BUSHCO: "If my intent is to defend USA rather than to humiliate you-I have not committed an offense"

[kpete]

DOJ giving interrogators room to breach international law.

The New York Times reports that recent letters from the Justice Department state that “American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law, specifically, the Geneva Conventions:

While the Geneva Conventions prohibit “outrages upon personal dignity,” a letter sent by the Justice Department to Congress on March 5 makes clear that the administration has not drawn a precise line in deciding which interrogation methods would violate that standard, and is reserving the right to make case-by-case judgments.

“The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, in the letter, which had not previously been made public.

“What they are saying is that if my intent is to defend the United States rather than to humiliate you, than I have not committed an offense,”
said Scott L. Silliman of Duke University.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/26/doj-giving-interrogators-room-to-breach-international-law/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/washington/27intel.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1209308689-zFxp9mw0eQcgxJbwG/I77w

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

I guess this guy was NEVER humiliated before he
"Died hanging from wrists and gagged, with over 25 rib fractures"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3150016&mesg_id=3150016

[Joanne98]

1. Wow. That's a big tent excuse!

[LakeSamish706]

2. My hope is that once these thugs leave office (if they leave) all countries...

in the world put them on notice that they will be arrested if they set foot on another countries soil for crimes against humanity. Even if the US doesn't punish them, other countries could.

[0007]

3. IOW's junior thinks of himself as Lassie and US as trees.

[Solly Mack]

4. The true outrage is that they have gotten away with it

[Marr]

5. That's John Yoo's argument, if I'm not mistaken.

That the president can 'torture children' if he deems it in the defense of the country.

How these people can argue that government is the problem, and at the same time say the president is essentially a monarch... it's just beyond me. At least some of the old school conservatives were consistent in their "less government" rhetoric.

I know how this whole thing could be remedied in 10 minutes, however. If we ever had a president who decided that 'defending America' meant breaking up conglomerates, or imprisoning members of the kleptocracy-- people like Cheney-- you'd see the whole "unitarian executive" ideal deconstructed and mangled on television and the newspapers around the clock.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. They succeeded at humiliating and failed at defending.

This is a moot point.

[spanone]

7. the right hand excusing the left hand....utter BULLSHIT

[jimshoes]

8. They really will crush

the testicles of an interogatee's kid if they feel like it. Animals.:mad:

[VP505]

9. Makes me wonder how anyone can make the absurd claim

a detained naked man, smeared in excrement at Abu Ghraib could possibly be considered in defense of the USA.

“What they are saying is that if my intent is to defend the United States rather than to humiliate you, than I have not committed an offense,” said Scott L. Silliman of Duke University.

[Supersedeas]

10. names? who is behind the memos

[riderinthestorm]

11. From the OP, Brian A. Benczkowski

at the Justice Dept.

But as someone pointed out upthread, this is clearly Yoo's work, an opinion I share.