your village voice

Bush Defends And Denies Torture

While US Vice President Dick Cheney is trying to get a CIA exemption from the Senate's anti-torture legislation and the disclosure of clandestine bases across Eastern Europe, President Bush had this to say to reporters:

We do not torture.

Good. No torture.

There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law.

Huh? So we do torture people?

How does one answer this? This is doublespeak, plain and simple. "Yes, we want to use torture and have secret bases in other countries to do it, but no, we don't torture."

What he also fails to mention is that his administration routinely enforces and ignores laws based on executive whim. What is illegal here is not considered illegal somewhere else, so they are "under the law." What is considered legal has also been made ambiguous through the constant revising of what a detainee is and what rights they have (see Redefining Liberty and Justice).

Quite a double standard. Hardly surprising from a president aspiring to be dictator:

If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.

More true and fateful words were ever spoken by George W. Bush. And America is starting to realize it.

posted by the prisoner @ 11:10:00 AM