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LiberalElite

(14,691 posts)
Fri Dec 12, 2014, 07:55 AM Dec 2014

The Atlantic: The Graywashing of CIA Torture

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/the-graywashing-of-cia-torture/383633/

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As the Senate report on CIA interrogations courses through the national media this week, the once-popular notion that the Bush administration never really tortured anyone, or engaged only in "torture-lite," is no longer a tenable position. Still, the most expansive look to date at post-9/11 interrogation policy has generated nothing like universal outrage or condemnation. For every American who believes that those who participated in waterboarding, "rectal rehydration," and other depraved interrogation tactics ought to be prosecuted (per U.S. treaty obligations), many more would rather stop short of censure and move on. And that isn't just because Republicans have mischaracterized the report as partisan.

The impulse to forgive and forget unlawful torture is inseparable from the belief held by many that Bush administration officials, CIA interrogators, and private contractors acted in good faith to protect America and shouldn't be punished for doing so. If that were true, legal accountability for torturers would still be necessary to preserve a core civilizational taboo (as bygone Americans understood when joining a treaty that banned torture in literally all circumstances).
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The Atlantic: The Graywashing of CIA Torture (Original Post) LiberalElite Dec 2014 OP
They need to be at The Hague newfie11 Dec 2014 #1
You are correct. Delphinus Dec 2014 #2

newfie11

(8,159 posts)
1. They need to be at The Hague
Fri Dec 12, 2014, 08:44 AM
Dec 2014

From Bush/Cheney and on down!
No mercy
If we don't do this now it will continue!!!!!!

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