They [George Bush and Dick Cheney] should have been indicted. They absolutely should have been indicted for torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrants. I’d like to say they should be indicted for lying but believe it or not, unless you’re under oath, lying is not a crime. At least not an indictable crime. It’s [...]
Posts Tagged ‘torture’
Torture quote of the day
Posted: 13th July 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush, Bush administration, civil liberties, justice, terror, torture
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Shameful quote of the day (updated)
Posted: 3rd June 2010 by Brant in politics, sadTags: Bush, Bush administration, justice, Obama, Obama administration, torture, war
Yeah, we water-boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I’d do it again to save lives. –Former President George W. Bush, speaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Wednesday. It is amazing to me that a former president of the United States can speak so openly and proudly of violating US law, US treaty obligations, and general human decency. [...]
Obama = Bush Light
Posted: 22nd May 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, civil liberties, justice, Obama, Obama administration, torture
The Obama Administration continues following the lead of the Bush Administration in regards civil liberties and pursuit of what used to be called the “war” on terror. Most recently, the Obama DOJ argued successfully that foreign nationals held by the United States in prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have no habeas corpus rights [...]
Waterboarding is torture
Posted: 9th March 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, CIA, civil liberties, justice, Obama administration, torture
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If you have any doubts that waterboarding is torture, take a look at this article from Salon which summarizes the contents of internal CIA documents recently released. The documents … lay out, in chilling detail, exactly what should occur in each two-hour waterboarding “session.” Interrogators were instructed to start pouring water right after a detainee [...]
Free the orcas (updated)
Posted: 28th February 2010 by Brant in culture, scienceTags: killer whale, orca, torture, zoos
To me, the death of a trainer at SeaWorld by the acts of a captive killer whale highlight the problem with using animals purely for human entertainment. It is wrong, both morally and practically, to imprison a animal meant to cruise the seas in a cement tank solely to make money on displaying that animal. [...]
Torture quote of the day
Posted: 22nd February 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: civil rights, justice, torture, war
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I have always been on the record, in fact, since 2003, with the concept of living our values. And I think that whenever we’ve perhaps taken expedient measures, they’ve turned around and bitten us in the backside. We decided early on, in the 101st airborne division, we just said, we decided to obey the Geneva [...]
Department of Justice reports on Yoo/Bybee (updated)
Posted: 20th February 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, civil liberties, justice, torture
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What can one say? The ethics review of the opinions issued by John Yoo and Jay Bybee conducted by the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that the two should be referred to their state bar associations for possible discipline. However, that report was overruled by a career lawyer within the DOJ. As the New [...]
Does Cheney know what he is saying? (updated)
Posted: 15th February 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, Cheney, justice, torture
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Here is a quote of what Cheney said over the weekend on national TV: I was a big supporter of waterboarding. Jonathan Turley points out this is a very dangerous thing to say, since waterboarding is a crime under international law. We have now come to this: a Vice President who feels perfectly comfortable in [...]
When is a terrorist not a terrorist?
Posted: 6th February 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, civil liberties, Democrats, republicans, terror, torture, wackos
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Glenn Greenwald, writing in Salon, points out that if a government asserts that someone is a “terrorist” that does not mean that the accused in fact is a terrorist. The idea that if a claim of “terrorist” is made means anything can be done to the accused (torture, indefinite imprisonment, deportation, etc.) is what helps [...]
American (in)justice
Posted: 2nd February 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, civil liberties, justice, torture
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After months of delay the Office of Professional Responsibility report regarding the legal advice provided to the Bush administration is about to be released. Newsweek reports: While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did [...]
Getting away with torture
Posted: 3rd January 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, civil rights, justice, Obama administration, torture
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The case of Maher Arar, a Candadian citizen, is appalling. David Cole, writing in the current issue of The New York Review of Books, outlines the terrible injustice done by the United States to this man, and the shameful failure of our court system to provide justice for violations of national and international prohibitions on [...]
Court limits taser use (updated)
Posted: 1st January 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: civil liberties, justice, taser, torture
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A federal appeals court in California has denied immunity to a police officer who tasered a driver stopped for driving without a seatbelt. The driver posed no physical threat to the officer. From the New York Times: In a vividly worded opinion issued by the court this week, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw described a “bad [...]
The unitary executive continues to grow
Posted: 1st November 2009 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush, constitution, justice, Obama, torture, unitary executive
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The Constitutional limitations on the Executive branch continue to be ignored, despite President Obama’s promised of change. Gary Wills, writing in the New York Review of Books catalogs the continued damage to the Constitution. The entire essay is worth a read. George W. Bush left the White House unpopular and disgraced. His successor promised change, [...]
Torture quote of the day
Posted: 3rd October 2009 by Brant in politicsTags: Bush administration, justice, Obama, Obama administration, torture
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There is nothing against you. But there is no innocent person here. So, you should confess to something so you can be charged and sentenced and serve your sentence and then go back to your family and country, because you will not leave this place innocent. [emphasis added] – Statement of US interrogator to al-Rabiah [...]
Torturing the (known) innocent
Posted: 1st October 2009 by Brant in politics, sadTags: Bush administration, Obama administration, torture
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Andrew Sullivan tackles US torture head on. This is not alleged torture, nor is it “enhanced interrogation techniques”. Such torture has now been confirmed in a Federal court judgment: We now know that torturing a human being to get proof that he deserved to be tortured was not just a theoretical fear of mine. It [...]