Cheney Asks For Freedom To Torture, page


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Topic started on 5-11-2005 @ 08:58 PM by elderban
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney personally appealed this week to Republican senators to allow the CIA an exemption under a bill to ban torture of terror suspects. The bill is sponsored by senator John McCain, who himself was tortured while a prisoner in Vietnam. McCain is said to have opposed Cheney's request. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is said to have been supportive of it.




seattletimes.nwsource.com
Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.

The vice president made his comments at a regular weekly private meeting of Republican senators, according to several lawmakers who attended. Cheney often attends but rarely speaks.


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


Vice President Dick Cheney is pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans.

"Cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of prisoners is banned by an INTERNATIONAL TREATY negotiated by the Reagan administration and ratified by the United States. The Department of State annually issues a report criticizing other governments for violating it.

Now, Vice President Cheney is basically throwing it all in the toilet, and is basically asking Congress to approve legal language that would allow the Central Intelligence Agency to commit such abuses against foreign prisoners it is holding abroad.

In other words, this vice president has become an open advocate of torture.

God save America.

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[edit on 8-11-2005 by asala]


reply posted on 9-11-2005 @ 03:02 PM by Yorga
Okay, I'll bite! I don't believe in torturing your basic foot soldier just to get troop movement info, but given the right circumstance then it can be a means to obtain information that the victim would not readily give up. Say for instance a WMD is planted on US soil and has a timing device. Suppose that the device will kill, thousands or more Americans if it detonates. Now you have a person in custody that may have information that will either lead to the device or to someone else that knows where the device is, yeah I know, sounds like your basic '24' plot but imho at least the President should have the authority to use it as a last resort in times of National Security. Now having said that I am not going to debate with anyone the moral side of torture. If you notice my avatar then you will see that I am a veteran. I wouldn't particularly like to have bamboo shoots shoved up my fingernails either, but as a soldier that was in situations were if captured, torture was guaranteed, I still say that if the situation is right then it is a necessary tool. My concern would be in saving the lives of the many innocents that will die from the attack rather than worrying about the rights of the person being tortured. War is not fun and games, we are fighting a ruthless enemy that has no regard for human life. You cannot tie the hands of our government or our soldiers just so you feel better about yourself. As a soldier I can honestly say that I wish that all weapons on the face of the earth could be rounded up and destroyed. I wish that no one every had to die in a senseless act of violence. I depise war and those that bring it on us, but if you put me on the battlefield, then I am going to be whatever evil bastard I have to be to assure my safety, that of my men, my Country and my loved ones.
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