Republican Values: Let the CIA do the Torturing

Cheney the Torturer appealed to Republican Senators who voted 90-9 to ban the United States from torturing prisoners and detainees to please let the CIA do it instead. He joins Allard the Torturer and the Torturer in Chief in opposing a simple American value: We don't torture people.

His rationale: The President may need to use torture to extract information to prevent a terrorist attack. His rationale is false. Under torture, the tortured will say anything to stop the pain. There is no intelligence gained from torture. Apparently the Administration attaches great importance to the ability to sidestep the Constitution, the Judiciary branch of the Government and the American values they claim to espouse. As poster children for the Republican party, Bush and Cheney exemplify their values, or at least the values of the party's radical right wing.

Now that there seems to be an audit trail leading from Lindy England to Dick Cheney, I'm not surprised that the VP of Torture and Indefinite Incarceration would ask the Senate to legalize what he's already done. Ninety to nine the Senate said no, Allard the Torture being one of the whips-and-chains crowd, or is that dobermans and stress positions. Bush, exemplifying Radical Republican values, has promised to veto the measure to prohibit torture. Cheney is asking for an exemption for the CIA. Now here's a thought: Exempt the CIA from the ban on torture, then render all prisoners taken to the CIA. Think that might have gone through the Torturer's mind? Now the exemption would have to be approved by the President. How hard do you think Dick would have to beg to get the Torturer in Chief to let him trot out the black leather? All actions taken would have to be in accordance with the Constitution, Federal law and treaty obligation. We've seen the Torturer in Chief's desire to follow that established precedent, law and values. Let's just say I'm pretty sure the Torturer in Chief would demonstrate the same integrity as he did in the run-up to war in Iraq, the same respect for the Constitution that has him still holding prisoners in Guantanamo without trial despite the Supreme Court's order to give them access to the U. S. courts and the promise to fire anyone involved in Plamegate.

Allard, Cheny, Bush, et al simply don't want to be hampered in their power. In that, they exemplify the Republican values that got them where they are. John McCain seems to be the exception in this respect, perhaps because he remembers being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison for five years. Cheney wants an out, a way of justifying what it seems he's already done, approving the use of torture to extract information. I only hope the puppet House of Representatives can find the integrity to represent America on this and approve anti-torture language of its own, one that doesn't offer Cheney and the CIA a way to evade the basic American value, we do not torture people.