Wednesday, October 10, 2012

A vote for Romney is a vote for torture

By Michael J.W. Stickings

 Yes, Romney, who channels Dick Cheney on this one, wants to return America to the barbarism and brutality of the George W. Bush years, embracing a policy that every civilized country has rejected -- including America under Barack Obama.

From the Times:
In one of his first acts, President Obama issued an executive order restricting interrogators to a list of nonabusive tactics approved in the Army Field Manual. Even as he embraced a hawkish approach to other counterterrorism issues — like drone strikes, military commissions, indefinite detention and the Patriot Act — Mr. Obama has stuck to that strict no-torture policy.

By contrast, Mr. Romney's advisers have privately urged him to "rescind and replace President Obama's executive order" and permit secret "enhanced interrogation techniques against high-value detainees that are safe, legal and effective in generating intelligence to save American lives," according to an internal Romney campaign memorandum.

While the memo is a policy proposal drafted by Mr. Romney's advisers in September 2011, and not a final decision by him, its detailed analysis dovetails with his rare and limited public comments about interrogation.

"We'll use enhanced interrogation techniques which go beyond those that are in the military handbook right now," he said at a news conference in Charleston, S.C., in December. 

Remember this when you vote.

Labels: , , ,

posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 4:00 PM

Bookmark and Share

2 Comments:

  • Yes, but that was the old Romney. I'm sure at the last debate Romney will explain that his policy on interrogation is to give suspects kittens. And he has always been at war with Eurasia.

    I suspect this won't get much traction because sadly, most Americans don't seem to care about torture.

    By Anonymous Frankly Curious, at 4:47 PM  

  • No, but it should serve as a reminder to those who think that Obama and Romney are essentially the same that in fact there are significant differences between the two. And that this election matters.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 1:30 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home