Thomas Taylor – 4/22/08

This page was last updated on April 22, 2008.

Impeach Bush and Cheney; Thomas Taylor; Beaver County Times; April 22, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“On April 11, President George Bush officially confessed to war crimes to ABC News.”

[RWC] The entire interview is here. Apparently Mr. Thomas took a creative reading or viewing class. You’ll see what I mean below.

“‘Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people,’ Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. ‘And yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.’

“‘As first reported by ABC News Wednesday, the most senior Bush administration officials repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al-Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the CIA.

“‘The high-level discussions about these ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.’”

[RWC] Right here, Mr. Thomas omitted the following paragraph. “These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.” It’s pretty obvious why Mr. Thomas chose to exclude this section.

“At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Dick Cheney, former National Security Adviser (and now Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.’”

“Not only have Bush and his gang of thugs committed war crimes, he has admitted to it.”

[RWC] Let me get this straight. It’s a “war crime” to slap, push, deprive of sleep, or waterboard top al-Qaida terrorists?

As a reminder, CIA Director Tenet was also a member of Bill Clinton’s “gang of thugs.”

“But to make matters even worse, he has lied straight face to us repeatedly by saying the United States does not torture.”

[RWC] I suspect Mr. Thomas considers allowing females to interrogate Muslim prisoners to be torture as well, at least as long as the current president isn’t a leftist.

Here’s another excerpt Mr. Thomas conveniently omitted: “In interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson last year, Tenet said: ‘It was authorized. It was legal, according to the Attorney General of the United States.’”

“Impeach Bush and Cheney for committing war crimes and for lying to the American people. The Constitution mandates impeachment for crimes like these.”

[RWC] As I wrote above, if Mr. Thomas believes this interview is evidence that Messrs. Bush and Cheney committed war crimes, he’s a creative reader.

One last point. If we believe real torture of a terrorist will get us info that will save American and/or ally lives, it’s OK in my book.