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Posted By populist 1 year, 7 months ago in Arts & Entertainment

Philippe Sands has a new book out - Torture Team - which investigates the top down decision to negate and circumvent the Geneva Conventions on torture. Thus, the author suggests that US lawyers worked in concert with this administration to justify and condone methods that have been outlawed for over 50 years.

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    jordan111 year, 7 months ago

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    This administration hired the lawyers who would give them the answers they wanted. We will have 150 of these clowns in the Department of Justice when the new administration takes over. All of them graduates of that third rate 'law school', Regents University, owned by a right wing religious wack job.

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      TheRealizer1 year, 7 months ago

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      Read these articles and weep Ladies and Gentlemen, you are eyewitness to the demise of the once great beacon of liberty and justice for all.

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        bubba21 year, 7 months ago

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        Did you watch / read the Bill Moyers interview last week with Philippe Sands? He has very thoroughly researched the chronology of when and how the administration decided to allow torture.

        He said that the administration lawyers were deeply involved in the decision making process.

        "The most important people are the people whose signatures are actually appended. They are the politicians who actually decided the issue. But in this case, without the lawyers, they would never have had a piece of paper to sign."

        Here is the link for the transcript of that interview --

        http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05092008/tran...

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          ETproductions1 year, 7 months ago

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          It will take a great deal of work to repair the damage Bush and his ideologues have done to the once bright reputation of the United States. He has personally presided over taking us from the most admired nation on earth to the most hated, and hated for very good reason.

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            albionperfides1 year, 7 months ago

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            The USA was looked up to in the 40s and 50s, not any more I'm sorry to say. Bush, controlled by his neocons, has destroyed his country's reputation in the world. I'm very sad about that having been on side since the 40s.

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            jordan111 year, 7 months ago

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            One of the few in Congress willing to take a stand against what this administration has done, at the time it was done, was Obama. http://usliberals.about.com/od/extraordinaryspe...

            This is one of the reasons I voted for him. He risked the ire of his constituents when fear permeated the nation, and opted to say what needed to be said anyway. And he did it as a new Senator, with little clout and ran the risk of alienating other Senators for future alliances. He has also said one of his first acts will be to review all policy set up by this administration, and discard that which subverts the Constitution.

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              jumpmaster1 year, 7 months ago

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              Nothing in the article talked about smashing prisoners' teeth out with a rifle butt or making the prisoners eat their own feces.

              These are just two of the dandies that Hussein's boys practiced on captured coalition soldiers during Desert Storm.

              If we can just get the rest of the world to sign up for a no torture program then I would support 100%, the banning of torture.

              You don't hear about too many American soldiers taken prisoner in Iraq, do you? Any guesses why? They know that they will be tortured, maimed, and have their heads sawn off. So the word is out. Fight to the death and don't get taken prisoner.

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                bubba21 year, 7 months ago

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                If every other country kills every citizen when they reach the age of 60, does that mean that America should start doing that?

                The "everyone else does it" argument is fallacious. And, it is dishonest.

                A BUNCH of wrongs to NOT make a right.

                Just because other countries may torture their prisoners, that does NOT justify Americans torturing ANYONE.

                What you condone is America LOWERING its standards to fit everyone else's, instead of CONTINUING the higher standards that make our country one to be admired and respected.

                What you condone is wrong - period.

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                  jumpmaster1 year, 7 months ago

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                  You seem to have figured it out. What do you suggest as an alternative?

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                    bubba21 year, 7 months ago

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                    I suggest NO torture.

                    Treat a prisoner as a prisoner - question them, confine them as anyone would be confined at a standard prison in America.

                    The people that condone torture just will NOT accept the mounds of proof that it doesn't work.

                    The HUGE irony of McCain' endorsing Bush's policy on torture is that HE was tortured and he STILL LIED to his captors. He told them what they WANTED to hear so that they would stop the torture.

                    McCain knows - FIRST HAND - that torture doesn't work. Yet he throws out his integrity by supporting the very thing he knows is wrong.

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                      jumpmaster1 year, 7 months ago

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                      bubba,

                      I don't totally agree with your idea but I appreciate that you have an idea and are willing to voice it.

                      The world has plenty of opinions but ideas seem to be in short supply.

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                albionperfides1 year, 7 months ago

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                DLM

                You write gibberish. Start again and write clear english, please.

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