{"id":5206,"date":"2011-06-25T04:29:57","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T11:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5206"},"modified":"2011-06-25T04:29:57","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T11:29:57","slug":"action-alert-petraeus-betrays-us-on-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/25\/action-alert-petraeus-betrays-us-on-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Action Alert: Petraeus Betrays Us on Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even before this most recent revelation, I opposed the appointment of Gen. David Petraeus as Director of the CIA.  In addition, I have long criticized the Obama administration for their blatant failure to prosecute George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and several more of their co-conspirators for crimes against humanity, including torture.  Now that Petraeus has betrayed us by reversing his previous stance against torture, he is unfit to lead the CIA, and his nomination must be withdrawn.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"25Petraeus\"…Shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, GOP Senators trying to credit Bush-era so-called \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d for the killing vowed<\/a> they\u2019d question the anti-torture Petraeus on the subject during his confirmation hearing to be head of the CIA. But Republicans didn\u2019t even bring the issue up \u2014 intead, Democratic Senator Mark Udall broached the subject \u2014 and Petraeus gave a rather unexpected answer. <\/p>\n

Petraeus, of course, has been seen as an important voice by anti-torture advocates, because his military experience and reputation make his arguments difficult to dismiss. <\/p>\n

Udall was clearly trying to get Petraeus to reiterate his opposition to torture \u2014 he read back several quotes Petraeus himself had given saying such techniques are immoral and when they\u2019ve been used, they\u2019ve \u201cturned around and bitten us in the backside.\u201d Udall asked, \u201cdo you see torture any differently in a CIA context than in a military context<\/strong>?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Petraeus instead pivoted to the TV-ready \u201cticking time bomb\u201d scenario<\/strong>, and said torture might be justified if you have a \u201cspecial situation\u201d where an \u201cindividual in your hands who you know has placed a nuclear device under the Empire State Building. It goes off in 30 minutes, he has the codes to turn it off.\u201d Then he urged legislators to consider crafting such an exception into the law<\/strong>… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

Because Current has not yet fixed the auto-start bug in their video player for embedding, I normally cannot bring you Keith Olbermann videos in a timely manner, but fortunately I found an alternate source for Keith\u2019s Special Comment<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n