War On Reality Part 71 ; Waterboarding Whitewash

How many more people, of any rank in US government, are there left to be made to tow the line and prop up the President? Recent events indicate not that many.

Daniel Levin, the acting assistant attorney general in 2004, asked to experience the method of torture and reported that "torture is abhorent" in a memo, which was later leaked. He was later pushed out of his job by Alberto Gonzales. Now, Malcolm Nance, a former Navy interrogation instructor has told a house committee that waterboarding is torture.

Tell The Truthiness ; "Physical pain and sheer panic" described the marine in the reconstruction shown in the video of how waterboarding felt. Enhanced interrogation techniques equals torture, plain and simple.

Special Comment Video Here

In two parts.



The second.

Special Comment ; Tune In Tonight

Keith Olbermann will make a Special Comment on the MSNBC Countdown show tonight at 8pm EST.

We'll post the video as soon as it becomes available. For now though, here is his 9/11 Special Comment from last year.

Saunter To The White House 12 ; Giuliani Not Sure Waterboarding Is Torture

Yes, our man of the moment, Rudy Giuliani has stated that he is not sure if waterboarding can be classified as torture.

Now, really he just had to take a leaf or two out of the President's book and cover himself by :

1 . Firstly refuse to discuss specific torture techniques.

then...

2 . Get your attorney general to reclassify torture or anything that everyone else apart from you declares to be torture as not torture.

After that, you can sleep at night.

Tell The Truthiness ; First President Bush, then President Giuliani, that'll keep you awake.

Is There Anything He Doesn't Say?

You might think he just keeps talking in the hope that someone listens, but this time he really has wadded into the debate on torture, in a big way.

We don't a video of this, but here's the Daily Show's take on the word game the government is playing.



Former President Jimmy Carter has said (ok, he is promoting his book, so we take that he's in the news at all, for any reason, as a given) he is convinced the US is involved in torture that breaks international law and said President Bush has created his administration's own definitions of torture and human rights to allow them to get away with it.

When questioned on CNN Mr Carter said he doesn't "think" he "knows" Bush's government tortures.

The White House continued to hold the line that "we do not torture".

Tell The Truthiness ; Keep saying it and eventually Bush will deny it was ever said, remember like "stay the course"?

War On Reality Part 60 ; Torture Analysis Roundup

We were going to post this late last week, but there were just so many stories to cover, it got pushed aside.

Not a lot new here, but the Countdown show introduction, from Thursday, gives a good overview of the whole sorry state of this story.

This one is the introduction to the Countdown show from Friday, with new developments in the story, again it gives a good roundup of the whole thing.



Tell The Truthiness ; "Do we torture? Well, it depends what you call torture, because what me and Dick call it is probably not what you call it, so we're ok yeah, now watch this drive..."

War On Reality Part 59 ; Pelosi Corrects The President

Remember the other day when the President was talking about the interrogation techniques used and claiming that the Democrats knew about them?

On Fox News Sunday this morning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied she had seen any memos from 2005 about the expanded CIA techniques.

Tell The Truthiness ; Just because something is unacceptable Mr Bush, doesn't mean you can make it excusable by claiming your opponents knew about it and therefore are in the same moral hole as you.