Posted on 05/25/2009 2:39:43 AM PDT by Scanian
I began having second thoughts about last week's column urging the indictment of former Vice President Dick Cheney for approving the use of waterboarding and other forms of illegal torture, shortly after it was published and posted last Monday morning - days before the Obama-Cheney back-to-back speeches Thursday.
Just to repeat briefly why I wrote that Mr. Cheney should be indicted:
It cannot seriously be disputed that waterboarding is "torture," as that word was defined by Congress in the 1994 federal criminal prohibition against torture: conduct "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering." No one seriously disputes that waterboarding intentionally inflicts serious physical and mental pain. Waterboarding was prosecuted after World War II as torture and has been notorious ever since the Inquisition.
Mr. Cheney admitted he knew about waterboarding in last Thursday's speech, pointing out it was used on "only" three terrorists. He then justified its use because it produced important intelligence information.
The former vice president cannot claim that there is partisan division over the definition of "torture" under federal criminal law. In fact, as Mr. Cheney knew in December 2004, it was the Bush-Cheney Justice Department - both the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and the Criminal Division - that repudiated the now-notorious "Bybee-Yoo" OLC memo of August 2002 and reaffirmed that the plain words of the definition of torture in the 1994 act as quoted above were still the law of the land.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
“...such a prosecution will pull in Pelosi and other Dhimmis”
My thoughts exactly. What hypocrites the left are.
How can you pardon someone who has committed no crime and has never been convicted of any crime? Pardon them? How about stop making stupid noises as if they have done anything wrong.
“How can you pardon someone who has committed no crime and has never been convicted of any crime? Pardon them? How about stop making stupid noises as if they have done anything wrong.”
It doesn’t matter to dumb @ss 0bama voters.
Well Lanny isn’t that nice of you. Is the trial of the Bush administration over that Obama can “pardon” them?
I guess being a Washington Lawyer doesn’t necessarily make you smart. First of all it isn’t proven that Waterboarding is torture. Uncomfortable yes. Torture? I don’t think so. Secondly, doesn’t he know that the Vice Preesident doesn’t have any constitutional powers to order waterboarding or any other procedure. He may recommend, but he doesn’t have the authority to order it. So, what are you going to prosecute him for?
Discomfiture is not physical or mental pain no matter how serious it gets.
I think it is amazing that these “brave jihadis” are willing to blow themselves and many innocents to bits, for the sake of allah, but pour a little water up their noses and they start singing like CANARIES!
All of a sudden DEATH is not a good idea.
They are cowards and their buddies that make up the Islamic/Commie 5th column in this country are merely trying to garner sympathy for the cause.
I wonder if this is true, not being a student of torture, I don't know?
doesn’t he know that the Vice Preesident doesn’t have any constitutional powers to order waterboarding or any other procedure. He may recommend, but he doesn’t have the authority to order it. So, what are you going to prosecute him for?
That is a most excellent point, constitutionally. But then, it all boils down to the fact that the military and everyone else in the executive branch of government operate under the authority of the POTUS, and nothing prevents the POTUS from giving the VP authority any more than it prevents the POTUS from giving a general authority to do something. The buck always stops at the oval office.The real issue is not whether waterboarding was done, or what its purpose was. It was done to protect Lanny Davis from being murdered. At a time when Lanny Davis was not certain that a terrorist would not murder him. Of course Lanny Davis has the excuse that he did not know what was being done to protect him - but then, Nancy Pelosi, and others, did. And said nothing.
There's no proof that Lanny Davis would have behaved as Nancy Pelosi did, but there is plenty of reason to suspect he would do the same thing in her shoes, if the same situation arose in the future. Maybe Lanny Davis should ask for a pardon for himself too, while he is at it.
I’m getting tired of this ‘waterboarding is torture’ routine. We strap criminals into electric chairs or onto tables for lethal injections. We tell these individuals what we’re going to do to them, and they usually have a decade or two to think about it before they’re intentionally killed. If we can do that, then pouring water into the noses of three people we have no intention of killing shouldn’t elicit anything more than a yawn. Before 9/11, the liberal definition of torture had more to do with getting lousy seats for Phantom of the Opera. It’s infuriating that the prissies in this country have controlled this conversation for 7 years. Pray that Cheney’s ticker holds up for a few more years. We desperately need him to continue his dialogue. Sorry for the rant. Not enough sleep.
I don't have any second thoughts about you Mr. Davis. You have too many years of tossing the Clintons salads.
First, what the agency did is Waterboarding In Name Only (WINO).
Second, using fear of something, drowning in this case, to get information is NOT torture and there was No “intention” to inflict “severe” physical or mental pain or suffering.
Third, go ahead and try to prosecute so we can lay out ALL the documents that Obama now refuses to release.
From one side of the liberal’s mouth comes outrage of waterboarding and from the other side comes defense of jamming a knife into the head of a partially born baby. Their intellect is darkened.
Lanny should have just written "I thought it over, and since I have no scruples, the only reason I can be against this is if some of MY side could possibly get in trouble. Therefore, I'm against this, and to heck with 'principles'."
This is why people hate lawyers.
Ann Coulter claimed on Hannity (?) last week that the way the Japanese practiced it was by running a hose down your throat, filling the stomach with water, then beating your stomach. She also said that water-boarding was not prosecuted in isolation from other more clearly barbaric techniques.
Right. Don’t create discomfort for a murderer who would blow himself to pieces if he had the chance, but allow a baby that survives an abortion and is born alive to die in a hospital closet. How Orwellian!
http://scoobiedavis.blogspot.com/2007/02/hilarious-washington-post-about-lanny.html
Funny how we heard incessantly about a certain Republican's career as an exterminator, but this is the first time I ever heard about Lanny selling AMWAY!
Also mentions Davis' lying that cost him an election--what's with these dems like him and Biden who can't tell the truth about their academic records? (Funny how that NEVER, EVER came up in the 2008 election...)
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