On Sun, 18 Dec 2005 00:50:55 -0500, thunder wrote:

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 13:29:19 -0500, John Gaquin wrote:


"thunder" wrote in message

...but an
American President defending torture? I didn't think I'd ever see the
day.

Pres Bush was not defending torture, as the press so gleefully loves to
portray. What he was defending was the use of distastefully coercive
interrogation techniques. Surely someone as smart as you can see the
distinction. [If you deny seeing the distinction, I would have to ask
who operates your computer for you.] Torture has been banned by US law
for some time. What the McCain bill does is take political correctness
to the highest level yet achieved.

You overlook this administration's history of handing people over to
countries that do torture.

Are you suggesting that we should keep any foreign suspects we capture and put them in a
bed-and-breakfast for the rest of their lives?

If we can't return them to their country of birth, where should we send them?

What countries do *not* use coercive interrogation techniques?


That would be an accessory before the fact.
You also overlook the infamous Bybee memo that was the formal legal
opinion that guided this administration. It defined torture so narrowly
that only activities resulting in "death, organ failure or the permanent
impairment of a significant body function" qualify. By most Americans'
standards that is far more than "distastefully coercive interrogation
techniques."

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/d...e80102ltr.html

--
John H

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