Liar, Liar

The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883)
Enrico Mazzanti, illustrator

Liar, liar, pants on fire
Your nose is longer than a telephone wire
--Liar, Liar, The Castaways

Pinocchio: What's happened? [upon seeing his nose]
The Blue Fairy: Perhaps you haven't been telling the truth, Pinocchio.
Jiminy Cricket: Perhaps?
--Pinocchio (1940)

I am a law only for my kind. I am no law for all.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
_________

Sweet patootie. Our Supreme Leader spoke at a press conference Friday, and we learn from the horse's mouth (?) that this administration's detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects are legal (Bush says U.S. "Does not Torture"). Thus spake The W.

Well, that's a relief. Ranger had erroneously assumed that extralegal renditions, denial of habeas corpus, waterboarding, sensory deprivation, extended solitary confinement and unending incarceration were not written in a legal framework.

"When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we're going to detain them, and you bet we're going to question them," he said during a hastily called Oval Office appearance. "The American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That's our job."

So American justice has devolved to this--if you might have information, you will be whisked away to secret locations and have your nuts put in a wringer.

As an American, I do in fact expect my country to protect me, but this does not mean the president may function as a military dictator and use the Constitution as toilet paper..

Further, GWB said, "We stick to U.S. law and international obligations." How can he even utter these words, having shamelessly circumvented the Geneva Convention on several accounts, a document to which we were once a proud signatory?

The Washington Post reported Homeland Security Adviser toady Frances Frago Townsend echoed GWB's words yesterday in a CNN interview. "If Americans are killed because we failed to do the hard things, the American people would have the absolute right to ask us why," Townsend said. Of course, what she fails to understand is that the "hard thing" seems to be upholding the rule of law.

"Speaking emphatically, the president noted that 'highly trained professionals' conduct any questioning. 'And by the way,' he said, 'we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you.'"

Of course, these highly trained professionals are former KGB types--Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian secret police sorts adept at torture. It should be a federal statute that U.S.-held prisoners cannot be interrogated by anyone other than U.S. assets and on U.S. soil.

"He also said the techniques used by the United States 'have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress' — an indirect slap at the torrent of criticism that has flowed from the Democratic-controlled Congress since the disclosure of the memos."

The "appropriate members" being a few fawning sycophants. That a few Republican members of Congress were briefed does not confer legality on these sleazy, illegal activities. Possibly the briefed members of Congress can be charged in war crimes tribunals for complicity and accessory after the fact.

The unclassified facts available to the taxpayers contradict every words that drops out of Bush's mouth.

Liar. liar, pants on fire.