You asked me a question based on a false premise. You do that sometimes.
You are good at that. You make an 'innocent' statement, much in the style of our president, that I have "extreme Bush hatred". Implicit in that loaded sentence are two things: 1. that extreme hatred is irrational hatred of Bush with no object and 2. Me, the hater, is hating ONLY b/c I have an axe to grind for other reasons, i.e., he's a republican.
You do that all the time and I don't mind. But I do mind when it comes to something as debasing and, let's face it, monstrous, as torture.
What specific provision of the Geneva Convention covers terrorists?
The same specific part of the Geneva convention pre-empted by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Never claimed to be an expert on torture (an example of a question with a false premise) "Torture" isn't permitted under either one."
That's pretty impressive tap dancing. I mean you still haven't given me an answer as to whether you stand in league with the Nazis, the Mafia, death squads, the republican party and Pres. Bush over the US's use of torture. Do you or don't you?
You say that you defer to the judgment of those in the field, but that's a cop out. Then in the quote above you put the word torture in quotes as if you know what torture is and what it is not. That's why I was concerned that you might think of yourself as possessing some sort of knowledge about torture.
I guess it's possible suspected terrorists are simply interested in selling girl scout cookies, but I doubt that's the case. I don't know for certain if any suspected terrorist is trying to kill Americans, but that doesn't mean we don't arrest and interrogate them.
Maybe they are selling cookies. We don't know. We haven't tried them in a court of law. The US makes sweeps into foreign neighborhoods and people are picked up on hearsay accusations.
I don't support torture. For the most part. I'm not convinced waterboarding is torture.
"In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II. Yukio Asano received a sentence of 15 years of hard labor."
"the U.S. Department of State formally recognized "submersion of the head in water" as torture in its examination of Tunisia's poor human rights record,"
"both under the War Crimes Act and international law, violators of the laws of war are criminally liable under the command responsibility, and they could still be prosecuted for war crimes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding#United_StatesAre you absolutely sure, Beach Bum, that water boarding is not torture?
If you ask me whether we have a suspected terrorist in custody and whether "torturing" him could save American lives, I'm not sure how I'd answer that one. This is a different era. We're dealing with people willing to commit suicide when killing Americans. I'm willing to defer to folks with more knowledge than me about what interrogation techniques are most effective and appropriate. I’m far more concerned about the safety of our citizens than some nut trying to blow himself and other innocents to bits.
Sorry, we are not in a different era regarding American humanity. The japanese used suicide bombers against us. You've never heard of terrorist tactics used before 9/11/2001?
Stop deferring to other people for answers to this question of torture. Please use your own judgment. You do not have to be an expert on torture to know that torture is wrong. When you substitute President Bush's conclusions on what is torture, you are doing yourself a horrible disservice.
Humanity means nothing to this man. He's wrongfully killed tens of thousands of people and advocates torture.
And you want to substitute your judgment with that monster's views?
