Petraeus Criticizes Gitmo And Torture: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Be Afraid To Live Our Values’
Petraeus Criticizes Gitmo And Torture: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Be Afraid To Live Our Values’
Last week, Gen. David Petraeus told Radio Free Europe that he supports President Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and that he opposes the use of so-called “enhance interrogation techniques.” “I have long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention,” Petraeus said.
Today in an interview with Fox News, Petraeus reiterated his support for a “responsible closure” of Gitmo but went a bit further, noting that the prison has been harmful to the U.S.:
PETRAEUS: Gitmo has caused us problems, there’s no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has indeed been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activities since 9/11. And again, Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in that regard.
As Fox host Martha MacCallum went through most of the right-wing talking points on Gitmo and torture (Gitmo terrorists will “go free” in the U.S, torture works and should be used for the “ticking-time bomb” scenario) Petraeus knocked them down one-by-one. “I don’t think we should be afraid to live our values,” Petraeus repeatedly said.
Seemingly referring to Obama’s decision to release the Bush-era memos documenting President Bush’s torture program, MacCallum asked, “So is sending this signal that we’re not going to use the techniques anymore, what impact will that have on those who do us harm in the field that you operate in?” Again, Petraeus noted that such policies and techniques harm the U.S.
PETRAEUS: What I would ask is, does that not take away from our enemies a tool, which again they have beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion? When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized. And so as we move forward, I think it is important to again live our values to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those.
Watch it:
Transcript:
MACCALLUM: Let’s talk a little bit about Gitmo and what to do you know, as the president gets ready to close Gitmo. Where do you think those people should go?
PETRAEUS: Well it is not for a soldier to say. What I do support is what has been termed I think a “responsible closure” of Gitmo. Gitmo has caused us problems, there’s no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has indeed been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activities since 9/11. And again, Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in that regard. Having said that I also do not want to see those individuals back on the streets, trying to reactivate networks to return to leadership in some of these networks.
MACCALLUM: What about the concern, having been so involved in all of this, that KSM or anybody of that ilk might be tried here in a u.s. court and the possibility because of some of the treatments they were used on them, they could go free?
PETRAEUS: Well first of all I don’t think we should be afraid to live our values. That is what we’re fighting for and it’s what we stand for. So indeed, we need to embrace them and we need to operationalize them in how we carry out what it is we’re doing on the battlefield and everywhere else. So one has to have some faith I think, in the legal system. One has to have a degree of confidence that individuals that have conducted such extremist activity would indeed be found guilty in courts of law.
MACCALLUM: So you’re confident that those people will never go free?
PETRAEUS: I certainly hope that is the case yeah.
MACCALLUM: The former vice president has talked about waterboarding, which I know you’ve spoken against. He says it was only used on three people and that he believes it has saved lives.
PETRAEUS: Well my thoughts are that it is time to quit arguing about the past, probably, take the rearview mirrors off this bus in look to the future. And again if you start with the concept that we ought to live our values that is exactly what we should do as we move forward.
MACCALLUM: The argument for having the discussion now is there is always the possibility that a suspect could be in custody and an attack could be imminent.
PETRAEUS: Well I mean that’s always the debate — the doomsday scenario. I would be happy to leave that again with our judicial system to determine whether there might be an exception that would require extraordinary but very rapid approval to deal with.
But for the vast majority of the cases, our experience downrange, if you will, is that techniques that are in the army field manual that lays out how we treat detainees, how we interrogate them, those techniques work. That is our experience in this business.
MACCALLUM: So is sending this signal that we’re not going to use the techniques anymore, what impact will that have on those who do us harm in the field that you operate in?
PETRAEUS: What I would ask is, does that not take away from our enemies a tool, which again they have beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion? When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized. And so as we move forward, I think it is important to again live our values to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those.
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5-4-3-2-1 — before the lizard-brained wingnuts start trashing their Hero General. Do you think that they will play the unpatriotic card? They are crazy enough to.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:17 pmI’d like to point out in advance that this thread has nothing to do with Keith Olbermann….
