As if we didn’t already know, we now have a flat-out admission.
George W. Bush was a TORTURER.
Human rights experts have long pressed the administration of former president George W. Bush for details of who bore ultimate responsibility for approving the simulated drownings of CIA detainees, a practice that many international legal experts say was illicit torture.
In a memoir due out Tuesday, Bush makes clear that he personally approved the use of that coercive technique against alleged Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, an admission the human rights experts say could one day have legal consequences for him.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
In his book, titled "Decision Points," Bush recounts being asked by the CIA whether it could proceed with waterboarding Mohammed, who Bush said was suspected of knowing about still-pending terrorist plots against the United States. Bush writes that his reply was "Damn right" and states that he would make the same decision again to save lives, according to a someone close to Bush who has read the book.
Yeah I did it! And I'm PROUD I did it! What'cha gonna do about it?!
(and note, it's a pretty good bet this was only one of MANY tortures Bush authorized)
Ummm... Hey George, don't you realize you might have just stamped your very own ticket to prison? Haven't you heard about this?:
President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. have both said waterboarding is an act of torture proscribed by international law...
Aren't you afraid that...
... but the Obama administration has not sought to punish former Bush administration officials for approving it.
Oh, yeah, that's right. All the "turn the page", "look forward, not back" stuff. Yeah, I remember now. Well...
The 26-year-old United Nations Convention Against Torture requires that all parties to it seek to enforce its provisions, even for acts committed elsewhere.
Ok, good, then apparently Obama/Holder MUST do something. After all, the Convention Against Torture is a treaty, and treaties are held at the same level of law in the U.S. as is the Constitution itself. Hmmm... but is Bush really this stupid?...
M. Cherif Boussiani, an emeritus law professor at DePaul University who co-chaired the U.N. experts committee that drafted the torture convention, said that Bush's admission could theoretically expose him to prosecution. But he also said Bush must have presumed that he would have the government's backing in any confrontation with others' courts.
Uh... wait just a minute here! The Convention says we (that means our government... that means Obama/Holder/etc) MUST investigate when torture is suspected. So what's this Boussiani guy implying? That Obama would not only NOT push for prosecutions... but he would actually help DEFEND Bush and the other war criminals?!
I'm sorry. I have many issues with Obama, as you all know. But I refuse to believe that he would actually DEFEND war criminals. I refuse to believe he would actually expose HIMSELF to accessory-after-the-fact and/or obstruction charges. Obama wouldn't do that.
He wouldn't... would he?
EDIT: As I noted in a comment...
To clarify... I'm really not interested in Obama, etc. ever being charged with anything re. this (even if they could be). I'm interested in Bush and his buddies being (at least) investigated. And if Obama isn't willing to do that, even to the point of DEFENDING Bush?... well, even if he's not criminally charged, he most definitely should be charged in the court of public opinion, including how IMMORAL his (in)action is.