Clinton Backs Off Support for Torture

[illinoisprogressive]

Senator Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) ended her support for legalized torture at a debate in New Hampshire Wednesday night, splitting with her husband – and with her own recent stance on the charged issue.

"Senator Clinton, this is the number three man in Al Qaeda. We know there's a bomb about to go off, and we have three days, and we know this guy knows where it is. Should there be a presidential exception to allow torture in that kind of situation?" moderator Tim Russert of NBC asked during the debate held at Dartmouth College.

"As a matter of policy it cannot be American policy, period," Clinton responded, seconding the clear positions of Senators Barack Obama (Ill.)and Joe Biden (Del.).

But in a pair of interviews with the New York Daily News last October, Clinton outlined the same narrow exception that Russert described, and which had also been floated by former President Bill Clinton in an interview last year with National Public Radio.

"If we're going to be preparing for the kind of improbable but possible eventuality, then it has to be done within the rule of law," Clinton said at the time, in a telephone interview with this reporter, expanding on comments to the Daily News Editorial Board that there should be "lawful authority" for torture in some cases.

She said then that the "ticking time bomb" scenario would be a narrow exception to her opposition to torture.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6050.html

[liberalmuse]

1. That would suck...

if all that was holding their marriage together was common ground on the issue of torture. I'm choking.

[EST]

2. That couldn't be all!

I'm pretty sure they both shared a certain fondness for cigars.

[oasis]

4. Me too. I'm lighting one up the moment Hill gets the nomination.

:bounce::party::bounce:

[killbotfactory]

3. Question: How does she define torture?

According to this administration, water-boarding is not torture. Neither is depriving people of sleep by keeping them naked, freezing, and in "stress positions" for days or weeks at a time. In fact, anything that doesn't directly lead to death or major organ failure is not torture.

How does Hillary define it?