From
CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he was offended by Amnesty International's condemnation of the United States for what it called "serious human rights violations" at Guantanamo Bay.
"For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don't take them seriously," he said in an interview that was to air Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Like this sanctimonious partisan hack of a politician has any right to be offended.
The Administration that he heads can't even bring themselves to admit that some bad apples under their watch violated the human rights of people, and can't handle any criticism whatsoever about them ignoring due process rights of persons who they can't decide if they're prisoners of war or criminals.
Of course, when confronted by the accusations, Cheney pulls the usual bait and switch... "Look at this hand over here! Ignore the one robbing your dignity blind..."
"I think the fact of the matter is, the United States has done more to advance the cause of freedom, has liberated more people from tyranny over the course of the 20th century and up to the present day than any other nation in the history of the world," he said.
"Just in this administration, we've liberated 50 million people from the Taliban in Afghanistan and from Saddam Hussein in Iraq, two terribly repressive regimes that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their own people."
Great. Excellent. Lets even, for the sake of argument, forget the fact that another hundred thousand civilians died under their watch during the invasion of Iraq, and more in Afghanistan, and be charitable and give them this point.
How in the hell does that relate to how we're treating captured people at two prisons that are under no review but that of a corrupt Department of Defense?
Try answering the freakin' question, Dick.
And then he gives an excuse for the allegations:
"But if you trace those back, in nearly every case, it turns out to come from somebody who has been inside and been released ... to their home country and now are peddling lies about how they were treated."
Okay...riddle me this. If they're already released, that generally indicates that they didn't do anything wrong, and were merely a wrong place at the wrong time capture. That, for one, is a major problem I have with Gitmo, but that's another diary entirely.
But, THEY'RE ALREADY RELEASED! It's not like they're currently in there trying to get attention or sympathy...there's already out! What do they have to gain?
It's a pure brush off, plain and simple. A refusal to face the issue.
Finally, Amnesty International gets off a lovely parting shot:
Schulz responded to Cheney's comments: "It doesn't matter whether he takes Amnesty International seriously.
"He doesn't take torture seriously; he doesn't take the Geneva Convention seriously; he doesn't take due process rights seriously; and he doesn't take international law seriously.
"And that is more important than whether he takes Amnesty International seriously."
And that sums it up much better than I can. Instead of admitting that there is a problem and having an open, public investigation to clean it up and do the right thing, this administration continues to take this country's good name through a spin in the mud by their refusal to ever admit a mistake.
That's what offends me, Dick Cheney.