Damming 2005 article with Bush/Rumsfield quotes when US pilots were captured

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Link

On Sunday, March 23, 2003, captured US pilots were shown on Iraqi TV. They didn’t have hoods over the heads. They were completely dressed. None of them wore leashes. Neither then, nor afterward, were they threatened with sodomy.

Donald Rumsfeld got on CBS and said to the world, “The Geneva Convention indicates that it's not permitted to photograph and embarrass or humiliate prisoners of war. And if they do happen to be American or coalition ground forces that have been captured, the Geneva Convention indicates how they should be treated.”

President George. W Bush, in a press conference said, “I expect them to be treated, the POWs I expect to be treated humanely. And -- just like we're treating the prisoners that we have captured humanely. If not, the people who mistreat the prisoners will be treated as war criminals.”

[Fuzz]

1. I remember that.

[Fresh_Start]

2. didn't they broadcast Hussein in his underwear?

they never miss an opportunity to be hypocrits.

[Echo In Light]

3. K&R

[opihimoimoi]

4. K&R # 4....need 1 more please

[unblock]

5. ah, but were they to capture americans they deemed "enemy combatants" torture would be fine.

see, bush & cheney insist they never tortured prisoners of war, only "enemy combatants".

[Snarkoleptic]

6. It's a slam-dunk.

n/t

[Subdivisions]

7. bushco using the Geneva Conventions for public relations but ignoring

it when interrogating prisoners of war.

Typical.

[malaise]

8. Nice

and welcome to DU :hi:

[DCKit]

9. "...the POWs I expect to be treated humanely." He wasn't lying, he was doing what....

they always do - obfuscating. They were never considered "POWs", they are "enemy combatants". Had there been any POWs in custody, they would have been treated according to the Geneva conventions. Or, BushCo would have called them something else, and all options would be on the table - with the detainees.

It's like * saying Saddam had WMDs (Well Mannered Dogs) or Newquelur (No Such Thing) weapons. Just because we all expected Dumbya to refer to "weapons of mass destruction" when he said "WMD", doesn't mean that's what he was referring to every time he used the phrase. For instance, there is no doubt we could go back over a multitude of press conferences and releases and find that, often as not, "WMD" referred to the WH program "Weapons of Mass Distraction."

If anyone wanted to back him into a corner, they would have had to use the phrase "enemy combatants" in relation to a question on torture. Without forcing BushCo into specific language, there has never been any way to make anything stick. As we all know, there has never been a slimier, more slippery bunch in the WH.

[underpants]

10. The claimed that the terrorists are not POWs

even though they were captured in the WAR ON TERROR

[dem mba]

12. damn that's a great point

how have I never thought of it like that?

War on Terror
Prisoners of the War on Terror
Prisoners of War

makes sense to me.

[barbtries]

11. consciousness of guilt

bring 'em up on charges. the motherfuckers. aargh