Democrats grill Bush CIA nominee about detainees

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's pick for top CIA legal officer came under fire from Senate Democrats on Tuesday for his role in an interrogation and detention program that brought accusations of torture against the United States.

John Rizzo, White House nominee for CIA general counsel, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he issued a legal opinion in 2002 stipulating that CIA detainee practices were lawful under international treaties against torture, including the Geneva Conventions.

But the career CIA lawyer also said he did not oppose an August 2002 Justice Department memo that said torture would not occur unless the detainee experienced pain serious enough to accompany organ failure or death.

"I did not certainly object to the memo," Rizzo said at his public confirmation hearing. "My reaction was that it was an aggressive, expansive reading."



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1919827120070619

[Solly Mack]

1. "...because we appear to be hypocrites..."

Appear? Appear? snort

ARE

ARE hypocrites

Let's not use language that might suggest otherwise - we ARE hypocrites.




"Levin also took issue with Rizzo's unwillingness to admit publicly whether CIA detainees have been transferred to countries that use torture. Rizzo said he would instead answer the question during the closed-door session.

That, according to Levin, put Rizzo at odds with a December 2005 statement by Bush in which the president said: "We do not render to countries that torture."

"He could not answer that question in public," "


Because we DO.


How'd the vote go?...why haven't any of the articles so far answered how the vote went?

[Joanne98]

2. Exactly!

[Auntie Bush]

3. So if you break all their arms, legs back and neck,...that wouldn't be torture!

It wouldn't cause organ failure so it isn't torture. So I guess they could receive burns throughout their body and that wouldn't be torture either.

I RECOMMEND WE NOT TORTURE BUSH WHEN HE PAYS FOR HIS CRIMES!

[Kagemusha]

4. Aggressive, expansive reading? Oh hell yeah.

Amazing what you can do when you decide to reinterpret the plain reading of language.

[Hissyspit]

5. .