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Today's Must Read
If it's seemed to you that the administration has blundered its way into its recent pro-waterboarding PR offensive, you're right.
It all started, Newsweek reports, when John Negroponte blurted out in an interview that "waterboarding hasn't been used in years":
Negroponte's comments, which were seen as confirmation that waterboarding had in fact been used before that, were not cleared beforehand and caught White House officials off guard, according to [a] senior administration official. "It was an accidental disclosure," said the official. It also forced a reassessment of whether the administration should at least publicly confirm Negroponte's remarks, if only to reap whatever public-relations benefit could be derived from the slip.
That's right: the "public-relations benefit." You might think that admitting to a technique internationally condemned as torture would have no PR pluses. But not from the administration's point of view. Negroponte's comments came right before Attorney General Michael Mukasey's scheduled appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the thinking, apparently, was that now Mukasey could state publicly that waterboarding is not a currently authorized technique (although it might be deemed necessary and legal in certain "circumstances," but let's not focus on that). That should help satisfy all those petulant Democrats and human rights activists, right?
For some reason, it seems to be having the opposite effect. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has called for a criminal investigation based on the disclosure that waterboarding occurred. And human rights activists have finally gotten the break they've been waiting for. From The Washington Post:
Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said the Bush administration's admissions about waterboarding mark an important milestone. "It's not an abstract debate anymore," Malinowski said. "They've acknowledged that they've waterboarded people, and virtually every legal authority in the United States believes that waterboarding is torture and a crime."
Note: Newsweek also sheds light on those supposedly unique circumstances that led to the waterboarding of the three detainees in 2002 and 2003:
A former senior intelligence official who was working for the government at the time said intelligence officials were petrified that terrorists had smuggled a nuclear weapon into the United States and were planning to blow up New York City. The scenario was like a real-life episode of "24," the official said. Ultimately, the nuclear threat proved bogus.
Comments (15)
Accidental disclosure, hmmm?
Is Negroponte allowed to declassify details about highly classified secret special access programs that the Administration until that point refused to acknowledge to anyone publicly?
Because that's what he did, you know.
Other than the "PR offesnsive" has Negroponte's security clearance been suspended? Is there an investigation ongoing?
February 7, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
UN promptly condemns waterboarding as torture:
"Manfred Nowak told the Associated Press in Geneva that these techniques are totally unacceptable under international law."
They've broken international law. And it goes unpunished.
February 7, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess Bushco just hopes that no one really notices the whole breaking international law thing. Since the DoJ said it is legal in the US.
I am not convinced about the whole "Oops, I just told Newsweek that the US tortures, I hope they don't put that in the story."
February 7, 2008 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
This means that Bush could be tried as a war criminal. I hope the International Court of Justice reels him in, just to find out what makes him different from other torturers around the world. I have never thought impeachement was a good idea, just because it's so time-consuming and there are important issues that need to be handled. But Bush has succeeded once again in making me ashamed to be an American. War Criminal. That's what should be attached to his name.
February 7, 2008 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
The International Court of Justice does not try individuals for war crimes. The International Criminal Court does, but it gets its jurisdiction only through the signing and ratification of treaties. We are not a party to the ICC treaty, and they would not recognize jurisdiction. The only way Bush could be tried at the ICC is if the Security Council recommended prosecution, and the only way they would do so is if the United States asked them to.
Perhaps in 10-20 years, the U.S. would be in a political position to do so. I don't think that, even under the next democratic president, this would happen.
He could also be charged with war crimes in this country, but this is also an unlikely event, at least in the near future.
February 7, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Bradbury, Rumsfield, Libby, et al. It's a long list of people who should appear at the Hague.
February 7, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
As far as Negroponte "knows" they haven't used "this" particular form of torture in years. There's a lot he doesn't know, I'm sure.
February 7, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
The International Court of Justice does not try individuals for war crimes. The International Criminal Court does, but it gets its jurisdiction only through the signing and ratification of treaties. We are not a party to the ICC treaty, and they would not recognize jurisdiction. The only way Bush could be tried at the ICC is if the Security Council recommended prosecution, and the only way they would do so is if the United States asked them to.
Perhaps in 10-20 years, the U.S. would be in a political position to do so. I don't think that, even under the next democratic president, this would happen.
He could also be charged with war crimes in this country, but this is also an unlikely event, at least in the near future.
February 7, 2008 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've written a little ditty to help Georgie's PR boys with their waterboarding campaign. Here goes...
(Sung to the tune of "Mickey Mouse")
How we get the information from the enemy?
W-A-T-T-E-R-B-O-A-R-D!
What's the thing that feeds Dick Cheney's Bauer fantasy?
W-A-T-T-E-R-B-O-A-R-D!
Waterboard! Donald Duck!
Waterboard! Donald Duck!
We'd do it if we thought it'd make him quack!
THTOP! THTOP!! QUACK!!!!
What technique makes the world safe for democracy?
W-A-T-
"T" is for "Torture" (Not!)
T-E-R-
"R" is for "We Reserve the right to protect Americans!"
B-O-A-R-D!
February 7, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's hilarious! And to make the meter work, you have to blend together the first two letters (because "M" only has one syllable, but "W" has three). So you have to say "Dub-yA-T".
Very funny.
-- ARG
February 7, 2008 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, in my view this puts impeachment back on the table. (I never thought it should be off the table.)
Do We the People have any credibility, if we do not hold our leaders to account? Can we even make an argument that we still deserve to govern ourselves, if we don't impeach this president? Are we not dangerously close -- collectively, all of us -- to abandoning the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence?
Come on, people. It's not too late, and it's not too "time consuming [when] there are important issues that need to be handled". I mean, seriously, what could be more important than defending our rights to self government and maintaining the credibility as a people to deserve those rights?
-- ARG
February 7, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Personally, I always avoided waterboarding. Heaving the suspect out of a helicopter over open sea is much more elegant."
John Negroponte
February 7, 2008 11:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
"We never went in for waterboarding much during my Nicaragua stint. We considered the tossing of the suspect from a helicopter into the open sea much more elegant."
John Negroponte
February 7, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is just the latest case of Bush being caught in a flat-out lie. We could make a thread a mile long with his lies, but the ones that trouble me most, in addition to the HIM being "the decider" when it comes to waterboarding, is the one about illegal wiretapping. Remember when he said "You still need a court order to wire tap," only it turned out not to be true because Bush had already decided he could do whatever he wants?
That is one sorry sack of, uh, humanity.
February 7, 2008 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good. Only W can authorize waterboarding. Guess who stands trial for warcrimes. This may be getting better. It assigns responsibility.
February 7, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink