Bill Kristol: The president has a sound substantive position. Some legislation is needed (at least arguably) because of the Supreme Court's (ill-advised) Hamdan decision. That decision suggests that detained terrorists might enjoy the protection of the vague Article 3 standards of the Geneva Convention. CIA agents could not, therefore, use short-of-torture interrogation techniques that might be thought "humiliating and degrading." Unless the CIA were to abandon all techniques that a judge might construe as contrary to Article 3, the door would be open for agents to be held legally liable. The Bush-backed legislation would stipulate that compliance with U.S. law would constitute fulfillment of our obligations under Geneva. This would permit an effective interrogation program to go forward with confidence. Kristol - as well as Bush/Cheney/Addington/Hadley/Yoo/ et al - actually thinks perpetrating horrible atrocities isn't perpetrating horrible atrocities if pretty legal words are used to describe the behavior. Y'know, just like "war" is actually "peace." And "ignorance" is really "strength." Just change the dictionary to suit political needs. Alternatively, of course, one could also argue by this reasoning with equal intellectual credibility that "freedom" is in fact "slavery." And Kristol believes this is a winning argument.
via Josh Marshall via Andrew Sullivan
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