Battle in Bush administration over interrogation techniques

[sabra]

Source: LATimes

Moderates in the government are mounting one more drive to roll back many of the harsh detention and questioning policies pushed through by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Reporting from Washington -- As the clock runs down on the Bush administration, moderates within the government are mounting what may be one last drive to roll back many of the harsh detention and interrogation policies pushed through by Vice President Dick Cheney.

The effort, led by officials at the State Department, represents the latest battle in a war between hard-liners and moderates that has raged though most of the Bush administration.

...

President-elect Barack Obama is likely to favor the internal critics' proposals. But the Bush administration moderates want to push the changes through before Obama takes over, in hope of undoing some of the damage they believe has been done.

...


"We could blunt criticism that the United States takes an opportunistic view of customary law, relying on it as a sword . . . but rarely working to develop it as a source of humanitarian safeguards," Bellinger said in the letter, written to then-Pentagon General Counsel William J. Haynes II, a Cheney ally, in January.

A copy of the letter, which has never been made public, was read to The Times. But neither Bellinger nor Cheney's office would discuss it. A State Department spokesman said only that Bellinger continued to study the issue.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-postcheney12-2008nov12,0,7455146.story

[HopeHoops]

1. I bet Cheney got the extended warranty on all of those paper shredders

[Daphne08]

2. K & R

:kick:

[Supersedeas]

3. Condi's final push to avoid Hague prosecution??

[HereSince1628]

4. I think it more likely that senior "professionals" at State are pushing this

because it it likely they'll be shunned by incoming Obama appointments. That will ruin whatever reamains of their careers.

[pattmarty]

5. It's a little fucking late, ain't it???? You shoulda spoke up 7 yrs ago.

[gratuitous]

6. Or gone public or something

Now, as the string plays itself out, some of those with a last vestige of a conscience are realizing just what they've done, and what sort of criminal exposure they're all liable for. However, instead of doing something in real time at the time these crimes were going down, they maintained silence for whatever reason, and watched as the very policies and procedures they now say they object to were being enacted.

[BluePatriot21]

7. Hoist them upon their own petard!

that's a good one whovever said it in another thread. It's going to be fun hoisting these folks upon their own petard.

remember fart = funny
and now
petard = karmic retribution?

[LynnTheDem]

8. "TORTURE". When you cut a man's penis, it's TORTURE.

When you waterboard, it's TORTURE.


It's not "interrogation techniques".

It's TORTURE.

[nichomachus]

10. Mohels all over the world would disagree

[nichomachus]

9. Just let it all come out at the trial n/t