May 29th, 2009 at 5:19 pmmaybe NOW we’ll stop hearing the scandalously collusional statements about letting bygones be bygones by Obama and everyone else and this creep and his cronies will finally face the charges they so richly deserve. The world is watching!
May 29th, 2009 at 5:19 pmPetraeus is the Repubs’ hero. So why don’t we hear them agreeing with him lately? They aren’t even disagreeing. They’re….. silent. I guess they know he’s right about this.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:21 pmRepublicans must then agree that he obviously hates America and our troops!!!
May 29th, 2009 at 5:22 pmBetrayus looks as if he’s eyeing a run for some sort of political office ……….
May 29th, 2009 at 5:22 pmGeneral David Petraeus-recent participant at the May Bilderberg Group meeting in Greece.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pmGuido the Benevolent Torturer Says:
——————————————————————————–
If terrorists aren’t protected by the law then noone is. It’s pretty fundamental.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Our laws are in place to protect EVERYONE ; if it doesn’t apply to all , it applies to none ……….
May 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pmIts very entertaining, yet pathetic, to watch right wing apologists gyrate over defending torture.
Its become so bad that they embraced something that they are known to despise: PC wordsmithing. “Its not torture, its ‘enhanced interrogation techniques!’”
When will the infamous “culture warriors” criticize the inventers (and users) of the term “EIT” and acknolwedge that they should just tell it like it is and not try to “give in” to people’s sensitivities?
May 29th, 2009 at 5:27 pmIt’s called American Values, something the Republic Fascist Party does not understand.
Torture = UnAmerican and War Crime
Raping Prisoners, both women and children = UnAmerican and War Crime
Outing CIA agents = UnAmerican and Treasonous
Lying about Iraq = UnAmerican and Treasonous
Not protecting American when warned = UnAmerican and Treasonous
Supporting these things = Conservative Republican
Condemning these things = Liberal & Progressive Democrates
That sort of sums it up nicely.
Republic Fascist Party are criminals
May 29th, 2009 at 5:28 pmBoss Limpballs must be turning beet red and thrashing about the studio right now, what with all of his minions abandoning the Good Ship Rushbo and its talking points…
How long until El Rushtard throws Petraeus under the bus with the rest of those he’s deemed “not worthy”?
May 29th, 2009 at 5:29 pmWhen we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized.
So, General, does that mean you would be willing to testify against Bush and Cheney at their War Crimes trials?
May 29th, 2009 at 5:29 pmI can only imagine that a great number of military leaders are very thankful that the leadership of the country has been turned over to a sane and thoughtful man.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:30 pmThis just in from Fox Newsroom, General David Petraeus could be a liberal … DEMOCRAT. Did the surge really work? Two-hour special tonight.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pmWe, as Americans, should all live UP to our values as well as the Cheney/Bush live DOWN to theirs.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:33 pmas the Cheney/Bush maladministration live DOWN to theirs.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:33 pmLet me revise this:
“If the accused aren’t protected by the law then no one is. It’s pretty fundamental.”
May 29th, 2009 at 5:35 pmYes, Nat. The heart of democracy is that when we violate one person’s rights we violate everyone’s rights, because we share these rights. It’s such an easy concept—-elegant really—I don’t understand why most people don’t embrace it. Although, 12 years of public education does explain a lot.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:39 pmSure sounds like a phoney soldier to me.
Why couldn’t he have said these things four years ago ?
May 29th, 2009 at 5:42 pmNat Says:
“If the accused aren’t protected by the law then no one is. It’s pretty fundamental.”
If someone decides whether your rights will be respected or not, they’re not really unalienable rights, they’re allowances from the rulers which they can take away whenever they want.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:44 pmSo we only tortured 3 times?! What’s the legal limit Miss McCallum? With 6 you get eggroll?
Sen. Carl Levin has seen the documents that Cheney keeps referring to and he says there is no proof that torture accomplished anything.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/levin-cia-torture-documents-cheney-wants-dont-prove-squat/
May 29th, 2009 at 5:45 pmNow what did you hafta go and do that for?
