Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the Bush administration's policies on the interrogation of terrorism suspects Sunday, saying former President George W. Bush would not have authorized anything illegal.
Condoleeza Rice says George W. Bush was clear that interrogations during his presidency should break no law.
"He was also very clear that we would do nothing -- nothing -- that was against the law or against our obligations internationally," Rice said during an appearance at a Washington school.
I mean, really! Number one, it has been established in many, many articles, blogs, etc., that what the Bush Administration did violated international torture laws. That assertion is so ubiquitous throughout the Internet that I’m not even going to provide a reference. Either you know by now or not. As far as I’m concerned, Rice is flat out lying when she says that Bush did “nothing …against our obligations internationally.” Excuse me, but we signed an agreement with other countries saying we would not torture AND that we would prosecute anyone who engaged in such egregious behavior. And Ronald Reagan signed it!
How straightforward is that??
Number two, of course he “would not have authorized anything illegal.” He just politicized the justice department and had them make whatever he and his minions decided upon doing “legal.” Though there are now tales floating around that the tortures were being implemented before the Justice Department’s final determination that they were “legal.”
As far as I’m concerned, to go to the extreme, what the Bush did by “legalizing” torture is the same thing as if he decided to kill someone, push the Justice Department into legalizing murder, having one of his cronies kill someone, then having people like Condoleeza Rice now saying, “Well, he didn’t authorize anything illegal!” Of course it could be Ms. Rice’s intent to fall back on Richard Nixon’s famous line, “When the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.” Sure. To avoid the illegality, just make it legal. Easy-Peasy!
It continually amazes me that there are those that want to obfuscate the blatant, horrific torture of human beings into some kind of “debate” on “policy issues.” Or the other “brilliant” excuse of “we must look forward” and just “reflect” on the past. Reflect? Puhleeze. Give me a frakkin’ break! At least Judge Baltasar Garzon in Spain is still pursuing the illegal acts of torture by the Bush Administration. As one of my earlier post headlines read, “Good for Spain and bad for the U.S.”
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