Senator John McCain, the erstwhile prisoner of war, whose previous vehement opposition to torture stemmed from years of torment at the hands of the North Vietnamese, has voted against banning waterboarding while claiming it is illegal.
:: ::
As reported in the New York Times today, the Senate passed a measure by a vote of 51-45 to ban waterboarding and other “harsh interrogation methods.” The legislation had already cleared the House in December that would “limit all American interrogators to techniques permitted in the Army Field Manual on Interrogation.”
President Bush, threatening to veto the bill, drew harsh criticism from Democrats Charles Schumer and Senate Leader Harry Reid. In a salvo to prod Bush into signing the bill, Schumer exclaimed, “If the president vetoes intelligence authorization, he will be voting in favor of waterboarding.” While Reid proclaimed, “We are taking an important step toward restoring our moral leadership in the world. It is now up to the president to show his own moral leadership and sign this bill into law.”
However, self-proclaimed maverick and presumptive Republican nominee for President, John McCain, took a mercurial stance. McCain who was a prisoner of war during Vietnam for five years, and who was tortured while in captivity, voted against the banning of waterboarding.
McCain, claiming his support and vote for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which gives the President the ability to approve harsh interrogations methods not in the Army Field Manual, provides proof his record is consistent with his views and voting record on torture.
Nonetheless, McCain seemed to contradict himself, telling one reporter, “Waterboarding is illegal and should be banned” and “the agency (the C.I.A.) must adhere to existing federal law and international treaties.”
The “Straight Talk Express” may be posing tough on terror, in an effort to shore up a shaky relationship with hard-line conservatives, but obvious prevarications, such as this, will do little to convince likely voters McCain is anything but an opportunistic politician who claims, when asked about potential political motives, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
http://www.ranellirants.blogspot.com/
Frank J. Ranelli is an opinion editorial writer, a research author and critic. He is a former senior editor and current feature writer for the popular online news website, OpEdNews.com. His erudite and chic style of writing has been lauded and extensively published in a variety of news outlets and across the Internet. These include the Naples Daily News, The Online Journal, Information Clearing House, Alternet, The Smirking Chimp, Diatribune, and the former progressive journal of thought, Wicked Philosophy. Frank is currently working on his upcoming book, Rise of the Authoritarians, and is participating as a co-author in prominent philosopher Russell Blackford's anthology, Voices of Disbelief.
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Thursday, February 7th, 2008
A former Vietnam veteran with top secret clearance says he has personally spoken to numerous POW's who dispute John McCain's claim that he refused to provide information after he was captured and tortured in Hanoi, saying that in fact McCain's code-name was "Songbird" because of his willingness to tell all to avoid torture.
Jack McLamb served nine years in Vietnam before going on to become one of the most highly decorated police officer's in Phoenix history, winning police officer of the year twice before taking a role as a hostage negotiator for the FBI.
"I know a lot of Vietnam veterans and a few POW's and all the POW's that I've talked to over the years say that John McCain is a lying skunk," McLamb told the Alex Jones Show."He never was tortured - they were there in the camp with him and then when he came in....he immediately started spilling his guts about everything because he didn't want to get tortured," said McLamb, contradicting the official story that McCain only offered his name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.
"The Vietnamese Communists called him the Songbird, that's his code name, Songbird McCain, because he just came into the camp singing and telling them everything they wanted to know," said McLamb.
McLamb said the POW's told him that McCain had sustained two broken arms and a leg injury from not pulling his arms in when he bailed out of his A-4 Skyhawk that was shot down over the Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.
The POW's said that McCain made 32 propaganda videos for the communist North Vietnamese in which he denounced America for what they were doing in Vietnam.
"They have these sealed now, our government has these sealed, we can't get to it, they have it classified," said McLamb, adding that in truth "the POW's hate John McCain."
It is commonly accepted that McCain was treated better than other POW's and afforded medical care immediately after the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.
Doubts over McCain's alleged war hero status and his support to curtail efforts to look for missing POW's contributed to torpedoing his presidential campaign in 2000 and those same questions will undoubtedly surface again should the Senator win the Republican nomination.
by
Mac McKinney (42 articles, 69 quicklinks, 164 diaries, 1070 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 3:15:08 PM
The questions from my subconscious have suddenly surfaced. If McCain was really tortured as so generally accepted by the population, why doesn't he have an
avulsion to any form of torture? It doesn't make sense.
by
Bob Gormley (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 932 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 4:48:00 PM
The object of 'normal' torture is to gain information from someone who will do harm to others or has information about an act that would harm others. There are definitely cases (everyone knows them) where torture is warranted in my opinion. Torture should be rare and only approved by senior commanders familar with the situation after other methods have been exhausted.. There should be strict guidelines and chains of responsibility for making the decison on whether to torture and what methods are permissible.
If that is the case, then taking any form of torture off the table is foohearty. Those with the information then will not be as forthcoming because they know all they have to do is hold out If someone knows he/she might be tortured in some horrendeous fashion I think that is worst than the actual torture itself.
Using that old saw that it gives the US the Moral High Ground if we do not torture just is a bunch of idealistic BS. Those people who think nothing, NOTHING, of blowing up 100s of innocent men, women, and children for some cause laugh in the faces of those up there on the Moral High Ground. Their thinking is that the US can have the Moral High Ground because your morals mean absolutely nothing to us and we will kill everyone and anybody we can until we accomplish our goals or die trying.
by
Mad Jayhawk (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 313 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 5:54:13 PM
What good is it to gain the world and lose your soul? Torture can always be rationalized, the Devil is good at that, but once you do it, it is all downhill, as we can attest by our country's slow descent into Hell. We as a nation are in the company of demons, not angels now, waiting to capture more souls. How deep can we go, all the way to a Stalinist or Fascist style dictatorship with millions missing and dead. All in the name of security and driven by fear. Fear in turn is driven by dark fantasies about the future and has no concrete reality in the here and now.
The ironic thing is that once you lose your soul, you have lost the world too.
by
Mac McKinney (42 articles, 69 quicklinks, 164 diaries, 1070 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 10:34:12 PM
I think it's a sad day for McCain. I wonder how it feels when you sell your soul for power...
I don't doubt that McCain was tortured and I maintain that he was a hero. However, his heroism then does not make him right now. He's pandering and has shown us how willing he is to dismiss any ethical principles he had. Let's face it, one who would kiss the man responsible for the attack adds on his family when he ran against Bush...is there any doubt he would sell out those whose faces he does not see?
by
Crystal Purcell (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 47 comments)
on Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 8:50:07 PM
6 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
