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October 18, 2006
Stop the presses! Clinton gets a pass from the media on torture
Alan Dershowtiz, no liberal's idea of a neo-con, notes that he was pilloried (not Hillaried) for suggesting that torture might be justified under certain circumstances, while Bill Clinton favors a more permissive use of the tactics -- and gets no criticism.
I proposed that the president or a federal judge would have to take personal responsibility for ordering its use in extraordinary situations.
For suggesting this approach to the terrible choice of evils between torture and terrorism, I was condemned as a moral monster, labeled an advocate of torture, and called a Torquemada.
Now I see that President Clinton has offered a similar proposal. In a recent interview on National Public Radio, Mr. Clinton was asked, as someone "who's been there," whether the president needs "the option of authorizing torture in an extreme case."
This is what he said in response: "Look, if the president needed an option, there's all sorts of things they can do.Let's take the best case, OK.You picked up someone you know is the No. 2 aide to Osama bin Laden. And you know they have an operation planned for the United States or some European capital in the next three days. And you know this guy knows it. Right, that's the clearest example. And you think you can only get it out of this guy by shooting him full of some drugs or water-boarding him or otherwise working him over. If they really believed that that scenario is likely to occur, let them come forward with an alternate proposal.
"We have a system of laws here where nobody should be above the law, and you don't need blanket advance approval for blanket torture.They can draw a statute much more narrowly, which would permit the president to make a finding in a case like I just outlined, and then that finding could be submitted even if after the fact to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."
[...]
It is surprising that this interview with the former president has received so little attention from those who were so quick to jump all over me. Mr. Clinton goes even further than I did. He would, in extreme cases, authorize the granting of a warrant "post facto" by a specialized court, as is now the case with national security wiretaps. What I proposed is that the warrant authorization be issued before the use of extreme measures is permitted. A preliminary warrant could be issued in a manner of minutes, to be followed up by a more thorough, after-the-fact evaluation and review.
As Captain Ed notes, "Welcome to the club." And the Captain also points out that Hillary Clinton voted against the recent legislation authorizing treatment less severe than that lauded by her husband.
The Media coddles Slick Willie? Color me shocked.
Posted by Mike Lief at October 18, 2006 07:40 AM