GINGRICH: I -- I -- I think it's -- I can't tell you.

[underpants]

Run time: 01:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24mf2XpoxUM   Posted on YouTube: April 26, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 27, 2009 By DU Member: underpants Views on DU: 3780

 
Gingrich On Whether Waterboarding Is Torture: ‘I Can’t Tell You’
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/26/gingrich-waterboarding-torture/

When Van Susteren asked if waterboarding is torture, Gingrich hemmed and hawed. "I think it's something we shouldn't do," he said, but he qualified his statement, adding, "Lawyers I respect a great deal say it is absolutely within the law. Other lawyers say it absolutely is not. I mean, this is a debatable area." When asked if waterboarding violates international law, Gingrich played dumb:

VAN SUSTEREN: But you said a minute ago that it was torture, waterboarding...

GINGRICH: No, I said it's not something we should do.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Is it torture or not?

GINGRICH: I -- I -- I think it's -- I can't tell you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Does it violate the Geneva Convention?

GINGRICH: I honestly don't know.

Gingrich added, “I think -- I think that there -- I am exactly where Senator McCain was.” But McCain, a former prisoner of war, has repeatedly said that waterboarding is a "horrible torture technique." "One is too much. Waterboarding is torture, period," McCain said last week. Indeed, it is a fact -- and not a matter of "debate" -- that waterboarding is illegal torture. The interrogation tactic violates both U.S. statute and international treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory.

Perhaps the Bush torture memos are so disturbing that they have gotten even Newt Gingrich reexamining his position on torture. Yet he is still unwilling to fully break with the right-wing on the issue.

[tanyev]

1. I know one way to help him make up his mind.

[underpants]

5. LOL

that's a DUzy

[Piewhacket]

14. He seems quite stubborn and stupid. You might have to exlain it to him 183 times.

[curiousdemo]

19. You can tell his mind was elsewhere. He's was thinking how he

can give his third wife her divorce paper.

[krkaufman]

21. No, he's just trying to sit on the fence.

"we shouldn't use it" but "I don't know if it's torture."

[AlbertCat]

23. Bingo!

He knows....like everyone else on the planet....that it is torture and has been since about 1000 BCE. But he can't say that out loud.

[krkaufman]

25. Trying to sound moral, while not doing so with any accountability....

... which is amoral, at best.

[mix]

2. weasel

the rule of law means nothing to these fools, nor does science

[geckosfeet]

3. A hero of the RW. Unable to take stand on a clear issue.

No wonder the GOP is in the toilet.

Call me when it's time to flush.

[underpants]

6. Newt immediately after the taping

GET ME FRANK LUTZ ON THE PHONE!!!!!!!!!!

WE DON'T HAVE A FOCUS GROUPED MESSAGE ON THIS!!!

[geckosfeet]

11. I think they see investigations coming and will refuse to take a stand until it's over.

[Xipe Totec]

4. It's not torture when we do it because, you see...

we're the good guys. And good guys don't torture....

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[zbdent]

7. "Lawyers I respect a great deal say it is absolutely within the law."

hmm ... must be the corporate lawyers who defend companies which allow obscene amounts of poisons into baby food ...

how low of a lawyer do you have to be to get the respect of Gingrich? ewwwwwwwww ...

[opihimoimoi]

8. His lawyers must suck cause his exwives took him at courts.

[underpants]

9. Not to just trash lawyers but....

who wrote the check for that opinion?
Is there more business coming from the same source win or lose?

[digidigido]

15. Gonzales and Bybee probably

[zbdent]

24. I know which ones he "respects" ...

the ones which got him out of trouble when he had been caught breaking the law in the 90s ... ironically, in a variation of "warrantless wiretapping" that he so now supports ...

[Buzz Clik]

10. More plastic surgery for Greta -- she had vertebrae enhancement.

[tomm2thumbs]

12. if he decides to run for president, this clip will be his undoing - wishy washy isn't pretty

not that he is anyway

[BREMPRO]

13. and Obama says without qualification, hemming, hawing, stuttering, or equivocation:

"waterboarding is torture." simple.
There is no question, never was. except in fascist-fear-mongering repukiland, and ripe for prosecution bushcorp members.

[BlackX-068]

16. Grow Some Balls

And then answer the question instead of hiding behind lawyers of both sides of the argument. What a joke he is!

[Enthusiast]

17. I don't like Gingrich.

He is an ass. And he is an asshole.

[GOPBasher]

18. I hope he's the 2012 nominee. He'll get his ass kicked. n/t

[florida08]

20. atta boy Newt

Luv it when a neocon explodes..:nuke:

[pattmarty]

22. And so goes the "intellectual wing" of the Republican party.