Legal Commentary

Waterboarding Is a War Crime

By Big Tent Democrat

Meteor Blades correctly pointed out that former Vice President Dick Cheney confessed to a war crime when he said "I was a big supporter of waterboarding." As I have written earlier, you can argue that we should be committing war crimes against suspected terrorists, but you can not deny that Dick Cheney has confessed to a war crime. Unless you are the AP's Ron Fournier. Meteor Blades details Fournier's inability to report fats. Fournier wrote "Whatever one might think of Cheney's interrogation policies, the former vice president has never been charged with a war crime, much less confessed to one."

Actually, whatever one might think of Cheney's interrogation policies, which included waterboarding, the one fact that is clear is that Cheny confessed to a war crime when he stated his role in the adoption of waterboarding as US policy. Because Cheney has not (and will not) be charged with committing war crimes, does not mean he has not confessed to them. Stalin was never charged with war crimes either. Does anyone doubt he committed them? Perhaps Ron Fournier.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 22, 2010 (boomark / email).