{"id":8110,"date":"2006-08-03T12:32:49","date_gmt":"2006-08-03T16:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8110.html"},"modified":"2006-08-03T12:32:49","modified_gmt":"2006-08-03T16:32:49","slug":"it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-torture-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/it-depends-on-what-the-meaning-of-torture-is\/","title":{"rendered":"It depends on what the meaning of ‘torture’ is"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bush administration, known for its unambiguous moral certainties, with-us-or-against-us worldview, and disdain for nuance and “gray areas,” isn’t quite clear<\/a> on what conduct is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions.<\/p>\n

[S]enators [told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales] Congress should not endorse any treatment it would not want used on American soldiers.<\/p>\n

“We must remain a nation that is different from, and above, our enemies,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.<\/p>\n

The differences between the administration and the Senate were most pronounced when Mr. McCain asked Mr. Gonzales whether statements obtained through “illegal and inhumane treatment” should be admissible. Mr. Gonzales paused for almost a minute before responding.<\/p>\n

“The concern that I would have about such a prohibition is, what does it mean?” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given the administration’s track record on torture, that’s not exactly an encouraging response.<\/p>\n

As the NYT explained<\/a>, McCain responded that using illegal and inhumane interrogation tactics and allowing the evidence to be introduced would be “a radical departure” from longstanding United States policy.<\/p>\n

First, the administration has already explained that it disagrees, and has issued a draft policy<\/a> that would deny the right of the accused to bar evidence obtained through “rough or coercive interrogations.”<\/p>\n

Second, as Sullivan put it<\/a>, we’ve been “living through an illegal, immoral and radical departure from long-standing U.S. policy – and values – for almost five years now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bush administration, known for its unambiguous moral certainties, with-us-or-against-us worldview, and disdain for nuance and “gray areas,” isn’t quite clear on what conduct is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. [S]enators [told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales] Congress should not endorse any treatment it would not want used on American soldiers. “We must remain a nation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}