Richard Armitage On Torture: I Should Have Resigned From Bush Administration (Video)

Richard Armitage, the second in command at the State Department under President Bush, told Al Jazeera English in an interview to be aired Thursday that had he known then what he knows now about the torture of detainees, the right thing to do would have been to resign.

"I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign," Armitage said in an interview, according to a transcript provided to the Huffington Post.

"Fault Lines" host Avi Lewis pressed Armitage about remaining in the administration. "So when you knew that the administration of which you were a part was departing from the Geneva Conventions and sidelining them, why didn't you quit?"

"In hindsight maybe I should've," said Armitage. "But in those positions you see how many more battles you have. You maybe fool yourself. You say how much worse would X, Y, or Z be if I weren't here trying to do it? So torture is a matter of principle as far as I'm concerned. I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign."

The interview will air at 2:00 a.m. eastern time April 16th, but is available almost nowhere in the United States because cable and satellite providers have declined to work with Al Jazeera English. We'll post video of the interview when it's available.

Read the transcript:

ARMITAGE: We'd lost the discussion about the terminology and the Geneva protections. Did not know, to the best of my knowledge anyone in the Department, that torture was going on.

LEWIS: But you suspected it. You must've.

ARMITAGE: We did know that we lost the terminology question in Geneva. We did know of course because the [International Committee of the Red Cross] would come to see me and Secretary Powell. We certainly knew that they had suspicions.

LEWIS: So when you knew that the administration of which you were a part was departing from the Geneva Conventions and sidelining them, why didn't you quit?

ARMITAGE: In hindsight maybe I should've. But in those positions you see how many more battles you have. You maybe fool yourself. You say how much worse would x, y, or z be if I weren't here trying to do it? So torture is a matter of principle as far as I'm concerned. I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign.

UPDATE: A reader writes in to say he regularly watches AJE live-http://www.livestation.comstreamed at LiveStation.com.

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Comments

[23e45]

09:29 AM on 04/20/2009

He is not only LAIR But A BOLD FACE LAIR........ And He should be tried for for his crimes. All Personnel that are employed in these type of positions know exactly what they can do and what they cannot do. They know the law. To have a lawyer confir that something is legal when in fact its is Illegal and to have other people or another persons to act upon that advice is itself also a crime. It is also a crime to know about a crime that is either ongoing or has been commited and that person or persons not tring to stop it.

Yes I am sure there are those lawyers and persons that will argue against the point I am making, But so are the opinions and advice the attornies gave the Ex-President and his Staff about how legal it is to torture. Ahh Oh I forgot those lawyers are those lawyers give the opinion that waterboarding was not torture.. Hmmm I wonder why we excuted the Japanese when they were convicted of waterboarding our service perosnnel after WWII.
I guess its alright for Us to do it, but heaven help them if they to the same to us.....

[ajax2]

10:00 PM on 04/19/2009

Those trying to paint Armitage as neutral, not involved, and not a neo conservative are very lose with the truth.

Armitage has been a life long neo-con, a signer of the PNAC manifesto and more.
"Armitage, considered to be a conservative "neo con" (neo-conservative), is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[1] He is one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century PNAC letter to President William Jefferson Clinton.[2] He is also a former board member for CACI International, the private military contractor, which "is being investigated by no less than 5 US agencies for possible contract violations" and "employed four interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison" in Iraq, one of whom was singled out by General Taguba in his report on abuses of Iraqi detainees at the prison..."

[RTIII]

11:46 AM on 04/17/2009

"I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign," Armitage said in an interview, according to a transcript provided to the Huffington Post.

"Fault Lines" host Avi Lewis pressed Armitage about remaining in the administration. "So when you knew that the administration of which you were a part was departing from the Geneva Conventions and sidelining them, why didn't you quit?"

"In hindsight maybe I should've,"

NOTE: Here in these lines he admits he knew though he tries to suggest he didn't. Catch the specific: "in hidsight maybe I should've". That line alone is admission of guilt, that he knew. Note the question, exactly, "So _when_you_knew_ ..." (emphasis added) is a part of the specific question he's answering. AND HE DID NOT RESIGN...

