04:46 pm
More on McCain, Torture, and the Bush Administration
A provocative comment today from Undip reader jelperman in response to this post:
If McCain is heroic for being tortured, then so are the people who were tortured at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
No, no, no jelperman! Don’t you know? It wasn’t torture at Guantanamo or at Abu Ghraib or even Bagram, for that matter. Just listen to what Dubya said:
Among the euphemisms that the President would employ in the years to follow were “enhanced” interrogations, “robust” interrogations, and “special” interrogations.
You know what we need? A commission to investigate all this. Seriously. Like the 9/11 Commission. Except we need a better name.
I was thinking “grand jury” would do nicely.
But before that happens, we need to ask John McCain to move beyond his history to answer some serious questions about his position on torture. I respect and honor his service and his courage while in captivity. I applaud the fact he wants to close Guantanamo. But his record on this issue is far from spotless: he voted for Military Commissions Act, against using the Army Field Manual standard for all USG interrogations, and even did a cameo on that torturegasm known as 24.
So given those inconsistencies, he needs to explain his position in much greater detail. So here’s a question for him:
Given that the North Vietnamese tortured you during your time as a prisoner of war, and given your strong assertions, most recently during your August 15 talk at the Aspen Institute, that the United States has no moral imperative to torture, would you support a criminal investigation into allegations that the Bush Administration sanctioned and perhaps even mandated the torture of terror suspects? And if not, why?
Here’s another one:
As President, would you support the closing not only of Guantanamo, but also of the CIA’s “black sites” in Afghanistan and at least seven other countries? And would you allow the Red Cross to interview the prisoners currently held in these facilities?
So here you go, mainstream media, your chance to show you have a backbone.
Come on, mainstream media! You can do it!
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Sigh.
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