You know how much our trolls like to invoke Keith as a sort of George-Soros-lite when they have no other arguments (which is almost all the time).
May 29th, 2009 at 5:45 pmPETRAEUS: What I would ask is, does that not take away from our enemies a tool, which again they have beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion? When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized.
Why the phuck isn’t anyone being prosecuted for ordering the violations of the Geneva Convention and committing WAR CRIMES?
May 29th, 2009 at 5:50 pmI will say as I always do …. I read both sides arguments as an informed citizen should do. I also read the readers posts. I have got to give kudos to those peeps from theleft .. ya’ll sure know how to hate!! Without fail the readers from the left throw out more attack posts than any I have read from the right. Where do I get this “HATE” lesson plan?? The left is constantly calling the right intolerant or stupid or whatever …. Where does this level of hatred come from???
May 29th, 2009 at 5:50 pmI’m surprised Fox put this on the air. I wonder what the “commentary” afterwards was.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:51 pmThere you have it. America’s top commander saying gitmo harms the troops.
What say now, wingnuts ?
May 29th, 2009 at 5:56 pmJudging by the criticisms of General Petreaus lobbed at him when Bush chose him after all his other generals kept displaying the inconvenient habit of telling the truth, I suspect Petraeus might be overly prone to pleasing his superiors.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:57 pmThis is the only post I see that is seething with hate.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:00 pmgivemelibertyordeath Says:
I will say as I always do …. I read both sides arguments as an informed citizen should do. I also read the readers posts. I have got to give kudos to those peeps from theleft .. ya’ll sure know how to hate!! Without fail the readers from the left throw out more attack posts than any I have read from the right. Where do I get this “HATE” lesson plan?? The left is constantly calling the right intolerant or stupid or whatever …. Where does this level of hatred come from???
I don’t hate you, but your comment does show you are intolerant and stupid.
Happy now?
Good, now go away.
=)
May 29th, 2009 at 6:00 pmYour invocation of the “hate” meme instantly discredits your claim of even-handedness.
I understand the impulse to label anything you disagree with as “hate” especially when it might be expressed in forceful language — it probably makes you feel superior by comparison, since you’re convinced that you “read both sides arguments as an informed citizen should do”.
But please, if you’re going to try to interact with people here, try to distinguish between anger and hatred. They can look similar on the surface, but anger can be a reasonable reaction to unreasonable circumstances, and is a temporary emotion, while hatred is irrational and unyielding.
If you’re capable of recognizing the difference, you might have something to contribute here.
Judging by your first attempt, though, it’s not looking good.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:01 pmgivemelibertyordeath Says:
I will say as I always do …. I read both sides arguments as an informed citizen should do. I also read the readers posts.
Lie. A naked attempt to set yourself up as some kind of impartial political virgin. You clearly are not. We have seen this tactic before.
.
givemelibertyordeath Says:
I have got to give kudos to those peeps from theleft .. ya’ll sure know how to hate!!
I like to think we do it with a certain panache, thank you.
.
givemelibertyordeath Says:
Without fail the readers from the left throw out more attack posts than any I have read from the right.
Probably because we have more interwebs than you do. Wanna bring up talk radio?
.
givemelibertyordeath Says:
Where do I get this “HATE” lesson plan?? The left is constantly calling the right intolerant or stupid or whatever …. Where does this level of hatred come from???
The right is intolerant and stupid. We seem to think it’s relevant to the current political situation of this country to point that out.
Don’t think you’re making any kind of critical point with your post. Let me take the wind out of your sails – I HATE RIGHT WINGERS. There. Now there’s no need to point it out to me in every other thread.
I hate them for a great number of very good reasons, most of which have to do with defending America from those who are out to destroy it. And before you twist that around and say “Al Qaeda?” let me put it on the table that Al Qaeda is a right wing organization too.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:10 pmWhat a hypocritical fascist Bastard Pertraeus is!!!! War Crimes were committed on his watch! He is a WAR CRIMINAL!
