I have maintained in the past that although you have to do what you have to do in the war on terror it is important to question what is being done to keep yourself honest.
I have questioned the left’s insistence that Gitmo has needed to be closed and the left has misrepresented the place over and over.
I also maintain Waterboarding is not torture, but I can see why some have said so.
The use of prisons in other western countries is a little more iffy since we may not have control but the various western countries have rules to keep things in check.
Now of all the tactics used Rendition is the most iffy, its the one that leaves me the most queasy. Of the left’s arguments this one was the best of the batch. And Obama has decided to keep it and expand it:
Barack Obama exploited that outrage when he promised Hope and ChangeTM, and the Left squealed with joy over the Brave New Obama World in national security. Now they’ll have to squeal again as Obama has had a sudden revelation as President that renditions are more necessary than ever, if the CIA can’t hold these subjects at Gitmo or its own secret sites:
Moe Lane called out leftist bloggers on this but the most amazing thing is reported at Dissenting justice where he calls out Human Rights Watch:
Now that the L.A. Times reports that rendition will continue during the Obama administration, Human Rights Watch has apparently altered its position. According to Tom Malinowski, the organization’s “Washington advocacy director,” the risk of torture and other abuses does not mandate the prophylactic cessation of rendition. Instead (quoting the L.A. Times)
I haven’t seen such a double standard by a “human rights group” since…well every time any of em deal with Israel.
I give full marks to that blog on the left for doing so and being honest enough to be outraged. I actually liked the outrage on the left over Gitmo because although false it produced an irrational fear of the place to the newly captured that might have gotten them talking but now the choices have been reduced to bad ones.
Don’t you wonder what Obama saw in the briefings that changed his mind on this? I’ll give the last word to the Captain:
Frankly, I think the US does a better job of treating its detainees than anywhere a rendition program would deliver them, but without a Gitmo or CIA holding site, that’s the only way to ensure that we can get any intelligence that will protect the US. I’m not surprised that Obama has reached the same conclusion, now that he has the responsibility to keep the nation secure from foreign attack. It’s amazing how clarifying that responsibility can be, and Obama at least must have a little more comprehension of what Bush went through the last seven years.
Bingo!
Update: Whoa! My first Instalance and I didn’t even notice it. Hi. Take a look around, particularly if you are looking for remote tech support. or if you are a Fan of Morning Joe which I tend to liveblog a bit. See the shock of Iranian rejection and learn the ways of the internet scam. I write a bit about Religion, Israel, my current job search and a tad bit of baseball.
Oh and if you are a Doctor Who fan make sure you check out this blog. It isn’t mine but its awesome.
Update 2: Missed the link to Captain Ed at hotair, thanks to commenter Paul for catching it.
Update 3: I guess he gets an Arthur vote for this. Running total Jimmy Carter 6 Chester Arthur 3. An explanation of the Arthur Carter watch here.
Update 4: A disagreement in comments continues here.



[…] UPDATE if you came here from the Dissenting Justice link it was wrong. The actual post you want is here but this post does have some background on the […]
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[…] MORE CHARGES OF human rights hypocrisy. “Obama supporter? Then you are now officially pro-torture.” Plus a heavy dose of I-told-you-so. More here. […]
who is the captian and why don’t you link to him?
“Don’t you wonder what Obama saw in the briefings that changed his mind on this?”
In my opinion, nothing he didn’t already see when he was pretending to be a senator. The difference now is that he isn’t running for anything, not that he knows more.
I have to think that there is some difference in the briefings but I suspect you are current in your interpretation anyway.
[…] rendition? Yes we can! Well, there you have it. (Yes, it’s the worst of the options, in terms of human rights […]
My erudite and sophisticated response to this news?
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Karl Rove, you magnificent bastard, you set this up, didn’t you?
***Meanwhile, down in Midland, Texas, George Bush is cleaning up at “Texas Hold’em” and guffawing to his poker buddies, “See? I told ya that ol’ O-bama was all hat and no cattle. Now ante up and, Laura, sweetie, bring us some more sammiches, won’t ya?”
It is rather ironic. It actually reminds me of the days when Reagan put the missiles in Europe. The pols screamed bloody murder because they knew it was good politics but weren’t going to stop it.
Personally I think Gitmo is a much better option but hey President Obama won.
