Bush proudly endorses the legality of waterboarding (Updated)

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

The front page of the LA Times:

Waterboarding is legal, White House says

Mark down the date.  February 6, 2008.  The White House goes from dancing around the waterboarding issue, to claiming it is legal after it was disclosed that George W. Bush authorized its use.  W stands for war criminal.

The first paragraph says it all.

The White House said Wednesday that the widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding is legal and that President Bush could authorize the CIA to resume using the simulated-drowning method under extraordinary circumstances.

The context is helpful.

The surprise assertion from the Bush administration reopened a debate that many in Washington had considered closed. Two laws passed by Congress in recent years — as well as a Supreme Court ruling on the treatment of detainees — were widely interpreted to have banned the CIA’s use of the extreme interrogation method.

For years, White House officials denied that the U.S. had engaged in torture but always stopped short of confirming whether waterboarding had been used. The administration’s latest stance — described by Fratto during the daily White House briefing — was denounced Wednesday by key lawmakers. “This is a black mark on the United States,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “The White House is trying to give themselves as much of an open field here as possible. It says to others that we are prepared to use the same kinds of tactics used by the most repressive regimes and the most heinous regimes.”

We admit using a technique condemned by the UN and human rights organizations.

“This is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law,” said Manfred Nowak, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture. He called for the U.S. government to “actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable.”

Critics say waterboarding is outlawed by international law, including the U.N.’s Convention Against Torture, and is at least questionable under the U.S. 2006 Military Commissions Act, which prohibits “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment of terror suspects.

Human Rights Watch called Hayden’s testimony yesterday “an explicit admission of criminal activity,” the news agency notes. And Amnesty International describes the waterboarding as “torture,” saying in a press release after the CIA director’s congressional appearance that “the legal prohibition on torture is absolute, period-there are no exceptions.”

The Bush administration, ever cagey, admits to using it before Congress passed laws outlawing its use.  Yet, despite existing US and international laws, not to mention a US Supreme Court ruling banning its use, the Bush administration annouces to the world that the technique is in fact legal and they reserve the right to use it again under the right circumstances.

This assertion of the legality of waterboarding follows the contentious confirmation hearings of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General.  The bone of contention during those hearings was Mukasey’s refusal to characterize the use of waterboarding as torture. Thanks in large part to Senators Schumer and Feinstein, Mukasey is now in a position to claim that waterboarding is legal.  That makes Senator Feinstein’s quote particularly priceless.  Gee, if this is such a black mark on the United States, why did you help push Mukasey’s nomination out of committee?

Here is where the story line gets interesting.

At least one senior Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois, was demanding today that the U.S. Department of Justice open a criminal investigation into the waterboarding described by Hayden, according to the BBC.

The entire Democratic Party should be demanding a criminal investigation and not just against people in the CIA that might have used the techniques.  The Bush administration has violated international law and is now publicly advocating its right to violate current US laws prohibiting its use.  Senators Clinton and Obama should be pummeling Bush with both fists.

And then there is Senator John McCain. Waterboarding got his knickers in a twist because he knows first hand about torture.

In a recent GOP presidential debate, McCain said it was inconceivable that “anyone could believe that [waterboarding is] not torture. It’s in violation of the Geneva Convention. It’s in violation of existing laws.”

Well, Senator McCain, you now have the Bush administration saying it is legal.  What are you going to do about it?  (Absolutely nothing, of course.)  No worries about your buddy Bush, Senator McCain. I am sure some damn fool will offer him retroactive immunity for all the US and international laws he has violated. As the old saying goes, “all is fair in love and war.”  

TheWashington Post is reported that Mukasey has officially rejected a criminal probe into the use of waterboarding.

Mukasey Rejects Criminal Probe Into Waterboarding

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said this morning that waterboarding was deemed legal by the Justice Department at the time it was used by the CIA on three al-Qaeda captives, and as a result the Justice Department “cannot possibly” investigate whether a crime occurred.

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Mukasey said that because waterboarding was part of a program approved by Justice lawyers, there is no way the department can open a criminal investigation into the practice.

“Waterboarding, because it was authorized to be part of a program … cannot possibly be the subject of a Justice Department investigation,” Mukasey said in response to questions from panel Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).

The logic must be as follows.  The laws specifically outlawing abusive treatment of detainees were passed after we used waterboarding, there is no crime to investigate. Nevermind that the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter prohibit abusive treatment like waterboarding. Nevermind that it was one of the specific offenses used to charge a Japanese army officer with war crimes after WWII.

There you have it, folks. We have officially become a rogue nation.  Thanks, George.