Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

FOX NEWS' SHEPARD SMITH DENOUNCES BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S USE OF TORTURE


It is not just liberals/Democrats who are enraged over the Bush administration's breaking the law and using torture on prisoners. Shepard Smith works for Fox News, not exactly a bastion of liberal thought. Here is what The Huffington Post is reporting:


Fox News viewers witnessed a rather incredible scene on Wednesday as anchor Shepard Smith and Fox contributor Judith Miller (of CIA leak infamy) repeatedly and passionately condemned torture, with Smith declaring at one point, "We are America, we don't torture! And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train! This government is of, by, and for the people -- that means it's mine. That means -- I'm not saying what is torture, and what is not torture, but I'm saying, whatever it is, you don't do it for me! I want off the train when the government starts -- I want off, next stop, now!"


The full segment is worth a watch. And Smith felt strongly enough about the issue to speak out about it again as he was heading into commercial break.

"They better not do it," he said. "If we are going to be Ronald Reagan's Shining City on the Hill, we don't get to torture. We don't do it." Fade to black.


On FoxNews.com's online show The Strategy Room, Smith took his opposition to a whole other level. "We are America!" he shouted, slamming his hand on the table. "I don't give a rat's ass if it helps. We are AMERICA! We do not fucking torture!!"


21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can we trade Joe Scarborough for him?

Dave Miller said...

Probably just a RINO. You know he does not speak for the real red blooded members of the Grand Old Party!

It's people like him that cause America to be weak.

LOL

Arthurstone said...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/hannity-offers-to-be-wate_n_190354.html

Torture, shmorture.

TAO said...

I believe Fox has a new reality series on their hands:

Waterboarding a Fox News Commentator!

Give them a prime time slot and then have viewers devise a new torture everyweek for Hannity, O'Reilly, and Beck...

those ratings would go through the roof!

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

I never had a problem with Shep Smith. He always seemed pretty rational. My worry now is when he will be forced to grovel in front of Rush Limbaugh for not towing the FOX Rushpublican line.

Christopher said...

I don't watch FIXED Noise, so I will take your word for it and I say, good for whoever this person is on Rupert's network.

We don't torture -- in principle but in reality, we tortured throughout the long, horrible years Bush and Cheney were loitering in the White House.

Unfortunately, Obama is in a legal and ethical box as a result of essentially pardoning the CIA thugs who tortured in Irag, Bulgaria and GITMO. It isn't enough to say, "they were following orders." This does not hold up to scrutiny as an excuse.

If this is the legal standard Mr. Obama is applying, then, I argue he needs to immediately issue a pardon to those military personnel serving 5 and 10 year prison terms for torturing at Abu Ghraib because they too, were "following orders."

You see, the law can't mean one thing on Monday and something else on Tuesday. It must be applied equally and fairly to everyone.

Elizabeth said...

As much as I despise what LA represents, Illegal immigrants, Hollywood, etc..., It is still part of America and therefore must be protected. Water-boarding to save Innocent American live is acceptable, to save even Hollywood I'd have to say OK, but with reluctance seeing as they seem to hate the rest of us so much. Maybe a strike at Hollywood would knock some sense into their self-absorbed little pea brains, but too many innocent people would be hurt also. I say water board away and a whole lot more if need be

When has he ever looked strong to anybody with their eyes open? The only foes he's been ready to really take on are infant children who double-crossed the abortionist by surviving the procedure.

He's had his butt kissed his entire life, with no accomplishments other than his skin color

Shaw Kenawe said...

Elizabeth,

You didn't identify who "he" is.

Apparently you believe in breaking the law and acting like the thugs and criminals who attacked us.

That's wholly and fundamentally unAmerican. You don't like our American ideals and values and would have us become like the barbarians who believe in torture?

Glad I don't live near you.

I believe people who like torture are sadistic and hate humanity.

What's hilarious is that you piously talk about defending innocent embryos, while at the same time promoting torture. Too bad you were born too late to enjoy the Inquisition!


Today's GOP: We're for torture and secession![Two illegal positions! You go GOP! The party of felons!]

James' Muse said...

The hypocrisy of the GOP's version of "Pro-Life" is astounding.

It goes something like this:
We want to save embryos. LIFE IS PRECIOUS!!

But once they are out of the womb, we'll send them out to die on ridiculous wars, torture them if they are from those countries we are at war with, and treat them like trash if they are immigrants...
Its amazing how "pro-lifers" are really just "anti-abortionists." As I mentioned before, "pro-life" is more than one issue.

Anonymous said...

People like Elizabeth are either willfully ignorant of our laws or just plain murderously sadistic f**ks.

I bet she tortures kittens when no one's looking.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Shep isn't the only one outraged at a legal procedure for interogating prisoners. Today I saw Nancy Pelosi standing before the cameras telling us all she knew nothing about waterboarding or that the CIA was doing such a thing. She was so believable too with all the eye blinking and looking away from the camera just like the "One" when he's telling us the truth. During her little confab I was so convinced with her story I wrote a check to her legal defense fund because God only knows she's going to have to be defended against knowing about waterboarding according to everyone that was in the room at the time. Ya just never know do ya?

IMHO said...

Shaw said:
"Today's GOP: We're for torture and secession![Two illegal positions! You go GOP! The party of felons!"


Y'all mean like the Obama administration?

Shaw Kenawe said...

IMHO,

Name a felony that the Obama administration has committed.

Like most of the radical right, all you have as an argument is "Neeny! Neeny! Neeny! while you stick out your tongue and run away.

LOL!

J_G

Torture is illegal. You are defending breaking the law.

Only the extreme right supports the idea of this country--Ronald Reagan's "City on the Hill"--acting like lawless barbarians. But I'm not surprised.

And if Nancy Pelosi has done anything illegal, she should be kicked out of Congress.

IMHO said...

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- including the use of waterboarding -- caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles. Don't that mean anything to you?

Shaw Kenawe said...

IMHO,

No it don't.

Please explain how torturing KSM led to the disruption of a terrorist plot the FBI broke up BEFORE KSM was ever captured. The plot to destroy the Library Tower was foiled by the FBI in 2002, and KSM wasn't captured until March, 2003.

Shaw Kenawe said...

IMHO, FYI:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on March 1, 2003 by the Pakistani ISI, possibly in a joint action with agents of the American Diplomatic Security Service, and has been in U.S. custody since that time. In September 2006, the U.S. government announced it had moved Mohammed from a secret prison to the facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Human Rights Watch and he has personally claimed that the American authorities have tortured him, a claim that was supported by information released on February 4, 2008, when it was revealed that he was subjected to the controversial technique of "simulated drowning", also called "waterboarding".

From Wikipedia
In a White House press briefing, Bush's counterterrorism chief, Frances Fragos Townsend, told reporters that the cell leader was arrested in February 2002, and "at that point, the other members of the cell" (later arrested) "believed that the West Coast plot has been canceled, was not going forward" [italics mine].

A subsequent fact sheet released by the Bush White House states, "In 2002, we broke up a plot by KSM to hijack an airplane and fly it into the tallest building on the West Coast."

These two statements make clear that however far the plot to attack the Library Tower ever got—an unnamed senior FBI official would later tell the Los Angeles Times that Bush's characterization of it as a "disrupted plot" was "ludicrous"—that plot was foiled in 2002. But Sheikh Mohammed wasn't captured until March 2003.http://www.slate.com/id/2216601/

Arthurstone said...

Dick Cheney quoting secret documents (we will never, ever lay eyes on) describing foiled plots to attack LA & various other targets stateside it simply not credible. Dick lied in the run up the the invasion. He lied during the occupation and he's lying now.

Let's have investigations into both the run up to the war and the whole torture issue and clear the air once and for all. The US is better than this.

Or so I've been led to believe.

On a lighter note I'm very much looking forward to Sean Hannity's waterboarding. We just need to persuade him to undergo the same regimen as Kalli Sheikh Mohammed.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/138077/what_if_khalid_sheikh_mohammed_had_died/

Shouldn't be a problem as the event will be a charitable function 'for the troops' whatever the f**k that means.

Cheers!

Minstrel Boy said...

YOU do YOUR homework!!..
Waterboarding Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Worked!

http://waterboarding.org/success_story


Not long after his capture in Pakistan, in March 2003, KSM began to talk. He ultimately had so much to say that more than 100 footnoted references to the CIA’s interrogations of KSM are contained in the final report of the commission that investigated Sept. 11. Not that everything KSM said was believable. But much of his information checked out in separate questioning of other captured Al Qaeda figures.

What made KSM decide to talk? The answer is waterboarding, to which KSM was subjected on at least one occasion, according to various accounts.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/how-the-cia-bro.html

Shaw Kenawe said...

Minstrel Boy:

WATERBOARDING IS TORTURE.

GEORGE W. BUSH SAID WE DON'T TORTURE.

TORTURE IS ILLEGAL.

You are advocating breaking the law to get information?

Why stop at waterboarding? Why not stick hot pokers up their anuses? As was done during the Inquisition?



America. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. And we Torture!

Makes a man proud, doesn't it?

Why don't you wear a tee shirt proclaiming your feelings of pride that we're as barbaric as the criminals who attacked us. Then go into a VFW and show the people who fought for this country's best ideals and values your newly found pride in what we've become.

Arthurstone said...

Uh oh.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2007/dec/18/john-mccain/history-supports-mccains-stance-on-waterboarding/

Shaw Kenawe said...

" ... following World War II war crime trials were convened. The Japanese were tried and convicted and hung for war crimes committed against American POWs. Among those charges for which they were convicted was waterboarding."

John McCain on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 in a campaign event in St. Petersburg
HANGED! HANGED! Pictures are HUNG. Bulls are hung. People are HANGED.

I give up.

Thank you, Arthurstone.