All Life Is Problem Solving

I get furious when the punditocracy doesn’t recognize that Cheney’s position on accountability for torture makes the Constitution a dead letter, and the President a dictator who can define what the law is by fiat. By extension, to refrain from prosecuting and convicting those who violated the law by engaging in torture, is to legitimate […]

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Today, leading Civil Liberties and Human Rights Groups met with President Obama to talk about the recent actions of the Administration in seeming to support Bush Administration policies and his continued reluctance to support investigations and prosecutions for War Crimes. Reportedly, the President […]

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Marcy Wheeler who most frequently blogs at Firedog Lake as “emptywheel,” just filed a blog at Salon entitled: “The 13 people who made torture possible.” I have two comments. First, please note Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, Rush Limbaugh, and any other distraction-motivated warriors vitally concerned about Nancy Pelosi’s alleged, but non-existent, insult of CIA personnel, […]

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It’s interesting to look at torture as practiced by the Bush Administration from the perspective of Knowledge Management. In this case, from the perspective of the three-tier model. Let’s begin with the process of an interrogator trying to retrieve “knowledge” from another person. That’s a particular kind of knowledge integration called searching and retrieving (how […]

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy If you believe this Kit Bond bull puckey about the CIA never lying to Congress, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you! But as everyone who is anyone except, of course, for the MSM and those unhappy that the Republican Party isn’t […]

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Dick Cheney keeps repeating his claims that “enhanced interrogation techniques” including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and others were effective in that they provided vital information, kept Americans safe, and saved many thousands of lives. He does this even while he continues to ignore the […]

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”By Definition, if it was authorized by the president it did not violate our obligations under the convention against torture.“ Condoleeza Rice, responding to a question about waterboarding, 04/27/09. ”Article I, Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and […]

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(From http://www.obamamites.com) At his first 100 days news conference this evening, President Obama received the following question from Jake Tapper of ABC News: “Thank you, Mr. President. You’ve said in the past that waterboarding, in your opinion, is torture. Torture is a violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions. Do you believe that the […]

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Today I have but three questions to ask of the defenders of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or “torture” as the opponents of using these techniques would prefer to call them.

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In a recent Newsweek column, after pointing out both the immorality and illegality of the Bush Administration’s use of torture on prisoners, Howard Feinman asked: ”What is Obama’s explanation for not strictly applying the law, American and international? It’s not moral, it’s practical: We need to move on; we have bigger, more urgent issues to […]

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