These, my friends, are what we call Crocodile Tears he's crying now - now that the footnotes are making it clear they knew they were torturing...
.

[joycehelene]

07:27 PM on 04/16/2009

Well you should have!!

[ObamAtomic]

05:55 PM on 04/16/2009

ARMITAGE: In hindsight maybe I should've. But in those positions you see how many more battles you have. You maybe fool yourself. You say how much worse would x, y, or z be if I weren't here trying to do it? So torture is a matter of principle as far as I'm concerned. I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign.

Armitage ,.R. Hess bring any memory? Time to made peace?
Your statement almost similar!

[springsm]

04:59 PM on 04/16/2009

Coulda, shoulda, woulda....the thing is Mr. Armitage...You DIDN'T...End of story. Bye bye.

[OkieIntellectual]

04:38 PM on 04/16/2009

I heard a story once about George Washington issuing an order that all British prisoners were to be treated well, to have advquite food, clothing, and shelter, and under no circimstances were they to be abused. Apparently the Britis were very harsh with their POWs and torture was common. Washington was adamant about NOT treating them as they treated us, about treating them with respect as human beings. That is a founding principal of our nation. We don't always meet that standard unfortunately, but that is part of being human. We fail as individuals and we fail as groups. However, it is our system and more importantly the ideals that it is founded on that serves to remind us of the path we should be on WHEN we fail..

America is not just a place, but an idea, and it has to be a powerful one for this nation to survive. We don't have a common heratige to rely on. We don't have thousands of years of history like most of the rest of the world. All we have are the hopes and dreams that bind us together as a nation. All we have is the idea of what we WANT to be, and hopefully the strength and courage to make that idea our reality.

[fedupwiththis]

04:43 PM on 04/16/2009

Well said. Well said indeed.

[zukervati]

04:25 PM on 04/16/2009

Yup, hind sight is ALWAYS twenty-twenty! Could'a, should'a, would'a - regret, most highly preventable emotional distress; all you have to do is to do the right thing.

[AnthonyVolpe]

02:37 PM on 04/16/2009

Could be worse. He could be a Fox News commentator now. At least he's got some guilt.

[Bruupo]

03:25 PM on 04/16/2009

That's not guilt.

Armitage is and was a Neocon tool, put under Powell to help keep him in line. There is a reason he tried to take the "Plame blame", and became a winger talking point during that debacle, only to have everyone eventually find out just how concerted the effort was between Cheney, Rove, and Libby, and how little it had to do with Armitage.

I haven't seen him express "guilt" for that.

[Amunaka]

02:11 PM on 04/16/2009

Ya,,,right.....


Richard L. Armitage

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKarmitage.htm

[sammyscout]

02:11 PM on 04/16/2009

Colin knew so did you

Too little too late

You want your cake and eat it too, now that the power high has gone, you want to switch sides.

If you're really sorry, lets hear the inside story at a congressional hearing

[garymc8]

01:08 PM on 04/16/2009

As more of their crimes become public knowledge the rats are starting to run from the sinking ship of the bush crime family. They figure if they squeal before bush gets indicted they will be innocent. NOT

[tompoe]

01:00 PM on 04/16/2009

Substitute war crimes for torture, reread the article, and then barf.

[Didactic Curveball]

12:29 PM on 04/16/2009

Let's not miss the trees for the forest. Yes, undoubtedly he should have spoken out before now and resigned in protest during the Bush Administration. That would have certainly been preferable to him speaking out now. But it is good to have someone that high up in the Bush Administration speaking out about the illegal, immoral and failed policies of that Administration, regardless of the timing or the possible personal motivations behind doing so.

[kathy001]

12:22 PM on 04/16/2009

Something I wish all people in Armitage's position would remember is, if he had had the courage to stand up for his principles and resign, he might have inspired others to do the same. If people like Armitage had resigned and given their reasons publicly, the issue of torture might have had a far different outcome.

Asking for forgiveness after standing by and allowing something this horrible to happen is just cowardly.

[MNinWI]

12:30 PM on 04/16/2009

You're assuming he has principles-he does not.

[kathy001]

01:17 PM on 04/16/2009

You're right. My bad.