I read a great post yesterday evening by a student who stood up where former AG John Ashcroft was speaking and asked some uncomfortable questions. Ashcroft played some rather transparent and stupid games, weaseled, and went on to the next question. Elsinora has since updated the post with photos of the event showing that the students were not going to listen passively to someone involved in torture. [Check it out by clicking above.]Today dday follows up on that exchange with a bit of research and some uncomfortable facts (for Ashcroft and the other principals in the White House torture deliberations) to go with the uncomfortable questions posed by students. I love the title of dday's post, a great honor to the students at Knox: "The First Salvo In The Next Nuremberg."
Ashcroft attempted to take refuge in the "reservations and qualifiers" of the US Senate in ratifying the UN Convention Against Torture. Dday demonstrates that a simple reading of those reservations and qualifiers offers no such refuge. Waterboarding clearly falls within any understanding of torture, including those the Unites States has already defined. What may be a "no brainer" for Dick Cheney is torture in the eyes of US law, international law, and the world community.
Dday's conclusion:
Well, if Ashcroft thinks he can bully an international criminal court the way he tried to bully a few college students last night, he's going to come off looking just as foolish. Because Ashcroft had the foresight to say "History will not judge us kindly" during the Principals meetings on torture, some have made the effort to rehabilitate him to a degree. I think we can end that now. He's guilty and he knows it, that's why his arguments were so very shallow. A court of law would convict in a matter of minutes.From your keyboard to God's eyes, dday.
--the BB
