Posted on 03/02/2009 8:46:06 AM PST by SolidWood
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – 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.
Holder's declaration underscored President Barack Obama's break with the former Bush administration's anti-terrorist policies, which were condemned by human-rights groups, civil liberties advocates and U.S. allies abroad.
"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.
"We cannot ask other nations to stand by us in the pursuit of justice if we are not viewed as being in pursuit of that ideal ourselves," he said.
One of the most widely condemned Bush administration practices was waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, which the CIA has acknowledged using on three terrorism suspects before it said it stopped the practice in 2003.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I condemn the Obama Administration as torture.
When are we going to prosecute those who waterboard our own troops as training for possibly having this done to them in the field by enemy combatants?
Mr. Obama, why am I being punished with a bailout?
When an American city is nuked by terrorists, Holder will call the citizens, and not the terrorists, “cowards”.
He’s a cheese eating surrender monkey just like John F.T.A. Kerry and the French.
i’ll bet al queda is laughing their asses off.
Plausible deniability combined with hosannas for ‘keeping’ a campaign promise. The routine is familiar by now but still annoying.
Whew. I've been waiting for this. Now the terrorists will see the light and quit beating, torturing and beheading the Israeli's and Americans they capture. Bravo lord Obama!
I can’t wait to see how the EPA responds to a WMD attack by terrorists. We will probably have to reducing our “driving emissions” by driving no faster than 20 MPH to “make ammends” for the “unfortunate incident” caused by “Bush’s legacy in the world”.
“When are we going to prosecute those who waterboard our own troops as training for possibly having this done to them in the field by enemy combatants?”
Well, it is impossible to cut off our trainees heads in preparing them for what our enemies will do to them.
Leave troll.
Eric is one mixed up guy ~ lies about race, lies about torture, lies about dates he's had, lies under oath.
What a sorry excuse for a human being ~ but such a typical Democrat politician.
This statement makes no sense. I now worry that our AG is not only a racist, but that he is also intellectually challenged.
Exactly! And this ridiculous porkulus spending package! That is the real torture, unlike extracting evidence from the bad guys.
Psst. You aren’t supposed to mention the Islamic snuff videos. They don’t “really” exist. Perception is reality. The ostrich people don’t want to understand the reality of the enemy in this war.
Yeah, we should just use the enemy’s tactics. Behead them on national TV.
Watching this moron destroy America is torture.
Obama’s voice is torture...I’ll sue!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.