‘Babaca’ Obama while excusing for the ‘cover up’ and not releasing the photographs of the USA’s TORTURE PROGRAM, which was put in place by the WH/CIA/Pentagon, says the abuse was the result ‘of a few bad apples’. Parroting the criminal administration of Bush/Chenney.
These photographs are the evidence of why ‘the people who were just following orders’ must be prosecuted for WAR CRIMES.
Obama/Pentagon/CIA are still hopeful this matters can be pushed under the carpet and if they continue to LIE, it may go away!
It will never go away! Have we forgot the WAR CRIMES of the Nazis and Japanese? The USA today is associated with EVIL, with TORTURE, with the killings of civilians, with illegal military occupations (note the ‘plural’!), with murder of detainees and rape of them too.
If the USA ever gets serious about purging this evil which is now inseparable part of the US image around the globe, it has to release all the documentation, videos, photos, regarding its illegal activities and PROSECUTE who ever is responsible.
I mean prosecute and execute, not ’show trials and house arrests’. Chenney, Bush, Rice, Perle, Adington, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Wolfowitz, and all the rest of these scum of the earth animals should be hanged after a fair and transparent trial.
Otherwise, the only person on this planet ‘moving forward’ and still believing in “CHANGE” will be ‘Babaca’ Obama…
May 29th, 2009 at 6:12 pm#25
Since you like to post identical words on multiple threads, I thought I would do the same….
givemelibertyordeath
Wanna talk about your thesis? I look forward to it.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:01 pm Recommend (0) | Report Abuse
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Poser….
May 29th, 2009 at 6:18 pmBut..but..but..torture works…..ticking time bombs…..tick…tick…scary scary…scared…..ooh ooh boo…tick tick..whine whine whine.
I may sometimes play as troll on TP but in real life I’m a dirty hippie.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:43 pmI want to thank General Petraeus for saying this. I want to encourage this. I want key people to know that they have a solid base of support when it comes to defending our true values, and that they can safely leave those 18% in the dust, where they belong.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:51 pmHave I mentioned F@CK IDEOLOGICAL PURITY! It won’t serve Progressives any better than it’s serving the Republican party right now.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:53 pmI take it back.
George W Bush actually did one thing right.
He picked this guy.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:57 pmCrap. Too bad he wasn’t brave enough to say that to BUSH/CHENEY.
He’s real brave now, ain’t he?
May 29th, 2009 at 7:05 pmWhen we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Convention, we rightly have been criticized. And so as we move forward, I think it is important to again live our values to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those.
Interesting choice of words.
May 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pmI’m guessing that living the agreements made in the international justice arena and practicing those would mean there has to be a comprehensive investigation and if necessary, prosecution.
Bush’s Iraq Policy actually Changed, when he stopped listening to Cheny and Rumsfeld…and started listening to Gen. Petraeus and Sec. Gates.
One example is that they began TALKING to the Suni Insurgents ( the Awakening).
Slightly OT… but this Great Irony.
Remember when Sec. Rumsfeld gave his “Old Europe” Speech ? He basically told European Companies to get lost…with regards to “Post Victory” Iraqi Contracts.
Well Acording to Newsweek;
http://www.newsweek.com/id/197913
America may yet win the war in Iraq, but France, which bitterly opposed the war, looks set to win the contracts. Iraq needs at least $400 billion to restore its battered infrastructure, and a slump in oil prices means Baghdad is eager to attract private money. Foreign investment rose 1,500 percent as stability returned last year, but U.S. firms are “negligible players,” says a report from Dunia Frontier Consultants of Dubai. That’s in part because “U.S. firms with the highest tolerance for risk don’t have the history or the experience” to work in Iraq, says Kyle Stelma of Dunia. But the French do…
May 29th, 2009 at 7:34 pmLeftside Annie Says:
Crap. Too bad he wasn’t brave enough to say that to BUSH/CHENEY.
He’s real brave now, ain’t he?
Well, civilian control of the military is important. I’d prefer if he didn’t speak outside of the strategic sphere of his job at all, but he doesn’t publicly express disagreement with his C-i-C, and that’s a good thing overall.
