WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration urged Congress to drop a legislative proposal that would have curbed the ability of U.S. intelligence to use extreme interrogation tactics, the White House acknowledged on Thursday.
But White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted President Bush has made clear that his administration opposes the use of torture under any circumstances.
“We’ve made it very clear that we do not condone torture. The president would never authorize torture and that applies to everyone,” he said at a news briefing.
Has anyone compiled a list of all the separate pieces of evidence that the White House knowingly approved of and encouraged torture? They mainly just don’t like using the word. “Extreme interrogation tactics” seems to be the preferred nomenclature, which makes it sound like something out of a Mountain Dew commercial.
I read this stuff, about how the Administration is completely opposed to torture, and also completely opposed to anyone saying they’re not allowed to torture people… and I can’t help thinking of Monty Python and the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Wallabaloo… “Rule Two: No member of the faculty is to maltreat the Abos in any way at all…. if there’s anybody watching.”
Rules One and Three, of course, are “No Poofters!” which I guess would apply to the nationwide “get out the bigot vote” efforts for the 2004 elections, with the anti-gay-marriage proposals on the ballot in all the battleground states.