U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ruled out the use of "waterboarding" as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects on Monday, calling it a form of torture that the Obama administration could never condone.
"Waterboarding is torture ... My Justice Department will not justify it, will not rationalize it and will not condone it," Holder, who his heading a review of the treatment of terrorism suspects, said in a speech to the Jewish Council of Public Affairs in Washington.
"Too often over the past decade the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our tradition of civil liberties. Not only is that school of thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it has done us more harm than good," Holder said.
TVNL Comment: Waterboarding is a red herring. Much harsher interrogation methods were used. Actually, the word is "torture."
A charity founded by a senior Republican lawmaker who was a key ally to the pharmaceutical industry received more than $170,000 in 2007 from drugmakers, far in excess of campaign finance rules had the money been donated to him directly, leaked documents show.
As president, Bush was often dubbed "Incurious George" by his critics. In 2004, the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin noted that "while Bush is indeed assertive, he also often lacks curiosity and patience and has little interest in details." In 2005, the Associated Press reported that "Bush didn’t ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29." Even Bob Woodward's State of Denial, published in 2006, described Bush as "intellectually incurious."
The Government is refusing to release minutes of Cabinet meetings before the Iraq War because they would reveal there was no discussion on the issue.