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wiley Says:
I want to thank General Petraeus for saying this. I want to encourage this. I want key people to know that they have a solid base of support when it comes to defending our true values, and that they can safely leave those 18% in the dust, where they belong.
I’m inclined to agree. It’s a shame that so many people carried water for BushCo for so long, but if we don’t give them some degree of absolution, they’ve got no incentive to leave the R’s for the greener pastures over here. And bleeding away all of their rational people is something we should be doing.
May 29th, 2009 at 7:48 pmGen. Petraeus is for real. “no question about it”.
If he says Gitmo is a problem, it is.
May 29th, 2009 at 7:51 pmAnnie, have you ever heard the expression “Better late to the party than never”?
:|
If not, then maybe you’ve heard the expression, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”.
May 29th, 2009 at 10:02 pmSo,he’s not “Betrayus” anymore?
May 29th, 2009 at 10:03 pmgivemelibertyordeath Says
I have to say. YOU are delusional. YOUR side has Rush, Micheal Wienerdog Savage and Ann Coulter to name a few and you want to call us on OUR hate. It is a neat trick YOUR side spews vitriol nonstop for a couple of decades and when the left STARTS to fight back its US who is hating. If you really beleive this then you have never been to Freerepublicansewer or have lived in a cave in Sri Lanka for the last twenty years. More likely you are brainwashed and this is what Rush TOLD you to think
May 29th, 2009 at 11:04 pmno liberty for that one.
fck him.
May 30th, 2009 at 12:02 amPopatop Says:
So,he’s not “Betrayus” anymore?
Well, I never called him that. Nor did I flip out and attack those who did. I imagine some different people will start calling him that now. Most likely the same group who were so a-flutter over it last time.
May 30th, 2009 at 1:15 amFinally a logical, sensible voice of reason from the right whose really in the thick of things! I can hear the announcer now . . . “Let’s get ready to ruuummmmmbbbbllllle!” And the attacks will commence from el rushbo, the grench, and dick-the sick, twisted torturemiester.
General Petraeus, you rawk!
May 30th, 2009 at 4:57 amThere you have it. America’s top commander saying gitmo harms the troops.
What say now, wingnuts ?
Let me guess, “he’s a LIBERAL! OMG!” /snark…
May 30th, 2009 at 5:20 amAnyone who disagrees with the wingnuts automatically becomes one…
UCSBKitty Says:
What say now, wingnuts ?
Let me guess, “he’s a LIBERAL! OMG!” /snark…
Anyone who disagrees with the wingnuts automatically becomes one…
Here’s the thing they don’t realize – we have the capability of matching what they said some years ago with what they’re saying now, and presenting the contradiction to the public. This is more than a matter of “waffling” – when on the one hand you’re saying that someone is a hero and should never be questioned, then later on saying they’re a traitor who should be ignored, it’s pretty obvious which party has reversed themselves on the issue.
We have audio. We have video. We have hyperlinks to archived data. They don’t get to play the “past never happened” game any more. Their real problem is that that’s all they ever had. If they can’t pretend they didn’t say what they said, then they’re dead – politically speaking, natch.
May 30th, 2009 at 5:42 amDid the General join the “blame America first crowd”? The right won’t be trashing the General, since they spent so much time praising him in the past, the whole General betray us thing, remember?
So if advocating torture means not “living up to our values”, this means that those advocating torture do not live up to American values?
This debate is over and the right wing has lost it. Notice the right has switched over to the Supreme Court nomination, they have the attention span of a 3 year old. Which also means that have no real values at all, they do and say whatever they can to maintain power and gain political advantage.
May 30th, 2009 at 9:15 amThat Fox Reporter really looked creepy. She came across as vain and baleful.
May 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pmWaynebro: Sure, I’ve heard that expression, and yeah, the good general is welcome to the party.
However, that said, I don’t have a lot of respect for those who ‘go along to get along’ – those who take the easy way by agreeing when it’s expedient to do so.
The people I respect most are the ones who do what is right – no matter what the cost – and IMO, Petraeus isn’t one of those people.
May 31st, 2009 at 2:14 amThank You
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