Archive for the 'torture' Category
Always Worse
Posted on May 15, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, Iraq war, torture | Leave a Comment
No matter how bad we thought they were, they were actually much, much worse.
Here’s the part I still don’t understand: Why were they all so intent on attacking Iraq in particular? “Insanity” just doesn’t satify me, but it’s the only plausible answer I can come up with.
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A Good Influence
Posted on April 30, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Andrew Sullivan, Barack Obama, torture | Leave a Comment
I may have written this before, but I’ll repeat myself all the same: Say what you will about some of his other views, but Andrew Sullivan has been consistently and emphatically right about torture.
The new part: I sincerely hope that the president really is reading and being influenced by what Sullivan has to say on [...]
All Evidence Has Been Buried All Tapes Have Been Erased But Your Footsteps Give You Away So You’re Backtracking
Posted on April 23, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Radiohead, music, torture | Leave a Comment
Every American should have to look at every one of these pictures and consider precisely what was done in our name. A huge thank you to the ACLU for fighting to get this stuff into the hands of the public.
…In other news, I find it funny that Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief has been playing [...]
John McCain May Have Lost, But He’s Still All Sorts Of Mavericky
Posted on April 23, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under John McCain, torture | Leave a Comment
John McCain went from being more-or-less reasonable and relatively moderate1 to a fire-breathing wingnut over the course of his recent quest for the presidency. Six months ago, I expected that McCain would rediscover his supposed principles and beg our forgiveness for ever abandoning them once the excitement of the campaign died down.
I sure was wrong [...]
Our Broken Political Press
Posted on April 22, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under the media, torture | Leave a Comment
I am above all relieved to finally see the major news outlets treat the Bush administration’s torture policies as the story they always were. At the same time, the fact that we knew about the existence of these policies as long as five years ago, when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, and the media waited [...]
You’re Still A Sadistic Asshole
Posted on April 21, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Dick Cheney, torture | Leave a Comment
I don’t care what might be demonstrated by these memos that Cheney wants released. Regardless of the information gained, Cheney and his pals ordered actions that were both unequivocally illegal and blatantly immoral. Even if they managed to stop a terrorist attack specifically aimed at the building I work in thanks to information collected through [...]
It’s The Devil’s Way Now There Is No Way Out You Can Scream And You Can Shout It Is Too Late Now
Posted on April 17, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, torture | Leave a Comment
President Obama has done one of the handful of things that I considered absolutely mandatory for the president following Bush: The torture memos have been released and are available for the entire world to see.
We now know, with absolute, undeniable certainty, that high-ranking members of the previous adminstration authorized torture. They discussed, in horrifying detail, [...]
Oh. My. God.
Posted on February 9, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, Guantanamo Bay, torture | Leave a Comment
“Genitals”. “Sliced”. “Scalpel”. Three words you do not want to hear in reference to prisoners being held in your government’s custody.
They must be held accountable.
How Is Richard Cohen The Worst Columnist In The Washington Post? Let Me Count The Ways
Posted on January 27, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, Richard Cohen, the media, torture | 1 Comment
Today’s atrocity requires a full breakdown. This will get lengthy (ETA: As it turns out, I spent a good chunk of my day on it), so I’m going to stick it below the jump.
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Joe Klein, Dirty Fucking Hippie
Posted on January 8, 2009 by andrew- Filed Under George W Bush, torture, war crimes | Leave a Comment
Time’s Joe Klein absolutely nails the last words on George W. Bush and his disgraceful presidency. I won’t excerpt any of the column because I want you to read it all. Just know that I agree with every single word, especially the suggestion for a possible monument to our departing War Criminal in Chief.
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Dick Cheney Openly Admits To Torturing Human Beings
Posted on December 16, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Dick Cheney, torture, war crimes | Leave a Comment
The vice president authorized waterboarding. He admits it. He’s proud of it. Arrest him. Arrest him NOW!
Murderers, You’re Murderers, We Are Not The Same As You
Posted on December 11, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, torture, war crimes | Leave a Comment
It’s official (via).
The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of “a few bad apples” acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and [...]
War Criminals
Posted on October 15, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, CIA, torture, war crimes | Leave a Comment
What did they do to our country?
Reporting I Can’t Take Seriously
Posted on June 27, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under CNN, the media, torture | Leave a Comment
A CNN Political Ticker piece about one of the distractions Republicans are using to focus attention away from the meat of yesterday’s House hearings on torture lost me after a paragraph and a half.
A Democratic lawmaker’s comment that he was “glad” that a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney could be identified by al [...]
Take That, Jon Stewart!
Posted on April 22, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, John Ashcroft, detainee abuse, torture, waterboarding | Leave a Comment
Oh, thank goodness. For a while there the world had turned topsy-turvy; John Ashcroft appeared to have been the closest thing to a voice of reason in the early days of the Torture White House. Fortunately, Ashcroft is here to set the record straight.
Yesterday, former attorney general John Ashcroft spoke at St. John’s University on [...]
The Maverick Equivocates Some More On Torture
Posted on April 14, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under 2008 presidential election, John McCain, torture | Leave a Comment
John “The Straight Talking Maverick Who Stands Up To His Party’s Own President On Torture Because He Never Compromises His Principles For Anyone, Ever” McCain didn’t so much stand up to Bush on torture when answering a journalist’s question at today’s The AP Slobs McCain’s Knob Festival ‘08. When asked to comment on the use [...]
We think the same things at the same time, we just can’t do anything about it. So don’t ask me ask the ministry, so don’t ask me ask the ministry
Posted on April 10, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, John Ashcroft, detainee abuse, torture, war crimes | Leave a Comment
The big news this morning is ABC’s torture scoop:
In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.
The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings [...]
Hey, New York Times: You Suck!
Posted on April 2, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, John Yoo, New York Times, detainee abuse, the media, torture | Leave a Comment
’03 U.S. Memo Approved Harsh Interrogations
Way to euphemize your own article, NYT headline person. The White House declared all laws designed to prohibit torture to be irrelevant to its conduct. That’s what the memo says and that’s what your reporting says; why does the headline need to be shrouded in bullshit about “harsh interrogations”?
For the [...]
The Yoo Memo Is Freed
Posted on April 1, 2008 by andrew- Filed Under Bush administration, Department of Justice, John Yoo, detainee abuse, torture, war crimes | Leave a Comment
Time to fire up the international war crimes tribunal!
Federal laws prohibiting assault and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president’s ultimate authority as commander-in-chief overrode such statutes, according to a newly declassified 2003 Justice Department memo released today.
The memo–which was rescinded just nine months after it was [...]
