torturer-in-chief
During an interview on Faux News--where else?--today, Bush admitted to ordering the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Crooks and Liars provides a video clip wherein Bush states:
My view is the ["enhanced interrogation"] techniques were necessary and are necessary...I firmly reject the word "torture."
That's the difference between the Busheviks and the rest of us: they reject the word torture, while we reject torture itself. ThinkProgress notes that Bush signed off on the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:
I'm in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him and they gave me a list of tools...
Bush renewed his claim that KSM "gave us information," but the facts are--once again--opposed to Bush's opinions. David Rose reported in Vanity Fair last month:
As for K.S.M. himself, who (as Jane Mayer writes) was waterboarded, reportedly hung for hours on end from his wrists, beaten, and subjected to other agonies for weeks, Bush said he provided "many details of other plots to kill innocent Americans." K.S.M. was certainly knowledgeable. It would be surprising if he gave up nothing of value. But according to a former senior C.I.A. official, who read all the interrogation reports on K.S.M., "90 percent of it was total fucking bullshit." A former Pentagon analyst adds: "K.S.M. produced no actionable intelligence. He was trying to tell us how stupid we were." [emphasis added]
Speaking of torture, Fox's right-wing series 24 returns to the air tonight. Perhaps there's a chance of Bush making a guest appearance or two?
update (10:51pm):
Speaking--yet again--of torture, today is the seventh anniversary of Bush's extralegal imprisonments at Guantanamo. I urge everyone to visit the ACLU's "Close Gitmo" website and sign the open letter to president-elect Obama:
I was deeply moved by your recent affirmation that you will close the Guantánamo detention facilities and shut down the military commissions, which have been a stain on America here, at home and abroad.Nothing would make me prouder than to see you act on your first day in office to restore America's moral leadership in the world.
With one stroke of your pen, you can close Guantánamo Bay prison, shut down military commissions, and ban torture.
The Bush administration created a prison camp at Guantánamo - a place where they claimed the law didn't apply. They detained hundreds of men without charge or trial, authorized torture, and prosecuted some prisoners in military commissions that violate our Constitution and international law.
We can't let the system of injustice George W. Bush put in place stand - not for a single day.
I want you to know that I will support your leadership on this vitally important issue in every possible way. And I will stand by you every step of the way to resist those calling for you to "go slow" or "wait for the right time" to act in defense of American freedom.