Gore: It Is ‘Obscene’ That Bush Has Dismissed Washington’s 200-Plus Year Prohibition On Torture

[deminks]

On April 9, ABC News reported that in 2002, President Bush’s most senior advisers approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics. Days later, Bush confirmed to ABC he “approved” of the tactics. Since the ABC report, the media have largely ignored the story. Morever, it took 14 days for a reporter to raise the issue in a White House press briefing.

During an interview this morning on NPR, former Vice President Al Gore criticized Bush for approving the techniques, calling it “obscene,” adding that his use of signing statements is “a raw assertion of authority outside the boundaries of the law”:

GORE: Ultimately the guarantor of our freedoms are the people. And these kinds of outrages, a president saying that he has the right turn George Washington’s 200-plus year prohibition against torture and torture anyone he wants with his assistants gathering in the basement of the White House — according to recent revelations — personally reviewing the kinds of torture techniques being used prisoner by prisoner, its obscene.

audio at the link.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/06/gore-it-is-obscene-that-bush-has-dismissed-george-washingtons-200-plus-year-prohibition-on-torture/

[rurallib]

1. Heard that interview. So nice to hear intelligent comments

and cogent arguments.

[Sabriel]

13. Yes... quite a pleasant change, eh?

I kept saying to myself as I listened, "That's my Pres!"

[marmar]

2. Nov. 7, 2000 may very well turn out to be the most infamous in American history....

..... one that permanently altered its course. (And not in the right direction, I might add.)

[jtrockville]

3. How tragic for us, that we ended up with the class clown instead. (nt)

[hootinholler]

4. Good for you Al!

We seem to agree. I hoep he feels more love than I drew.

-Hoot

[pacalo]

5. I wish he had been angry enough to run for the '08 presidency.

[tavalon]

6. Oh, he was angry enough

but still too much of a team player. Team Clinton likely told him to stand down and he did. Just a guess.

[Blue Belle]

9. Like he gave a shit about "Team Clinton"...

If that woere the case, wouldn't he be ther with an endorsement ready. Never gonna happen.

[Jennicut]

14. I doubt he cares anything about the Clintons. He does not want to go back to politics.

He feels free and unburdened and he has taken up the hardest and most nobel cause right now: saving humanity from itself.

[spanone]

7. Go Al.....someone needs to expose these criminals for what they are: CRIMINALS

[Usrename]

8. To the Hague!

He has no strategic intelligence value.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Everything about this 'Bush Administration' is obscene!

[Solly Mack]

11. No - it's a crime.

mistakes weren't made - crimes were committed
nobody misspoke - they fucking lied
intelligence wasn't bad - it was fabricated from whole cloth
the government isn't eavesdropping on Americans - they're spying on Americans
it isn't harsh or enhanced interrogations - it's called torture

[Winterblues]

12. The most obscene thing of all is the Democrats not holding anyone accountable

for all the crimes committed day in and day out within this administration. I really don't expect any better from the Republicans so it is more Par for the Course instead of Obscene, but for the Democrats to just sit back and fold their hands and do nothing is beyond the pale..IMO

[Echo In Light]

15. Have to agree with you on that point

[indepat]

16. The entire agenda and history of this administration are obscene in the extreme:

this is but a glimpse of some of its uglier machinations. :D

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Torture = Right Wing "Compassion and Family Values"

Al likes how George has kept every one of his campaign promises about "Compassion and Family Values"

The Rotten Apple In Chief rides again...

[Uncle Joe]

18. Thanks for the link and thread, deminks.

Kicked and recommended.