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McCain Said so.
Posted by Kim on December 18th, 2005
He said it. Remember this.
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), who pushed the White House to support a ban on torture, suggested Sunday that harsh treatment of a terrorism suspect who knew of an imminent attack would not violate international standards.
The Arizona Republican said legislation before Congress would establish in U.S. law the international standard banning any treatment of prisoners that “shocks the conscience.”
That would include, McCain said, mock executions and the controversial technique known as “water boarding,” in which a subject is made to think he is drowning.
Asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether such treatment of a terrorism suspect who could reveal information that could stop a terrorist operation would shock the conscience, McCain said it would not.
“In that million-to-one situation, then the president of the United States would authorize it and take responsibility for it,” McCain said.
“We’ve gone a long way from having that kind of scenario to having prisons around the world, to the renditions, to the things that have been done which are, in my view, not appropriate,” he said.
McCain said he is confident Congress will set the interrogation procedures all U.S. agencies will follow.
December 18th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Yeah, because if anything bad happens ever again, it had to be because Mccain didn’t let the gitmo guards fuck Iraqi children with glowsticks.
Let me explain somethin here, Mccain knows more about torture than any of us put together, he spent a good chunk of his life in some rice patty, getting bamboo shoots shoved up his fingers, and for any of you to second guess what he knows about torture just shows ignorance.
December 19th, 2005 at 3:08 am
There was never any evidence, nor even any suggestion of torture at Camp Delta, except by wingnuts like Amnesty International, who admitted they had no first — or even eighth hand knowledge of such occurrences, they assumed there might be because we are the U.S., and the likes of Dick Durbin — and the whole kerfuffle was built upon by a still-unfounded accusation that a Koran had been flushed down a commode.
December 19th, 2005 at 10:47 am
Hahahahaha, yeah like the video tapes of muslim children being raped by older prisoners, that were forced by their captors, the ones whose release has been held up by a court battle for about 6 months now?
December 19th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Let’s see ‘em. Sounds like more leftocity to me, or maybe the Islamofascists were just horny and couldn’t find any goats.
December 19th, 2005 at 3:24 pm
McCain knows of torture and so do I…it’s awful and it effects people for the rest of their lives. I know it.
That’s exactly why we SHOULD be able to use it on terrorists. Who would think nothing of killing YOU, me, my kids, my neighbors, your friends….your family.
December 19th, 2005 at 4:03 pm
Seth – Sorry, it’s been blocked by the DOD, they filed a secret brief with the judge, that’s so secret they won’t even let the ACLU know why they aren’t letting them release the footage. Imagine that.
Raven – Congratulations, you just won the most disengenuous argument of the year award.
Oh and you might want to look up the CIA interrogation manual that got declassified awhile ago, the one they used to torture suspected commies with, even that one notes how useless torture is as interrogation, because under extreme duress, a person will say whatever he/she thinks the interrogator wants to hear, and time is wasted while they are forced to investigate and debunk the claim.
There are even reports surfacing that all of that aw shucks bad intelligence about Saddam’s WMD’s came from a detainee that was getting some “enchanced interrogation” which would make it possibly the single most damaging and immoral policy adopted by King george.
Do you seriously not believe that other more repressive, totalitartarian regimes didn’t sell torture to their populace the same way? Enemies of the state and all that? Please, it’s fascism 101. Torture is wrong when China does it and it’s wrong when the US does it.
December 19th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Oh and if I haven’t destroyed your point enough, it’s legality is also laughable.
By the same standard, the police force could start pulling out the fingernails of everyone they suspected of being a serial killer. They also would think nothing of killing you, me, my kids, my neighbors, your friends, our family.
Murderers and evil men are allways going to exist in the world. One who fights monsters must take care not to become one himself. Any decent cop or soldier knows that. The freedoms and liberties of the nation are the reason for the existence of democracy, and the purpose for which many a good man has laid down his life. Your suggestion that we disregard the notions that the nation was built on is nothing short of appalling, and it trivializes their sacrifice.
December 19th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
That’s the thing about liberals — the topic involves terrorists, and they use street crime as an example. When did any serial killer you know of commit a suicide bombing? Even old Teddy K(not your hero from Chappaquiddick, Timmah, the other one), didn’t go in for powerful extremes.
That goes hand-in-hand with liberal politics, though.