It Depends On Your Definition Of Appalling

by dday

So Fourthbranch Cheney went there on Obama and Rev. Wright:

“I thought the controversy over Rev. Wright was remarkable,” Cheney said. “I thought some of the things he said were absolutely appalling. And, you know, I haven’t gotten into the business of trying to judge how Sen. Obama dealt with it, or didn’t deal with it, but I really, I think — like most Americans — I was stunned at what the Reverend was preaching in his church and then putting up on his website.”

Really, some of the things Wright said were appalling?

Hm.

OK. Can we talk about some of the actions you took, then?

Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned […]

Between 2002 and 2003, the Justice Department issued several memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that justified using the interrogation tactics, including ones that critics call torture.

“If you looked at the timing of the meetings and the memos you’d see a correlation,” the former intelligence official said. Those who attended the dozens of meetings agreed that “there’d need to be a legal opinion on the legality of these tactics” before using them on al-Qaida detainees, the former official said […]

The former intelligence official described Cheney and the top national security officials as deeply immersed in developing the CIA’s interrogation program during months of discussions over which methods should be used and when.

At times, CIA officers would demonstrate some of the tactics, or at least detail how they worked, to make sure the small group of “principals” fully understood what the al-Qaida detainees would undergo. The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding. This technique involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning.

I don’t think Jeremiah Wright has cornered the market on things that should make us APPALLED. In fact, I think Fourthbranch has far more real estate on that street.

Conservatives continue to frame morals and patriotism as based entirely on lip service and words, instead of whether you live up to those precepts with your deeds.

By the way, the AP article makes it seem like Bush was blissfully ignorant of the whole “signing off on torture inside the White House” thing, except there are actual documents signed by Bush authorizing the practices. Here’s a PDF of one, if you like. Not one of them, certainly not Bush, is insulated from this horror.

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