George W. Bush Torture President

George W. Bush has locked up his legacy of being the only in favor of and supporter of torture president in the United States proud history. At least we could be proud of the US before George W. Bush lowered our nation’s moral standards to the point of acute embarrassment.

Bush has vetoed a bill that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding. According to Bush harsh interrogation methods are not torture as long as the prisoner survives the ordeal.

This is a very stubborn dangerous man we have as our president. How can any American take pride in a man who thinks that it is OK to waterboard anyone as he states that waterboarding is not torture? This president has placed the United States in the position of being one of the world’s greatest human rights abusers.

“The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror,” Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. “So today I vetoed it,” Bush said. The bill he rejected provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and has the interrogation requirement as one provision. It cleared the House in December and the Senate last month.

“This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe,” the president said.

“We created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaeda operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland,” Bush said. “If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the field manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaeda terrorists, and that could cost American lives.”

More about the Bush approval of torture by the CIA will be found at the CNN website.  Too bad that Bush will probably not submit to a CIA waterboarding session so that he could make a better informed opinion as to whether waterboarding is torture or not.

Following are quotes relating to the decision Saturday by President George W. Bush to veto legislation that would have prohibited the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods (torture is a word never used to describe these techniques, as according to chief torturer Bush the US does not torture) such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists:

“The president has once again compromised the moral leadership of our nation.” - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“I am sure that the executive and legislative branches will continue to exchange ideas on the legal framework governing interrogations, including interrogations of the most dangerous international terrorists. Whatever the result, our agency’s position is absolutely clear: CIA will continue to operate within the law, strictly abiding by the decisions of the republic we protect.” - CIA Director Michael Hayden.

“Failing to legally prohibit the use of waterboarding and other harsh torture techniques undermines our nation’s moral authority, puts American military and diplomatic personnel at-risk, and undermines the quality of intelligence.” - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.).

“The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror.” - Bush.

“The president’s veto sends a message to the world that despite Congress’ actions, our country will continue to engage in this inhumane and heinous conduct when we should be affirming unequivocally and in one voice that torture and abuse will stop and never happen again. No one is above the rule of law, including the president.” - Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world.” - Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

“I have heard nothing to suggest that information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques has prevented an imminent terrorist attack. And I have heard nothing that makes me think the information obtained from these techniques could not have been obtained through traditional interrogation methods used by military and law enforcement interrogators.” - Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.

“This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe.” - Bush.

“President Bush will go down in history as the torture president. He has now defied a majority of Congress to allow the use of interrogation techniques that any reasonable observer would call torture.” - Jennifer Daskal, senior counter terrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch.

Since at the end of WW Two the US prosecuted Japanese soldiers who engaged in the waterboarding of American prisoners as war criminals you would think that if only the US president had any sense of history he would have a better understanding of the torture aspects of any waterboarding experience. However, George Bush apparently thinks that any method to protect the interests of the US is quite OK, even if it makes the US worse in the observation of human rights principals than it’s enemies.

Even though the Bush presidency is in its final months it will take the US a long time to recover from the evils of his administration. As an American Vietnam veteran I hate to see the dangers that Bush’s views on torture bring to American servicemen and women still in uniform. In the future when American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines become prisoners of war in any conflict they may well be subjected to the same inhuman treatment by our enemies that this rouge president embraces.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!