Thursday, May 14, 2009

Lindsey Graham's ill-logic

Yesterday, in the Intelligence Committee's subcommittee hearing on treatment of detainees, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said that the previous administration had made mistakes in its attempt to keep this country safe after 9/11. But he chided those who would sit in the safety of hindsight and judge those who were faced with the responsibility at an extraordinary point in history.

In doing so, he made an interesting statement about how the Bush administration viewed the rule of law:
they "saw the law as a nicety we could not afford," he said.

And Graham added, "that was a mistake."
Amen.

But then Lindsey added: "but it was not a crime."

There I have to disagree. You might choose not to prosecute, if you feel that their motives were purely to protect us. But we know they were not. Iraq and oil were mixed up in it too, and the plan to take out Saddaam began long before 9/11. There is evidence to back this up.

It was a useful excuse. 9/11 was horrible, but it was the "gift" that fell into their laps. Only they first had to find evidence to "prove" the link between Al Qaeda and Saddaam; then they had to rev up the public's fear of another attack. They were not getting this "evidence," so they tortured to try to produce it, in order to back up the plan they were determined and ready to put into action.

I think that may very well be a crime.

Ralph
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2 comments:

  1. RalphMay 14, 2009 at 10:46 AM

    In this same hearing, Sen. Graham cited a 2007 ABC story in which a former CIA officer claimed that Abu Zabaydah "broke" after 35 seconds of waterboarding.

    This story is one of the mainstays in the claim that torture works. The only problem is that the CIA officer's claim, which was admittedly second hand, was obviously wrong. Now we know from release of the torture memos that Zabaydah was waterboarded 83 times.

    If he "broke" after the first 35 seconds, why 82 more times?

    Maybe they were trying to make him say something else? Like falsely claiming a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda?


    ABC News’ correction appears almost in passing in the network’s new story. It mentions that the new memos show that waterboarding was used far more often than originally thought, adding that Zubaydah was waterboarded “at least 83 times.” It continues:

    That contradicts what former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who led the Zubaydah capture team, told ABC News in 2007 when he first revealed publicly that waterboarding had been used.

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  2. RalphMay 14, 2009 at 10:48 AM

    And why did Graham repeat the story that had already been debunked?

    Did he not know?

    Did he know and not care and said it anyway because it helped his argument?

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