Every statement George Bush has ever made about torture is wrong.
Every statement George Bush has ever made about torture has been based on the delusion that waterboarding is not torture.
George Bush authorized waterboarding after his pet lawyers told him it wasn't torture. (It doesn't cause organ damage, which was essentially their standard)
NOW six years after the fervor of 9/11 ......waterboarding has been rejected by our society and the world, the "debate" is over. Waterboarding IS torture.
Let me state it clearly:
Waterboarding is torture. America has waterboarded. America tortures.
The CIA has destroyed evidence that showed torture. Waterboarding. Any other conclusion is ludicrous rationalization. Let's not focus on the tapes, but what they showed that made the CIA destroy them. They showed torture.
Torture that was authorized by The President of the United States. Torture that was approved by the silence of the heads of Congressional Intelligence Committees.
Torture that was approved by all but one Democratic head of an Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman.
America is GUILTY of Torture.
The highest echelon of OUR government has tortured people...in YOUR name.
Now what?
Let me restate this part for emphasis. The puppet Bush lawyers, Yoo, Bybee, etc. told Bush and (presumably) the CIA that waterboarding is not torture.
They were wrong.
Waterboarding IS torture....the United States has prosecuted people in the past for waterboarding....because it is torture. We all remember the 'debate' on whether waterboarding is torture, culminating in Mukaseys confirmation. Mukasey would not say waterboarding is torture for one simple reason. If he said that, he would be saying that...America tortures. Opening America up to War Crimes trials...because waterboarding is torture and America has used waterboarding.
America tortures.
America set up a network of secret prisons to waterboard and torture. The President has admitted this, and again said that according to his puppet lawyers....waterboarding and secret prisons and transporting kidnapped suspects to secret prisons to be tortured are legal. They aren't legal.
Watch it.
.
BRIAN ROSS: And did you know the CIA officers feel without a doubt you had the legal right to do what you were doing?
JOHN: Absolutely. Absolutely. I remember - I remember being told when - the President signed the - the authorities that they had been approved - not just by the National Security Counsel, but by the - but by the Justice Department as well, I remember people being surprised that the authorities were granted.
Now what?
In ordinary circumstances...when a President has committed a crime, especially one as heinous as torture...one might expect the Speaker of the House to start investigations for the purpose of impeachment. But The Speaker of the House KNEW America was engaging in torture ...and did not object. And make no mistake...the practice of briefing the Intelligence Committee heads is specifically in place to allow them to object to programs and practices that cross the line of decency, and legality. It is their purpose. There is NO excuse for not objecting.
Now what?
The CIA is investigating itself, the infamous Bush Administration Department of Justice is investigating, the Senate and House Intelligence Committees are investigating....all of these investigating entities have been involved to some extent in the organized programs of torture. The very systems that justified and approved of torture are now investigating themselves....is this good enough? Will they find themselves guilty of torture or of approving torture or of not objecting to torture...which is a War Crime? Will they have the will to aggressively investigate and prosecute?
America tortures.
America has committed War Crimes.
The CIA has broken domestic and international laws. The President of the United States has broken domestic and international laws. The entities that should prosecute these War Crimes are compromised.
