rant was stupid. The adults are trying to have a conversation here and no one really CARES what Rush has told you to think.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:59 pmnuna Says:
Personally, I am amazed at the level of hostility focused on the Bush administration and the effective use of waterboarding as a means to extract useful information from TERRORISTS that would and have cut the heads off of lay people (Daniel Pearl, numerous contractors)and plotted and executed the 9/11 attacks.
1. Most of the people we’ve detained and tortured were released with no charges filed. It turns out there was no evidence whatsoever that they did any of the things that Bush said they did. So far, exactly zero detainees have been proven to have anything to do with terrorism.
2. Just because somebody else does a bad thing doesn’t mean you get to do bad things too. In fact, that’s the same argument Al Qaeda uses to justify the acts that you mention there – that we do bad things so it’s OK for them to do bad things.
3. If you want to live somewhere where they don’t have any moral standards and where the leaders will do anything to keep you safe, then I’d recommend living in a place like North Korea where you won’t be troubled with any moral restrictions on their powers.
4. Torture is bad.
.
nuna Says:
I wonder those that consider waterboarding torture, how they would feel and to what extent they would go in order to save the lives of those they love?
You’re only like the fifth wingnut in the past couple of days to say that.
1. Such a vigilante fantasy will never happen. Nor has anything like it happened in any of the cases under discussion.
2. Torture doesn’t work.
3. Torture is bad.
.
nuna Says:
Torture is when you learn that your wife and daughter were blown to bits by the impact of a missilized jet.
… flown by people who decided to do so because they hate America because America does things like engaging in torture.
.
nuna Says:
Oh by the way, for those that think waterboarding is torture, guess we’ll have to stop waterboarding our own troops as a form of training.
… training to resist torture. Which proves that waterboarding is torture.
But, OK. We can stop doing that (useless) training. Like I care either way.
.
nuna Says:
When the true bad guys are released from Gitmo, I hope that they relocate them in your neighborhoods.
1. I’m starting to doubt if there were any “bad guys” there at all. You’d think if that were the case, Bush & Co. would have produced evidence about one of them. Any one.
2. Wishing harm on other people because they have moral standards is pretty much the definition of pure evil.
3. Torture is bad.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 pmNeoparasite. I cant put this any plainer. YOU. ARE. NOT. CLEVER. You are stupid and pathetic. You are addicted to our pity and have bled us dry of it. Nothing we do will make you less stupid nor less pathetic. You are not clever, you never will be. You ARE stupid and always will be. There is nothing more pathetic than someone as stupid as you trying to seem funny when you just dont have the intellectual capacity to pull it off. Your desperate unfunny attempts here are an embarassment. Please get the mental health help you so desperately need and stop begging us for our pity under new names every week or so.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 pmAre there a LOT of different words for telling the truth in “Liebermann”?
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:08 pmjjray7 Says:
How you know when Joe Lieberman is lying?
His Nixonian jowls start flapping more.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:02 amEverything LIEbermann and republicans say now is non sequitur gobble-de-goop. They’re not on the same page as the world.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 amThe Connecticut voters who re-elected this phony of a man,well hope you proud of what you have done.The modern day Benedict Arnold, Joe Lieberman is all yours ,no damn shame nor conscience..
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 amjjray7 Says:
How you know when Joe Lieberman is lying?
Hey, let’s be fair; Lieberman only lies half the time.
The other half he has to breathe in.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:37 amThree Senators who have squandered all their political capital. Heck! They might as well buy a condo someplace warm together because no one else on the face of the planet believes, or cares, what they have to say.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 am.
Is this where I yell, “FISH ON DECK!”?
.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:38 am“Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects,” wrote the three senators.”
Why didn’t these congressman take into consideration the negative effects for not opposing the Bush Adm on this issue?
It will have more negative effects if the crimes are not prosecuted.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 amI feel like throwing up every time I remember that I voted for Lieberman when he was Al Gore’s running mate.
A right wing Zionist like Lieberman in the White House would have just as bad or even worse than Bush/Cheney.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:01 amIt’s politicians like Joe Lieberman that gives us Independents a bad name. Sheesh, will you stop waffling you’re giving me motion sickness.
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:32 amPlease correct me if I’m wrong, but the memos were declassified? If so why, did Lieberman say they were “top secret?”
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:43 amThree and a half more years we have to put up with this a**hole.
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:46 amhttp://www.windsox.net/windsocks.htm
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:50 amLieberman is on his last tour of the senator and will lost next election ,he goes to a side that helps him most he is ginished as a senator ,no political future
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:32 amLieberman can’t win his state (or any other) as a Republican either. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 amOkay, neopardy. You first.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:49 amAs opposed to the detainees stuck there that did nothing?
Now that’s a true American sentiment, huh?
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:03 pmLieberman is the ultimate coattail rider. He checks which way the wind is blowing any given day, and away he goes…
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:31 pmYes we are, and proud of it.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:05 amLieberman and Specter, the Schmuck brothers, should be put out to pasture.
April 24th, 2009 at 9:19 amThanks SitesSesli Sohbet
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