This is the first thing I’ve liked in the new administration.
Yes Sam I guess I should give him a Arthur on that one.
Like I said on my site, I may now go see the movie Rendition since it’s not a slam on Bush but now on Obama as well:
http://environmentalrepublican.blogspot.com/2009/02/obama-perpetuates-torture-of-terrorists.html
Congrats on the links, a good post deserves to be read.
Just more evidence that “the Left doesn’t really believe in the things they lecture us about”
In fairness some on the left have objected. But if they hadn’t objected to Gitmo on a false premise then those who objected wouldn’t be in this spot.
Hey if enough people do that then maybe they will pass it off as an economic stimulus move.
Sorry, but DaTechGuy and Instapundit have this story wrong, the rendition order by Obama explicitly prohibits sending prisoners to countries that torture.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_02/016703.php
Socialists – liberals – are easily understood. They don’t see things as right or wrong; the criteria are “will we get caught, and if we do will we be punished” and “can it be used to denigrate conservatives”.
Ivan, I’ve Gotta disagree with you on that. There is plenty of play in the wording of the rules since they have to be interpreted by the people in charge. Don’t forget the big nasty but true bottom line: Any successful attack on the US in the next 4 years will be wholly owned by the Democratic party in general and the administration in particular.
Do you think they will fail to interpret things in they way they wish when most of the administration previously worked for a president who argued the meaning of the word is?
Waterboarding isn’t torture?
Really?
No Autismne I don’t think it is and there is currently nothing in US law that defines it as such. That is however, a subject that reasonable people can disagree on so if you believe that is the case, it’s certainly a valid opinion. I go into it a bit here.
Datechguy,
Read the order:
” “1. No State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.
2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.”
It’s pretty clear. And this is pretty much a 180 from the bush administration when we extradited prisoners to places like Egypt and Jordan to be tortured. Even national review and glenn reynolds has had to backtrack a bit on this:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODM2NWY0Njc4MjhiYjVkMmFlZGJkNDRiMTQ1NmY3Yjg=
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/68350/
Ivan I’ll be promoting this from comments but I’ll answer it here as well.
First looking at both NRO and Instapundit, NRO mentions the other article while Instapundit says “possibly” not much of a retraction if any.
Second reading what you have it would seem to me that the law mandates things be examined but the people doing the stuff decide what weight to give stuff. Plenty of room for interpretation.
Third this is an administration made of of ex Bill “depends on what the meaning of the word is is” Clinton people. I’m sure they will interpret words by their clear meaning.
Fourth: You have an administration that in only 3 weeks has appointed a Treasury secretary that doesn’t pay its taxes. Whose answer to another potential cabinet officer with similar issues is “Nobody’s Perfect” and who deliberately disabled fraud prevention measures on contributions. Yeah they’re going to respect the law as written.
Fifth: You already have human rights groups twisting into pretzels to defend him and a protective media. Who is going to pursue this stuff if it happens? Why would this administration have any fear of it?
Sixth: Without such pressure how long will it take such cases even if brought to make it through the courts?
Your interpretation isn’t quite the move the mountain into the sea level but in my opinion it isn’t far off.
Hey he could prove me wrong, we’ll see.
[…] conversation with Ivan By datechguy Promoting this from this post’s […]
Hey, I’ve got a great idea. Why don’t we parole all these Gitmo detainees to San Francisco? Maybe Sean Penn would volunteer to guard the Golden gate Bridge for us.
Albie believe it or not Chuck Norris already thought of that.
[…] his ground By datechguy It looks like This is not going to go away. Darren Hutchinson is hot and angry and shows no signs of backing down: But this […]
I also maintain Waterboarding is not torture
Funny, we called it torture when the Japanese did it to our boys in WWII. What, it’s only OK when we do it?
Hypocrite.
As a person who was not born until 1963 your charge of hypocrisy against me is unfounded since I’ve never maintained that waterboarding was torture in the past. If you read the post you will also note I do state that I can see why other people would maintain that it is.
If you want examples of actual torture by the Japanese I would suggest the excellent book Ship of Ghosts telling the story of the USS Houston and its crew.
As for my position on the whole subject moral v legal decisions check out this post.
If you want to main that the country is not being consistent that is a valid argument, if you want to call me names, not so much but thanks for reading anyway.
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