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February 02, 2005
Torture memo authors respond in LA Times
The Justice Department lawyers, Robert J. Delahunty and John C. Yoo, who wrote the infamous 2002 torture memos have penned a quaint op-ed piece for the LA Times:
But the Geneva Convention makes little sense when applied to a terrorist group or a pseudo-state. If we must fight these kinds of enemies, we must create a new set of rules.
In this single sentence, they encapsulate what the administration has been up to. The White House does not write domestic or international law on the the level of Geneva, yet it made an attempt to do so in order to permit torture. Yoo and Delahunty are implying "we must create" to be in the future tense, yet the White House, DOJ, and the Pentagon have already written new sets of rules -- complete with loopholes larger than Mr. Bush's ubiquitous verbal pauses.
And this sentence is the first indication that the Nazi analogy is making its way up the ladders in Washington:
One writer on this page even went so far as to compare it to Nazi atrocities. Such absurd claims betray the real weaknesses in the position taken by Gonzales' critics.
It's not a weakness at all -- not when the people being accused of Nazi tactics need to defend themselves against those charges in a major newspaper editorial.
However this plays out historically, the very notion that with the Bush administration, the nation is ensconced in a debate about war crimes, atrocities, and torture at the hands of Americans, is in and of itself allowing these comparisons to be drawn.
Posted By Bob Cesca | February 2, 2005 08:21 AM | DIGG ME!
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Comments
Well, this debate will never fly in this country. You know why? Most people don't even know that it's Geneva CONVENTIONS, plural. Nor have they bothered to actually read them, they just listen to their respective leaders tell them what it does and doesnt say, and apply to.
You know that daily your local neighborhood cop does something that would warrent war crimes if done in war, he carries hollowpoint slugs (Nothing against hollowpoints myself, I think that rule is retarded, theres a lot of horrible weapons still legal, and an expanding slug is probably more humane in that it'll kill quicker, and be less prone to penetrate body armor). That said, who runs around screaming at the cops for violating the geneva convention.
As for this "torture", get arrested in Chi-town sometime, expecally if you are black. A whole slew of death penalty convictions were overturned here a few years ago because the cops used real torture to extract confessions (stuff that makes Abu G look like a massage with a happy ending). And EVERYBODY knew about it, and it wasnt until our CORRUPT, REPUBLICAN gov halted all executions that something was done.
People are really quick to freak out every time somebody makes a naked pile, while our own internal security forces kick the shit out of people daily.
Oh wait, if there are no pretty pictures, nobody cares.
(Not justifiying any mistreatment of anybody, just saying, you can get this shit right here too)
Posted by: Lactar ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.bobcesca.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 2, 2005 03:09 PM
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