Liz Cheney defends dad on ‘torture’

[ProSense]

Liz Cheney defends dad on ‘torture’

“Sen. King’s just wrong. The person he’s referring to who went through that 100-plus times is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,” Cheney said. “He was waterboarded because the CIA believed that he and the other two had – and this is a quote — they believed that they had ‘perishable information about imminent attacks on the United States of America.’ And the decision was made, it was absolutely the right decision, and certainly I hope that future presidents would make the decision again, that you’ve got to waterboard somebody because it means that you’re going to get information to save lives and prevent attacks.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/liz-cheney-dick-cheney-cia-interrogation-tactics-105469.html

Statement by Bush, 2003:

United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Today, on the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world. Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law.

Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the United States and more than 130 other countries since 1984, forbids governments from deliberately inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on those within their custody or control. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit. Beating, burning, rape, and electric shock are some of the grisly tools such regimes use to terrorize their own citizens. These despicable crimes cannot be tolerated by a world committed to justice.

Notorious human rights abusers, including, among others, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe, have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world by staging elaborate deceptions and denying access to international human rights monitors. Until recently, Saddam Hussein used similar means to hide the crimes of his regime. With Iraq's liberation, the world is only now learning the enormity of the dictator's three decades of victimization of the Iraqi people. Across the country, evidence of Baathist atrocities is mounting, including scores of mass graves containing the remains of thousands of men, women, and children and torture chambers hidden inside palaces and ministries. The most compelling evidence of all lies in the stories told by torture survivors, who are recounting a vast array of sadistic acts perpetrated against the innocent. Their testimony reminds us of their great courage in outlasting one of history's most brutal regimes, and it reminds us that similar cruelties are taking place behind the closed doors of other prison states.

The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment. I call on all nations to speak out against torture in all its forms and to make ending torture an essential part of their diplomacy. I further urge governments to join America and others in supporting torture victims' treatment centers, contributing to the UN Fund for the Victims of Torture, and supporting the efforts of non-governmental organizations to end torture and assist its victims.

No people, no matter where they reside, should have to live in fear of their own government. Nowhere should the midnight knock foreshadow a nightmare of state-commissioned crime. The suffering of torture victims must end, and the United States calls on all governments to assume this great mission.

http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030626-3.html

NYT 2009:

Interrogation Debate Sharply Divided Bush White House

By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — The proclamation that President George W. Bush issued on June 26, 2003, to mark the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture seemed innocuous...The United States is “committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example,” Mr. Bush declared, vowing to prosecute torture and to prevent “other cruel and unusual punishment.”

But inside the Central Intelligence Agency, the statement set off alarms. The agency’s top lawyer, Scott W. Muller, called the White House to complain: The statement by the president could unnerve C.I.A. interrogators he had authorized to use brutal tactics on Al Qaeda prisoners, Mr. Muller said, raising fears that political winds could change and make them scapegoats.

White House officials reaffirmed their support for the C.I.A. methods. But the exchange was a harbinger of the conflict between the coercive interrogations and the United States’ historical stance against torture that would deeply divide the Bush administration and ultimately undo the program.

The aftershocks of the interrogation policy continue today. President Obama’s recent decision to release Bush administration legal memorandums on interrogation and to fend off calls for a broad investigation has only fueled debate over the efficacy, legality and morality of what was done. Just last week, bloggers seized upon a new video clip of Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, sharply defending the program to a Stanford undergraduate and saying nothing about the bitter internal arguments that accompanied the demise of the program.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/us/politics/04detain.html

It's 2014, and the evil Cheneys are out in full force declaring the value of "torture."

[pscot]

1. The nut never falls far from the tree

[yeoman6987]

4. I doubt may children would diss their dad in public

Kinda dumb for her to answer or give the information freely. Not exactly a fair assessment of the situation when the child is giving an answer.

[sheshe2]

2. I wish they would crawl back into the hole from which they came. nt

[Voice for Peace]

3. "Notorious human rights abusers...have long sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world

by staging elaborate deceptions...."

yup.