USAF Brig. General OKs Torture Evidence

If you're thinking that's a joke shock title, it is not. The character in this little morality play is USAF Brig. Gen. Thomas A Hartman, the guy who prompted the resignation of USAF Col. David Morris as lead prosecutor. In answer to Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CS) he answered that the use of evidence obtained from waterboarding if that " evidence is reliable and probative, and the judge concludes that it is in the best interest of justice to introduce that evidence, ma'am, those are the rules we will follow."

You do understand that a hacked up body in your living room is not evidence in your murder trial if the police found it with an improper search. But this jerkoff, a military officer sworn to uphold the Constitution, proposes to use "evidence" obtained through torture. The exact kind of torture that US soldiers were prosecuted for using in the Philippines and Japanese officers were prosecuted for after WWII. If you can understand this, he claims to not know if waterboarding is torture. When did they stop teaching military history in Academies?

What did Col Davis have to say to the Senate? The WaPo tells you all about it:

Hartmann's testimony conflicted with the views of the former military commissions chief prosecutor, who resigned in October after concluding that the process had become too politicized. In recent interviews, Air Force Col. Morris Davis said he categorically rejected the idea of using any evidence derived from waterboarding because he believes that the technique produces unreliable information. Davis was invited to testify at yesterday's hearing, but the Defense Department ordered him not to attend.

Why would the Defense Dept be so ashamed of their former lead prosecutor? "In my opinion, evidence derived by waterboarding is not reliable, and I took it off the table," Davis said. "I think the vast majority of people were relieved. By and large, most everybody involved in the process, the whole team, was really committed to trying to do this in a way that wasn't an embarrassment to the country."

We have turned into a nation of savages, the rule of law and simple ethics no longer stand in the face of our fear. We have let the neo-cons and the fear mongers of BushCo turn us into the very thing they claim to oppose. Which young American soldier will die in a foreign country in the name of these people's principles? This garbage has been spoken of openly in the US Congress, the law makers of the United States - I could just puke.