Gingrich Condemned Torture In '97: Violates The "Foundation Of American Values"

One of the more difficult rows to hoe in the ongoing debate over detainee treatment has been the insistence by some conservatives, against countervailing evidence, that these measures not only aren't torture but actually work.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has led the charge, requesting that two specific memos be released showing valuable evidence from detainees who buckled during waterboarding. But outside of the administration as well, various officials who were once absolutists when it came to denouncing torture or humanitarian abuses now find themselves dealing in vagaries when discussing conduct by former Bush officials.

See, for example, these quotes from Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker of the House and reliable GOP presidential flirt would not definitively define waterboarding as torture during a Friday appearance on Fox News.

VAN SUSTEREN: But you said a minute ago that it was torture, waterboarding...

GINGRICH: No, I said it's not something we should do.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Is it torture or not?

GINGRICH: I -- I -- I think it's -- I can't tell you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Does it violate the Geneva Convention?

GINGRICH: I honestly don't know.

Several weeks ago, meanwhile, he insisted that President Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and put an end to interrogation policies had made the United States less safe.

When he was in office, however, Gingrich took one of strongest public postures against detainee abuse, political imprisonment and, yes, torture. A reader sends over the statement Gingrich issued following then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to the United States, in which he insisted that there was "no place for torture and arbitrary detention," describing such acts as contrary to "the foundation of American values."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 30, 1997

SPEAKER'S STATEMENT ON VISIT OF PRESIDENT JIANG
Washington, D.C. -- House Speaker Newt Gingrich released the following statement today following his meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

"As I said in China this spring, there is no place for abuse in what must be considered the family of man. There is no place for torture and arbitrary detention. There is no place for forced confessions. There is no place for intolerance of dissent." "While we walked through the Rotunda. I explained to President Jiang how the roots of American rule of law go back more than 700 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta. The foundation of American values, therefore, is not a passing priority or a temporary trend.

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Comments

[Emerald1943]

09:54 AM on 04/29/2009

No story here, folks! Newt has been talking out of both sides of his mouth for many years!

[ibsteve2u]

04:35 PM on 04/28/2009

Torture "violates American values" is true, but what is also true is that all moral, ethical, and patriotic considerations come to a screeching halt right at the edge of the modern Republican's wallet.

[Mrphd2b]

10:40 AM on 04/28/2009

The evil day: In the eyes of New Testament writers and the earliest commentators of the church the present age is not only being ultimately shaped by the power of God (Matt. 28:18) but also by continuing the remnants of the powers of evil (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4). Although the powers of darkness ultimate defeat has already occurred on the cross and begun in human hearts (Eph. 5:13-16; 6:12-16; 2 Tim. 3:12, 13), the present age of evil (cf. Eph. 5:16, "days are evil") which Christ was sent to reconcile with God is to remain an age of sin, continuing until the finals days. This contrast of the church in the world but not of the world, of the present evil and the peace to come was picked up by the early church in the unity of the church in combat and in victory. (This age and the age to come; cf. Eph. 2:7: The church as it lives in this age looks forward to the age of future consummation. Though the saved exist in this age, they are born from above as new creatures at the moment of their salvation. For believers, now is the dawn of a new age for them while they live in an age that is yet to end (notice the "both/and" position of believers).

[elzohoor]

10:23 PM on 04/28/2009

What does this have to do with torture?

Your biblical quotes are confusing... you need to improve your writing skills if you want someone to understand what you're trying to say.

[labman]

10:39 AM on 04/28/2009

He flipped and then flopped. If he's not careful, he may end up looking like a pinwheel

[ChumpChicken]

10:23 AM on 04/28/2009

BUSTED !!

[stondem]

09:53 AM on 04/28/2009

No different than Pelosi's response.

[ccsammy]

08:41 AM on 04/28/2009

Gingrich is a mixed up aold fool,he has been around so long he even dont rememer what he said over the yrs.He screwed up th USA in 1990 as speaker ,lets not let him do it again ,just let him tLK HE LOVES TO HEAR HIMSELF EVEN gop PEOLE DONT LKIE HIM

[dwright]

08:15 AM on 04/28/2009

Newt was against torture before he was for it, he was against it and now he doesn't know where he stands. Hmmm sounds like a typical right wing nut to me. He needs to find out how Rush feels before he takes a position.

[CanUFeel2012]

04:58 AM on 04/28/2009

HOW IGNORANT DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO SAY, THERE IS NO PLACE FOR TORTURE AND ARBITRARY DETENTION. THERE IS NO PLACE FOR FORCED CONFESSIONS ECT. THEN TURN AROUND AND SAY THE TOTAL OPPOSITE.....W-T-F......???? I MEAN, HOW HE COULD LIVE WITH SUCH DENIAL IS AMAZING. SPECIALLY WHEN EVERYONE AND THEIR GRAMMA KNOWS WHAT HE SAID.......

[jlab]

06:33 AM on 04/28/2009

YOU'RE EXACTLY RIGHT. Now, if you could please stop YELLING, that would be WONDERFUL!

[CanUFeel2012]

06:58 AM on 04/28/2009

NOT YELLING , JUST LIKE THE LOOK.......GOES WITH PIC IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED....

[Rog49Thomas]

08:13 AM on 04/28/2009

He didn't complain about torture, he complained about it when the Red Chinese do it.

As is well known, we don't torture.
We also don't
- discriminate against people of color.
- persecute people with different lifestyles.
- denigrate people whose religion differs from our own.

[loki]

03:55 AM on 04/28/2009

why does anyone even care what this newt says? He was booted out of congress because of illegal and unethical acts. He is for all purposes a criminal. Sure, that makes him a hero for the Republicans, but whey does anyone else even care?

