US Courts KNOW Cruelty When They See It-Even If Bush Admin Does Not

[kpete]

Interrogators Beware

By Stephen Rickard
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A21

Should the CIA be worried? Yes. The United States has prosecuted every one of these techniques as a war crime. So when Congress passed the McCain amendment last fall banning cruel treatment, CIA interrogators reportedly stopped working. Vice President Cheney had sought an exemption for the CIA -- but didn't get one. The administration apparently pushed the interrogators hard to resume their tactics, saying these techniques were still legal, but the CIA refused.

...............

But if a CIA interrogator is indicted after this administration leaves office, it will not matter whether keeping a naked prisoner standing for 40 straight hours shocks Dick Cheney. It will matter whether it shocks the court.

U.S. courts know cruelty when they see it, even if the Bush Justice Department doesn't. The Supreme Court agreed decades ago that sleep deprivation "is the most effective torture" and said that "the blood of the accused is not the only hallmark of an unconstitutional inquisition . . . the efficiency of the rack and the thumbscrew can be matched . . . by more sophisticated modes of 'persuasion.' "

The administration is trying to convince CIA officers that they won't be indicted -- or at least convicted. But the CIA demanded clarity, not more ambiguity and "plausible deniability."

At the end of the day all the president can honestly tell CIA interrogators is this: "The law has some loose language. We'll give you another memo. Don't worry."
Sure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601023.html

[C_U_L8R]

1. Would you trust your personal safety to Anton Scalia ???

nuff said.. yikes