Interesting People mailing list archives
more on Proposed War Crimes Act protection for Bush
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 06:18:17 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross () stapleton-gray com> Date: August 10, 2006 12:00:16 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Proposed War Crimes Act protection for Bush At 05:13 PM 8/9/2006, David Farber wrote:
Interrogation practices "follow from policies that were formed at the highest levels of the administration," said a fourth attorney, Scott Horton, who has followed detainee issues closely. "The administration is trying to insulate policymakers under the War Crimes Act." A White House spokesman said Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions includes a number of vague terms that are susceptible to different interpretations. The administration believes it is very important to bring clarity to the War Crimes Act so that those on the front lines in the war on terror "have clear rules that are defined in law," said the White House spokesman. ... When interrogators engage in waterboarding, prisoners are strapped to a plank and dunked in water until nearly drowning.
I will feel even more shame than I now do for America if our elected legislators manage to pare down "that which we will not do" to leave all manner of torture--and there's no way to define it that makes waterboarding something other than torture--on the table.
But there's no need for legislation at all: the President is free to issue pardons to Americans convicted under existing, not-yet- retroactively-abolished U.S. law. But I'd like to have him put his signature to the paper that reads, "I pardon the crime of torture/ maiming/homicide/etc. in the name of America," and bear the consequences, not duck out behind a spineless, complicit Congress.
There's a NYT editorial in response to the Lamont primary win that I think says a lot about the current state of things (http:// www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/opinion/09wed1.html); this excerpt in particular:
"The rebellion against Mr. Lieberman was actually an uprising by that rare phenomenon, irate moderates. They are the voters who have been unnerved over the last few years as the country has seemed to be galloping in a deeply unmoderate direction. A war that began at the president's choosing has degenerated into a desperate, bloody mess that has turned much of the world against the United States. The administration's contempt for international agreements, Congressional prerogatives and the authority of the courts has
undermined the rule of law abroad and at home. "Yet while all this has been happening, the political discussion inWashington has become a captive of the Bush agenda. Traditional beliefs like every person's right to a day in court, or the conviction that America should not start wars it does not know how to win, wind up being portrayed as extreme. The middle becomes a place where senators struggle to get the president to volunteer to obey the law when the mood strikes him. Attempting
to regain the real center becomes a radical alternative." ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on Proposed War Crimes Act protection for Bush David Farber (Aug 10)