public forum letter

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_12380313


Cheney's credibility

Public Forum Letter
Updated: 05/15/2009 05:08:23 PM MDT

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is on a media blitz defending "enhanced interrogation." He denies that the United States tortured, even as he acknowledges that detainees were waterboarded. Really? Surely he's aware that the U.S. signed many treaties, including the Geneva Conventions, that prohibit the use of torture. Period.

When he beat the drum for the Iraq war, this man long ago lost any credibility. "Greeted as liberators" ring any bells? Surely, he couldn't expect us to believe him now, as he attempts to sell the notion that, in spite of the Bush administration's abandoning the rule of law and adopting rogue practices, that these policies should be continued?

We can and must protect our nation and troops within the framework of the principles we were founded upon. We are better and smarter than this.

Perhaps the Bush administration underestimated us, but "we the people" will not stand idly by and allow these atrocities that have been carried out in all our names to go unchallenged, obfuscated or covered up.

We can take the truth, and we deserve no less.

Carla J. Hitz

Sandy

blog...blog...blog

http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2009/05/ticking-timbomb-plot-stopped-without-torture.html


Ticking time-bomb plot stopped without torture...

So 4 Americans, who plotted to bomb various New York synagogues, were arrested on Wednesday. Now, are we going to stand for this or are we going to invade America in the war on terror? Moreover, no one was tortured to stop this literal ticking (but dud) time-bomb plot. Why? Torture saves American lives, right? Here is what wend down in the last 24 hours:

The FBI and NYPD busted a four-man homegrown terror cell Wednesday night that was plotting to blow up two Bronx synagogues while simultaneously shooting a plane out of the sky, sources told the Daily News.

The idea was to create a "fireball that would make the country gasp," one law enforcement said.

Little did they know the plastic explosives packed into their car bombs and the plane-downing Stinger missile in their backseat were all phony - supplied by undercover agents posing as Pakistani militants linked to Al Qaeda.

"If there can be any good news from this terror scare it's that this group was relatively unsophisticated, penetrated early, and not connected to another terrorist group," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). "This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism, foreign or domestic."

This certainly gives a nice backdrop to Dick Cheney's defense of torture speech, which several unethical news outlets are going to cover. Why do I say unethical? Cheney is not the current president nor was he "officially" the previous president. Adding to this ethics problem is that this man is giving a speech in support of torture and war crimes. So a former VP, greatly disliked by the nation, gives a speech in support of war crimes and several networks carry it? Why? In addition to that outrage, Cheney's speech coincides with the current president's speech. What will the networks do for a finale, give David Duke a podium?

All of that said, the news that a terrorist plot was stopped by law enforcement without the use of torture sort of takes the air out of Cheney's sails. He cannot claim a 24 episode as reality anymore.

what does that blog prove one persons opinion ??? Cheneys speech was much more direct and to the point on national security then Obama's was.