Holder: Waterboarding is Torture

In his senate hearing today, Eric Holder, nominee for Attorney General, was clear and unequivocal on: waterboarding, the geneva conventions and unlimited commander-in-chief powers.



The end is key: the president acts most forcefully and powerfully when his actions are consistent with "congressional intent". One of the Bush administration's worst elements was its use of signing statements to broadly interpret the laws Congress passed to its liking and ignore what Congress intended if they thought it went against Bush's commander-in-chief powers -- powers that the administration itself defined as nearly limitless. A sad, tragic chapter in U.S. history is ending. Yeah, baby!

Panetta On Torture

From an article he wrote for the Washington Monthly early in 2008.

Those who support torture may believe that we can abuse captives in certain select circumstances and still be true to our values. But that is a false compromise. We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don't. There is no middle ground.

We cannot and we must not use torture under any circumstances. We are better than that.

We still need to see how he answers specific questions now that he'll have actual responsibility over gathering intelligence. Skepticism should be maintain, always, and in the end, nothing really counts more than action -- we've seen a lot of honorable talk in the past. But still, I think things are looking up.

The Hits Keep Coming: Panetta at CIA

Leon Panetta gets named to head the CIA. It concerns me a little that he has no hands on intelligence experience, and there seems to be little actual information on his intelligence opinions, but he is someone who had nothing to do with the intelligence policies of Bush-land and so represents a clean break. Connections to things like wiretapping and torture were the kind of thing that sunk Obama's first choice, John Brennan. On top of the Johnson pick at OLC, it's like icing on the cake. As Andrew Sullivan notes, and I echo (with realistic hope): This is a good day for America's soul.

"America Doesn't Torture"

Watching tonight's episode of 60 Minutes, Obama just said that closing Guantanamo and ending a policy of torture will be one of his top priorities once he's in office. I still hold back judgement until we see some actual results, but it's the most clear and definitive statement I've seen him make. I'm feeling hopeful that this awful, terrible policy might come to an end.

(Countering this is the rumor that the future head of the CIA may be John Brennan, former director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, has been a supporter of rendition and "coercive interrogation. We shall see where Obama's beliefs really lie.)