by John Nichols (The Nation )
The Constitution of the United States is absolutely clear when it comes to matters of torture.
Amendment 8 specifically states that,”Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Acts of torture are by definition and common understanding — certainly at the time of the drafting of the nation’s essential document and arguably even in this less-enlightened era — cruel and unusual punishments
Vice President Dick Cheney, when he assumed the second most powerful office in the land after the disputed election of 2000, swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
Any reasonable reader of that oath would conclude that Cheney bound himself to abide by the Constitution — and thus to avoid any involvement with the promotion of acts of torture upon detainees of the United States government.
Yet we now know from revelations made by former senior intelligence officials to ABC News and the Associated Press that Cheney and other members of the administration — who apparently took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods were discussed — authorized the use of waterboarding and other generally recognized torture techniques.
There is no question that Cheney violated his oath of office, which bound him to support and defend a Constitution that he disregarded.
The question is: How will responsible Americans respond?
The power to hold Cheney to account rests with Congress.
The power to get Congress to act rests with the American people.
Nichols ends his piece by sending you to this website to sign on to the letter to “Restore The Rule Of Law“.
This is a letter written by:
George McGovern, Ralph Nader, Robert A. Feuer, Rocky Anderson, Blase Bonpane, Theresa Bonpane, Ramsey Clark, Mimi Kennedy, Andy Jacobs, Jr., James Abourezk, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Paul Findley, Kevin Zeese, John Nichols, Tim Carpenter, Marcus Raskin, Jonathan Kozol, Harry Belafonte
PLEASE SIGN IT!
5 Comments
April 13, 2008 at 10:08 am
caption:
So?
April 13, 2008 at 10:48 am
I can’t stand that snearing evil face….Barf time..~Blessings~
April 13, 2008 at 11:05 am
Caption: “I don’t think you can be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls, or by petty little things like the law and the constitution.”
April 13, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Signed! Thanks for the link.
Gah! That underbite that would make an English Bulldog pea-green w/envy….it’s making me quite nauseous, too!
Elspeth
April 15, 2008 at 9:39 pm
[...] to The Zoo for bringing it [...]