One thing that nobody should ever be permitted to say again, after reading these memos: “The United States didn’t torture.” When President Bush said it, he was a liar. The only question is whether or not he was lying to himself, so that he could sleep at night, or consciously lying to the public for reasons of political expediency.
Tag Archives: Bush
The torture memos are out…
… and they are available here. They should be required reading. More to come on this as I am still reading them. But from what I have read so far, I think Andrew Sullivan summarizes it very effectively:
Perhaps you are reading these documents alongside me. I’ve only read the Bybee memo, as chilling an artefact as you are ever likely to read in a democratic society, the work clearly not of a lawyer assessing torture techniques in good faith, but of an administration official tasked with finding how torture techniques already decided upon can be parsed in exquisitely disingenuous ways to fit the law, even when they clearly do not. This is what Hannah Arendt wrote of when she talked of the banality of evil. To read a bureaucrat finding ways to describe and parse away the clear infliction of torture on a terror suspect well outside any “ticking time bomb” scenario is to realize what so many of us feared and sensed from the shards of information we have been piecing together for years. It is all true. These memos form a coda to the Red Cross report, confirming its evidentiary conclusions, while finding exquisite, legalistic and preposterous ways to deny the obvious.
Obama bowed, Bush kissed
President Obama is getting a bunch of flack for bowing to the Saudi King. Anyone remember Bush’s interactions? Check these out.
It simply doesn’t work
Torture, that is.
It simply doesn't work
Torture, that is.
Bush kept us safe (and other lies)
I turn this one over to Chris Matthews:
Guard at Gitmo: “I felt ashamed.”
Brandon Neely, a former guard at Gitmo, has gone public with his claims of abuse and admitted his own “shame” for being a participant. Rachel Maddow interviewed him. Watch and see part of the damage done by the Bush administration torture policies.
By the way, the UC-Davis Guantánamo Testimonials Project, mentioned by Rachel Maddow in the clip is available here (with numerous first-hand accounts of abuse) and Brandon Neely’s testimonial is available here.
Guard at Gitmo: "I felt ashamed."
Brandon Neely, a former guard at Gitmo, has gone public with his claims of abuse and admitted his own “shame” for being a participant. Rachel Maddow interviewed him. Watch and see part of the damage done by the Bush administration torture policies.
By the way, the UC-Davis Guantánamo Testimonials Project, mentioned by Rachel Maddow in the clip is available here (with numerous first-hand accounts of abuse) and Brandon Neely’s testimonial is available here.
Bush: a big government disaster
Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of reason.tv and reason.com, outlines the broad scope of Bush’s failures as president in today’s Wall Street Journal. This is a good analysis from a libertarian viewpoint of small government and limited international military intervention. I agree with almost all his points.
Excerpt:
Mr. Bush’s legacy is thus a bizarro version of Ronald Reagan’s. Reagan entered office declaring that government was not the solution to our problems, it was the problem. Ironically, he demonstrated that government could do some important things right — he helped tame inflation and masterfully drew the Cold War to a nonviolent triumph for the Free World. By contrast, Mr. Bush has massively expanded the government along with the sense that government is incompetent.
That is no small accomplishment — and its pernicious effects will last long after Mr. Bush has moved back to Texas, and President Obama has announced that his stimulus package, originally tagged at $750 billion and already up to $825 billion, will cost $1 trillion or more. Mr. Bush has cleared the way for President Obama to intervene more and more in the economy and every other aspect of American life.
Executive order banning torture (updated)
Ben Smith over at Politico draws attention to a rather strong provision in President Obama’s executive order related to the treatment of detainees and Gitmo.
The Order also prohibits reliance on any Department of Justice or other legal advice concerning interrogation that was issued between September 11, 2001 and January 20, 2009.
All I can say is wow. There is no ambiguity in that provision that the John Yoo days are well and truly over. President Obama seems to determined to restore the prestige of the US in the world. He also is showing his basic human morality.
Update: On the same topic, a new Washington Post/ABC news poll show that and overwhelming majority of Americans do agree that torture should not be used under any circumstances. The fundamental decency of Americans is clear.
Q. Obama has said that under his administration the United States will not use torture as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism, no matter what the circumstance. Do you support this position not to use torture, or do you think there are cases in which the United States should consider torture against terrorism suspects?
By a wide margin – 58-40% — Americans say that torture should never be used, no matter the circumstances. Let’s repeat that: ”no matter the circumstance.” That margin is enormous among Democrats (71-28%) and substantial among independents (56-43%). As usual these days, Republicans hold the minority view, but even among them there is substantial categorical opposition to torture (42-55%).
Obama to Bush: I will release your records if I can
In a strong bid in favor of transparency, President Obama has issued an executive order to the effect that government staffers should release all the records they can in response to freedome of information act requests. The essentially overturned a Bush order that nothing should be released unless the official was certain that there was no defense to failing to release the records. This is potentially a very big deal to former Bush officials.
“[Obama]‘s putting former presidents on notice that if you want to continue a claim of executive privilege that [Obama] doesn’t think is well-placed, you’re going to have to go to court,” says Anne Weismann, the chief counsel for Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW).
Obama equals Bush?
Dowd on the Inauguration
Maureen Dowd sometimes does a terrific job of capturing the mood and feeling of events. Her take on the inauguration is one of those times. Excerpt:
After thanking President Bush “for his service to our nation,” Mr. Obama executed a high-level version of Stephen Colbert’s share-the-stage smackdown of W. at the White House correspondents’ dinner in 2006.
With W. looking on, and probably gradually realizing with irritation, as he did with Colbert, who Mr. Obama’s target was — (Is he talking about me? Is 44 saying I messed everything up?) — the newly minted president let him have it:
“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” he said to wild applause (and to Bartlett’s), adding: “Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.” He said America is choosing hope over fear, unity over discord, setting aside “false promises” and “childish things.”
The helicopter of happiness
A lovely video of the helicopter transporting George Bush out of Washington. (via BoingBoing)
A Bush retrospective
Over at Making Light, they have compiled the definitive list of headlines covering the Bush years, with links to the underlying stories. The publication from which the headlines come: The Onion. Excerpt:
September 26, 2001: American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie.
September 26, 2001: Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell.
September 26, 2001: God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule.
September 26, 2001: Hugging Up 76,000 Percent.
September 26, 2001: Arab-American Third-Grader Returns From Recess Crying, Saying He Didn’t Kill Anyone.
September 26, 2001: Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake.
September 26, 2001: Bush Sr. Apologizes To Son For Funding Bin Laden In ’80s.
September 26, 2001: Report: Gen X Irony, Cynicism May Be Permanently Obsolete.
September 26, 2001: Jerry Falwell: Is That Guy A Dick Or What?
September 26, 2001: The U.S. Military Is Pondering Its Response Options.
September 26, 2001: Talking To Your Child About The WTC Attack.
September 26, 2001: U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We’re At War With.
September 26, 2001: President Urges Calm, Restraint Among Nation’s Ballad Singers.
September 26, 2001: Statshot: How Have We Spent the Last Two Weeks?
September 26, 2001: Dinty Moore Breaks Long Silence On Terrorism With Full-Page Ad.
September 26, 2001: Point/Counterpoint: We Must Retaliate With Blind Rage…
September 26, 2001: Infographic: Making America Safer.