Apr 30, 2009 5:21pm
Watch: Condoleezza Rice Spars With Student Over ‘Torture’
EmailToday we heard from Condoleezza Rice regarding the interrogation methods approved and used during the Bush years. Some Stanford University students mixed it up with Rice this week over what’s "torture" and what’s lawful interrogation. Video of the at times heated exchange has made its way to YouTube.
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This video teaches a very good lesson. Many are so ignorant on the torture issue as well as everything with national security and dealing with other foreign countries.
This student formulated his opinion without all the facts. With mearly talking points designed to be purly partisan.
Condi Rice was very polite to him, yet did a great job explaining. She also did a great job proving just how ignorant that kid is.
Posted by: Jay | April 30, 2009, 6:24 pm 6:24 pm
Yes, I thought she summed it up very well. “…by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.” That’s certainly good enough for me, and ought to be good enough for any American.
Posted by: Delphine | April 30, 2009, 6:36 pm 6:36 pm
If the President says it legal, its legal. I heard Nixon say the same thing about the Watergate burglary. Let’s be clear, Zubaydah and KSM are bad guys. I have no sympathy for them. But put aside the slapping and the insect box, WATERBOARDING, long before 9/11 was TORTURE per se. It was illegal under federal law and the Geneva convention. Reagan prosectued an Arizona sheriff for doing it. But late in 2002, Cheney and Rummie, needed to find some connection between Al Quaeda and Sadamm Hussein to justify the invasion of Iraq. So to cover their rears, they find three compliant and toady lawyers in the justice department to write some legal quackery justifying waterboarding. (I’ve been a lawyer for almost 40 years and I’ve read the memos. Characterizing them as legal malpractice would be a gross understatement.) Next, the Bush geniuses fire the FBI interrogators and hire two retired military therapists from Spokane, with no training in interrogation, also known as the Curveballs of Guauntanamo, to supervise the project. The bad guys then get “boarded 166 times in one month. Only one problem, it didn’t work. They gave up very little or nothing. (Zubaydah disclosed the LA attack before the “boarding”. ) No connection with Iraq was revealed, but the neo-cons got a little vengeance and we made two bad guys totally crazy-to the degree they may now not be competent to stand trial.
Final thought, what kind of person decides a good career choice would be a Waterboarder for the CIA? They must have interesting conversations with their spouses after work. “How was your day, dear?” “Just swimmingly, thank you.
Posted by: B. Bear | April 30, 2009, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
“No connection with Iraq was revealed, but the neo-cons got a little vengeance and we made two bad guys totally crazy-to the degree they may now not be competent to stand trial.” – B. Bear
Hey Baby Bear, News Flash!
Those baddies were proven crazies before they ever got to Club Gitmo which is why they were professional terrorists.
A 40 year lawyer should know better.
Posted by: Noz | May 1, 2009, 7:36 am 7:36 am
Yes, she did sum it up…”if the president says it’s o.k….it’s o.k.” Seems like Nixon all over again. We can’t pick and choose what is legal and what is not. It was a law…no torture and just because the president said is it o.k. does not make it so. If we pick and choose what laws we will abide by and which ones we won’t …..what kind of a society will we have?
Posted by: talmag | May 1, 2009, 10:51 am 10:51 am
America deserved better than Condi. She was merely a crony of W’s.
Alas, her incompetence may have risen to the level of criminal conspiracy.
She’s a prime example of how someone can be educated and still be ignorant and unethical.
Condi…………..the invoice for your Faustian bargain is in the mail.
Posted by: Sammy | May 1, 2009, 11:17 am 11:17 am
The Faculty and Students of Standford University must today,this hour,demand the expulsion of Condoleezza Rice from it’s once well respected Campus. Ms. Rice’s continued disertations and presence at Stanford will destroy any sense of Truth in Education as sure as her words and actions destroyed Iraq.
Posted by: Stopwar | May 1, 2009, 3:15 pm 3:15 pm
I really enjoy hearing Condoleezza Rice speak. She is very articulate and much better than Hillary Clinton as a Secretary of State. Hillary stutters too much, uses the non-words such as “Uhm” too much, talks too slow and never gets to the point.
Love ya Condi!
Posted by: knodalaw | May 1, 2009, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
I think It’s known of our business what the military does to protect us! We know too much as it is and we are endandering our military!
Posted by: Christina | May 2, 2009, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm