May 4, 2009
Do you believe Rice when she says Pres. Bush wouldn’t have authorized anything illegal?
Posted: 04:00 PM ET
FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:
Add Condoleezza Rice to the growing list of former Bush officials weighing in on the torture debate.
The Former Secretary of State got into it with a fourth grader over the weekend who asked her what she thought about what the Obama administration is saying about the harsh techniques used under President Bush. Rice defended Bush’s policies on the interrogation of terrorism suspects, saying the president wouldn’t have authorized anything illegal: “He was also very clear that we would do nothing — nothing — that was against the law or against our obligations internationally.”
Rice added how difficult the time after the 9/11 attacks was; and even though they were terrified of another attack on the country, the president wasn’t “prepared to do something illegal.”
Rice’s latest comments come days after telling students at Stanford University: “We did not torture anyone.” She insisted that waterboarding was legal “by definition if it was authorized by the president.” Huh? sounds a heck of a lot like Former President Richard Nixon who claimed: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” And we all know how well that worked out for him. Meanwhile a recent Senate report shows Rice was among the top Bush officials who approved the use of waterboarding, which has been considered a form of torture for centuries. This may be why she, much like Former Vice President Dick Cheney, has been making the rounds these days.
Here’s my question to you: When it comes to the torture debate, Condoleezza Rice says President Bush would not have authorized anything illegal. Do you believe her?
Interested to know which ones made it on air? Clair writes:
After Condi dropped the ball on 9/11, her only recourse was to green-light torture. How else could she and her fellow Bushies establish a non-existent link between the attacks and Iraq/Saddam Hussein? If we Americans don’t have the guts to put these monsters (Rice, Cheney, Bush) on trial, we should play it their way and ship them off to a country that will do it for us.
Mack from Michigan writes:
How pathetic is it that the former Secretary of State is reduced to arguing semantics with a fourth grader to try and justify the harm and disgrace she and the other neo-cons have inflicted on the United States?
Kai from Portland, Oregon writes:
Well, let’s see, waterboarding is torture and it is illegal (look it up!), and Bush authorized it, right? So, doesn’t that mean in the real world what he did was illegal? What am I missing here?
Susan from Idaho writes:
I believe Rice believes it. If one suspects their superior is not on the up and up, it’s pretty difficult to believe in their own credibility. There was a real good reason Powell left and one would have thought Rice would have wised up then.
Larry from Georgetown, Texas writes:
She is living in a place where there is no U.S. Constitution and they think they’re god, establishing laws out of fear and based on the presumption that they can do no wrong because of who they think they are. It is sickening to me that these people were elected to protect us and in the long run caused so much damage that it may never be set right unless they are prosecuted and sent to prison.
David from North Carolina writes:
It’s a shame that the administration she represents spent the last 8 years speaking to all of us like we’re 4th graders.
Cafferty File: Tell Jack how you really feel Blog Archive - Do you believe Rice when she says Pres. Bush wouldn’t have authorized anything illegal?