Bloody hell…
Some “administration lawyers,” to be none to specific, apparently opined in a March 2003 confidential memo that the President is bound neither by international treaties nor federal laws regarding torture, and that any such prohibition “must be construed as inapplicable to interrogation undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority.” (News story)
Phrased another way, torture is permissible so long as it’s for interrogation purposes and done for ultimately military purposes.
Or to highlight the obvious inference, the president is above all laws, federal, state, or international treaties, so long as he argues that his actions are in some way, shape or form pursuant to his duty as CiC of the armed forces.
Apparently this wasn’t a sole memo – there was a chain of them, largely prepared for Rumsfeld, used to justify activities first at Guantánamo, then in Afghanistan, and finally in Iraq. Much of its basis was an earlier memo (22 Jan 2002) from the Justice Department on arguments to keep American officials from being charged with war crimes.
Where the hell does our administration find these people? And have they lost their minds completely? Are they completely unaware of what happens when a leader or a military places itself above the law, above the Constitution, and above civil society?
(And let me state, for the record: I believe that commanders need a great deal of flexibility to deal with situations in war, especially nonconventional war. But decisions such as the use of torture cannot be unilateral and immune to judicial and legal review, and the President cannot demand blanket exemption from American law for any reason whatsoever.)
And here we are, ladies and gentlemen…
…your moment of “what the fuck?”
To quote TLHines on this matter: “Use Axe anti-perspirant, and you will become a hairy torso with no head, arms or genitalia.”
Curiously enough, the main site for their ads doesn’t seem to have many disembodied torsos at all.
For science!
I’m glad to see the media giving, for once, a very vivid and accurate portrayal of what scientists tend to be like.
Not that I would ever engage in this sort of research, of course. Um, really.
*twitch*
They set up a climbing wall at work today. (Just a temp thing) I’ve never climbed on a wall before.
If you’re used to climbing on rocks, wall climbing is very very alarming.
Okay, this one is interesting:
I want anyone and everyone who reads this to post in here something they would LIKE to do with me SOMEDAY.
Then post this in your journal to see what I’d like to do with you.
net.gods, reexamined
A church has set up a virtual church on the net. In 3D.
I’m fighting off a certain urge to set up a large server farm, have a 3D interactive world with a full street of small gods. Virtual Methodists over here; virtual synagogue down the block; the imam’s tower is about the same height as the cathedral spire, and the temple of Athena is on a hill nearby…
New story on Abu Ghraib (Worth reading)
Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker has a new story on how the entire Abu Ghraib incident came to pass. The story relies a great deal on background sources, so it’s got to be read carefully with a skeptical eye – but it smells more or less right to me.
Quote from our President:
(Last Tuesday, at a rally in Cincinnati:) “You’ve got to get out there and turn out the vote… that’s what we call the grass roots. I’ve come to fertilize the grass roots.”
This is what we call an “unfortunate metaphor.”
Yonatan Zunger’s Blog 