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Addington, Cheney and Torture Andrew Sullivan | November 4 2005 ADDINGTON, CHENEY AND TORTURE: Dick Cheney's new Scooter Libby, David Addington, is, as one would expect, a big believer in the military's right to abuse detainees. In the aftermath of the abuse scandals, many in the Pentagon want the U.S. to return to the fold of civilized countries, and its own history, and stop the policy. The same goes for many, many people in the CIA. When honorable soldiers and CIA officials see their own agencies being accurately accused of activities that shock the conscience, they are not happy. Nor are critical allies of the U.S. in the war on terror. But all these voices have been railroaded by the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal. They aren't going to back down now: A central player in the fight over the directive
is David S. Addington, who was the vice president's counsel until he
was named on Monday to succeed I. Lewis Libby Jr. as Mr. Cheney's chief
of staff. According to several officials, Mr. Addington verbally assailed
a Pentagon aide who was called to brief him and Mr. Libby on the draft,
objecting to its use of language drawn from Article 3 of the Geneva
Conventions. Ah, yes. The Geneva Conventions. Remember
them? To put it in their allegedly "vague" language, Cheney's
chief aide believes that the U.S. should legally and as a matter of
policy be free to conduct interrogations that include "cruel treatment
and torture," and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular
murder of all kinds, mutilation, humiliating and degrading treatment."
It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it? |