[David Meller]

08:34 AM on 04/28/2009

Hows about, because he's positioning himself (yet again) to retake the mantle of the leader of Conservatism and run to be your President. Is that a good enough reason?

[afgail]

01:33 AM on 04/28/2009

It was Newt who decreed that lying was okay so long as you believed in the cause. The cause being Republicans gaining, keeping and defending their power. All Republicans are steeped in this credo of Republican "principles" since the 1980's. It makes for a very illusory definition of values as we see in his ever shifting position on torture or any other topic of governance.

[Rog49Thomas]

12:39 AM on 04/28/2009

Sam you missed the point of this debate.

The proponents of torture in this country abhor it when it is practiced by our enemies - both real and imagined.

When we do it, is course it is not torture. And even if by some application of consistent logic and morals might be torture, it would be OK because we're doing the Lord's work and preserving our imagined way of life.

Many great minds of both the left and right have wrestled with this issue and come up with similar views. Sadly though they can't agree among themselves on a single group which is the "Party of God" or "Party of History".

You could look it up. It's very cogently explained in Trotsky's "Our Morals and Theirs".

[LateDave]

10:15 AM on 04/28/2009

Rog,

I agree with most of your observation, and particularly appreciate the Trotsky reference. However, there is an unstated subtext to the Newt's words circa 1997.

Good-hearted, lusty Ol' Bill was still grimly hanging on in the White House, and the Pubicans had just seized control of Congress as part of their Contract On America. In snarling at a PRC chief--implying with no subtlety that he was the leader of a brutal dictatorship, which was as true then as now--Newt was making Bill's job as the U.S.' leader in foreign policy harder.

It is no shock that Newt was ignoring the "politics stops at the water's edge" truism that would be thrown in Obama's face a decade later. That is no worse than typical for Newt, or Publicans in general at any time since Nixon executed the Southern Strategy.

What we need around here is a sense of history. I do not wish to be doomed to repeat it, either as tragedy or as farce.

[Rog49Thomas]

01:51 PM on 04/28/2009

My reading of US political history is that when a party is out of the White House, it advocates a foreign policy towards the PRC which it does not practice when it gets into power.

The reality is of course that one does not "disrespect" one's banker (at least to his face) and one does not bite the hand that lends money.

I think just about any American politician - regardless of political leaning - would make such a statement,.. And no doubt make it believing sincerely that we are morally superior to the Chinese, French or whoever.

There is a profound difference between hypocrisy (making such a statement and knowing that it is not true) and making such a statement and believing it to be true.

To my way of thinking the latter is much sadder.

At least with the hypocrite, there might be a change of heart. There really isn't much that can be done with those who don't recognize reality.

[hamchunk]

12:15 AM on 04/28/2009

One of the main reasons the US adopted torture was the supposed "success" Israel garnered from the process, as sold to our leaders by AIPAC and Israeli government sources.

They have been arguing this since before 9/11.

[Nonpartay]

12:28 AM on 04/28/2009

Israel stopped torturing years ago because it doesn't work and is counterproductive.

[Rog49Thomas]

12:43 AM on 04/28/2009

Glad to hear it.

However, can you explain this news item from earlier this year. Note all the groups cited are Israeli.

January 28 in a protest letter to Israeli Military Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General Mandelblit.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, B’tselem, Hamoked: Centre for the Defence of the Individual, Physicians for Human Rights, Yesh Din and Adalah demanded an inquiry into the “extreme violence and humiliation [of Palestinian detainees] by soldiers and interrogators” during Israel’s 22-day offensive against Gaza. The maltreated detainees included minors as well as adults.
The statement cited evidence revealing a “shocking portrayal” of prisoner mistreatment including blindfolding, brutal violence, lengthy exposure to extreme cold and hot weather in underground pits and deprivation of food and sanitation. Even once admitted into an Israel Defence Force (IDF) prison, access to toilets and showers was not provided.

[ThankGodhesgone]

01:17 AM on 04/28/2009

Actually, Georgie saw that it worked for Jack Bauer on 24. Why just a jab with a knife to the eyeball always elicited confessions and information.

[Rog49Thomas]

08:08 AM on 04/28/2009

I would like to point out one incontrovertible fact.

Since Jack Bauer has been defending on nation on the Fox Network, not a single successful terrorist attack on the USA homeland has occured - though there have been many on TV I will admit.

And to boot, no comets or asteroids have struck this planet and ended life as we imagine it.

Who says torture doesn't work?

[blaising]

11:57 PM on 04/27/2009

So? That was way back in '97. This story has no legs.

[emily00011]

03:04 AM on 04/28/2009

"I explained to President Jiang how the roots of American rule of law go back more than 700 years, to the signing of the Magna Carta. The foundation of American values, therefore, is not a passing priority or a temporary trend."

or was this opposition really just a temporary trend then?? He sold his soul already, so no need to defend him.

[David Meller]

08:37 AM on 04/28/2009

Oh...so because it was a whole 12 years ago it doesn't matter. How does that work? This is direct contradiction of his own words. For a politician, this is often the ONLY lever by which they can be called on the carpet...

[helonias]

10:56 PM on 04/27/2009

Newt I thought you found Jesus

How does a christian nation torture other human beings

[Cunningham]

11:05 PM on 04/27/2009

Newt just became a Catholic. He probably loves that part of the Catholic Church's history... the Inquisition.

[Rog49Thomas]

12:45 AM on 04/28/2009

It all depends on how one sees the Divinity.

For some folks, Jesus is Rambo. Or perhaps more precisely Rambo is Jesus.