New Face, Old Evasion

Can one person secede from the Union?

Well I don't care, I am have done it anyway, and if Bush doesn't ike it, he can jolly well bring it on!

I will not countenance torture by my government of any human being, I don't care what they have done.

...and these criminals call themselves Christian.


New Face, Old Evasion:

"AT THE SENATE intelligence committee hearing Thursday on Gen. Michael V. Hayden's nomination to head the CIA, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked the nominee a simple question: Is 'waterboarding' an acceptable interrogation technique? Gen. Hayden responded: 'Let me defer that to closed session, and I would be happy to discuss it in some detail.' That was the wrong answer. The right one would have been simple: No. Last year Congress banned cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment of detainees; one of its explicit aims was to stop the CIA's use of waterboarding, which induces an excruciating sensation of drowning and is considered by most human rights organizations to constitute torture. So why couldn't Gen. Hayden say clearly that the technique is now off-limits?

Few issues facing the next CIA director are more important than what to do about the agency's network of secret prisons, in which it is holding -- and has been abusively interrogating -- high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives. Gen. Hayden acknowledged in open session that the new law binds the CIA and made clear as well that it requires all federal agencies, including the one he is slated to lead, 'to handle detainees wherever they may be located in a way that is not cruel, inhumane or degrading.'"