Misha Lerner, 4th-Grader, Questions Condoleezza Rice on Waterboarding (VIDEO)

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stirred controversy last week when, under questioning from students at Stanford University, she insisted that the Bush administration had not tortured and claimed, "by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture."

On Sunday, during her first public appearance in Washington since she left office, Rice was questioned again about her involvement in President Bush's torture policy -- this time by fourth-grader Misha Lerner at a Jewish day school. The Washington Post reports:

Misha Lerner, a student from Bethesda, asked: What did Rice think about the things President Obama's administration was saying about the methods the Bush administration had used to get information from detainees?

Rice took the question in stride. saying that she was reluctant to criticize Obama, then getting to the heart of the matter.

"Let me just say that President Bush was very clear that he wanted to do everything he could to protect the country. After September 11, we wanted to protect the country," she said. "But he was also very clear that we would do nothing, nothing, that was against the law or against our obligations internationally. So the president was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country."

Watch:

Misha's mother Inna told the Post that Misha originally planned to ask a tougher question -- "If you would work for Obama's administration, would you push for torture?" -- but he was asked to change it. "They wanted him to soften it and take out the word 'torture.' But the essence of it was the same."

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Comments

[AngieMom57]

Condi Rice: An Act of Contrition is Overdue.

OATH KEEPERS ORDERS WE WILL NOT OBEY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf2K4-BQYAI&eurl=http://www.allamericangold.com/&feature=player_embedded

[spandautoseattle]

20 years ahead, a new generation, CR the Vice President, and the Cheney years will feel like holidays on Hawaaii. Why should anyone only "look forward" if the outlook is so obvious? If not held accountable, Neoconservatism will be back, possibly in an even worse manifestation.
Misha, never quit asking questions.

[thenorthshore]

few things as low as using your child/student for political purposes.

[apduncan1]

Huh?

There is nothing lower than confusing innocence with ignorance.

[ErikW65]

Developing conspiracy theories to avoid cognitive dissonance? That's very upstanding.

[angry expat]

See you in jail, beyotch!

[PhyllisJane]

How can this woman sleep at night?

[lovethesinner]

1.) Bush did not protect American when he intentionally ignored warnings leading up to 9/11 (see August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing and testimony of RICHARD CLARK)

2.) Bush was not seeking to authorize techniques to conform to our treaty obligations, he was attempting to SUBVERT the Geneva Convention. (otherwise, why would he seek these opinions)

3.) It's been documented that Bush and those who sought to use water-boarding KNEW that it produced false confessions. The facts suggest that this authorization was intended to produce a FALSE RATIONALE for INVADING IRAQ.

But this is NOT the heart of the matter (as suggested in the story) nor is it an answer to Misha's question. What he asked was "What do YOU say--former National Security Adviser to former President Bush--to the claims by the current OBAMA administration that the people UNDER YOU who rendered legal opinions on the use of TORTURE "were mistaken" (see last presidential press conference­.)

She didn't answer that question, because she knows the answer. She knows that those lawyers were WRONG. She also knows that answering that question puts her in legal jeopardy.

Good job, Misha.

[apduncan1]

Good point ... you saw through the mist.

[LKV]

They are trying to sensor 4th
gaders to protect criminals. Disgusting! The kid has a bright future to realize at that age that the govermant broke the law and threw out the constitution. There is hope for our future!!
The whole George Bush adm should be tried for war crimes.

[NoSandwiches]

pants on fire, Ms Rice!
I can't believe you would lie to a child.

Well....we are not children, and we shall call you on it.

[indc]

She used a podium to talk to 4th graders... very strange...­.

seems like these kids know more about journalistic responsibilities in a democracy that nearly all of the credentialed press.... but apparently the intellectual neutering began by the school administration assault on clear and appropriate free speech in deference to a former official..­..

[steamboat]

I can't complain about Misha being censored..­......This blog has censored my comments many many times (no cuss words, no threats, etc., either)

[truenortherner]

Well, swearing and threatening cannot (and should not) be put in the same category as calling a spade a spade.
I think it's ludicrous for the powers that be (whether school or not) to censor a child's questions. It shows the fear of the establishment.

[sandan]

Steamboat, