No Torture in my name!

Check this... my comments are below...

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Cheney and Torture

Charlie Savage writes in the Boston Globe: "Senator John McCain yesterday warned that a push by the White House to exempt overseas CIA agents from a proposed ban on mistreating prisoners in US custody would exacerbate the problem of detainee abuse by giving interrogators legal authority to torture suspected terrorists. . . . .

"McCain went public with his concerns after published reports yesterday that Vice President Dick Cheney met with him to urge changes to his widely supported proposal to outlaw cruel and degrading treatment of detainees by any US official. Cheney suggested exempting CIA counter-terrorism agents working overseas, but McCain balked."

The Washington Post editorial boardtoday minces no words: "Vice President Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans . . . .

"The Senate's earlier vote suggests that it will not allow such a betrayal of American values. As for Mr. Cheney: He will be remembered as the vice president who campaigned for torture."
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Now im no legal expert, but im pretty sure that cruel and unusual punishment is illegal in the United States. Im also no fan of cowards who willfully murder innocent men, women and children. I recognize that some of these terrorists have information we need to aquire for national security purposes, but there are some things that seperate us from those animals. Humanity is one of them.

My opinion of Cheney wasnt that high before, but even I thought he was less base than this. As an American citizen I say enough is enough. No torture in my name. No desecration of religions in my name. I'll take my chances with being humane. America should set an example to follow, not to scorn. Unfortunately, our executive branch seems to want to take us down a darker path. Thankfully, some of our representatives, like McCain are standing up for what is right.

Such high level endorsement of torture shames us as a nation. Its about damn time that someone stood up to these jackbooted white house staffers. It is also good to see Republicans actually doing what is right. This has been too long in coming.