Habeas torturus
AP:
President Bush breathed new life into the CIA's terror interrogation program Friday in an executive order that would allow harsh questioning of suspects, limited in public only by a vaguely worded ban on cruel and inhuman treatment.
The order bars some practices such as sexual abuse, part of an effort to quell international criticism of some of the CIA's most sensitive and debated work. It does not say what practices would be allowed.
This is, like basically everything else you hear from the president, a total crock. The list of allowed practices exists. It's one memo. People should see it. I'm of the opinion that, as a measure of injury to our system of government, the torture scandal far outweighs all the others, especially the U.S. Attorneys scandal. It also seems sadly true like Democrats pay so much less attention to the torture scandal than to everything else because torture is sickeningly popular with the public. I'm of the opinion, though, that subpoenaing that document should be Patrick Leahy's or John Conyers' greatest oversight priority.
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torture is sickeningly popular with the public
I haven't seen the polling, but I suspect you are correct (if the polling question is phrased as 'if a nuclear explosion in your town could be prevented by using any means to get information beforehand').
And then people wonder why the German people didn't stop the holocaust (and other assorted attrocities have been tolerated).
One thing seems quite clear: George W. Bush (and some people who work for him) is a war criminal, but no Nurenberg for him, probably. That's why he doesn't want to 'lose'.
You don't have to be a universal Manichean black/white - good evil binary type like Bush (as Glenn Greenwald aptly describes him) to be able to determine that Bush has brought renewed evil to the world in several forms - starting with torture as a means of self-defense.
And that's why I'm so consistently angered by Democrats. Their utter and complete inability (or desire) to lead on issues that may seem to be temporarily unpopular. Where are the leaders in this party? Why can't we say that some things, like torture or gross poverty, are unambiguously wrong? Why do we need to wait for polling and public opinion to come around on the issue?
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