A reminder about who is clearly and firmly against torture

[hedgehog]

""The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security. We must do whatever it takes to track down and capture or kill terrorists, but torture is not a part of the answer - it is a fundamental part of the problem with this administration's approach. Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them. Torture is how you get bad information, not good intelligence. Torture is how you set back America's standing in the world, not how you strengthen it. It's time to tell the world that America rejects torture without exception or equivocation. It's time to stop telling the American people one thing in public while doing something else in the shadows. No more secret authorization of methods like simulated drowning. When I am president America will once again be the country that stands up to these deplorable tactics. When I am president we won't work in secret to avoid honoring our laws and Constitution, we will be straight with the American people and true to our values," said Obama. "

http://www.barackobama.com/2007/10/04/obama_torture_and_secrecy_betr.php

[maddiejoan]

1. Good to hear --

--Glad he's taking a stand on something!

[jillan]

2. Isn't that all the candidates stand on it??

even John McCain's??

[hedgehog]

3. You tell me:

"Clinton was similarly vague about how she would handle special interrogation methods used by the CIA. She said that while she does not condone torture, so much has been kept secret that she would not know unlesselected what other extreme measures interrogators are using, and therefore could not say whether she would change or continue existing policies.


"It is not clear yet exactly what this administration is or isn't doing. We're getting all kinds of mixed messages," Clinton said. "I don't think we'll know the truth until we have a new president. I think you can get in there and actually bore into what's been going on, you're not going to know."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/AR2007100902284.html


"If we're going to be preparing for the kind of improbable but possible eventuality, then it has to be done within the rule of law," Clinton said at the time, in a telephone interview with this reporter, expanding on comments to the Daily News Editorial Board that there should be "lawful authority" for torture in some cases.

She said then that the "ticking time bomb" scenario would be a narrow exception to her opposition to torture.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6050.html




IMO, US troops in Iraq face the "ticking time bomb" scenario every time they drive down a road.

[Evergreen Emerald]

7. You must not remember the statements she made

on MTP and FoxnewsSunday regarding torture: adamantly against it.

Stop with the distortions and propaganda and twisted posts. Jeez. Can't we have any truth even here in DU?

[hedgehog]

9. FoxnewsSunday? I thought we didn't quote right wing sources here!

Seriously, torture is something you should have a knee jerk reaction to. If someone has to stop and think about the answer, that's not good enough in my book.I spent a few years writing letters for Amnesty International until I couldn't bear to do it any more. I learned more about torture than anyone should have to know. I don't need to stop and think to recognize torture techniques. I'm just a dumb housewife in rural upstate New York, but I can name Steven Biko, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford and Dorothy Kazel. I screamed at my television when Secretary of State Alexander Haig suggested that the churchwomen died because they were smuggling weapons and tried to run a roadblock. There are others who have no names: the Disappeared ones, the victims of the Khmer Rouge, the victims of the Gulags. How can Senator CLinton have spent the last 30 years in public life and not know what torture is?


This fall, Senator Clinton told the Daily News that sometimes torture might be necessary:

(http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2006/10/16/2006-10-16_mccain_team_mocks_hil_torture_loophole.html)

I'm guessing she thought that sounded like a tough, real politik attitude. She backtracked after this position was criticized, but how can I trust her not to torture in my name?

[K Gardner]

10. Kudos to you, for your tireless work. Few people realize what a toll

it can take, being immersed in the very real suffering of our fellow human beings. Thank you.

[Evergreen Emerald]

11. She has stated that she is adamantly against torture.

She was on a string of morning shows one sunday. And I am simply too tired to find the quotes for you. But she was on several shows.

The last time she stated it was in regards to the new Attorney General nomination.

There is no question what her position is. Taking one statement out of context is deceiving. DU has stopped becoming the place where we could learn the truth.

I used to think of DU as a refuge from the right-wing propaganda spewed on airwaves. No more.

[hedgehog]

12. Again, it's not what she says now, it's what she said one time.

For an experienced politician to hesitate to condemn torture one time is a fatal flaw in judgment, IMO.

[1corona4u]

4. Eh...

[hedgehog]

5. BTW - Joe Biden was on C-Span right after Obama today and

he managed to firmly and clearly denounce torture! Good for Joe!

[jillan]

6. He introduced legislation over this past summer denouncing

torture, secret prisons, lack of habeaus corpeous.
And he has already made a public statement on the disappearing CIA memos.

And he was the only dem candidate to vote against enlarging Gitmo.

[1corona4u]

8. I was trying to avoid the double "O" show and missed it...

drats. I think I had seen it though. Joe's the best!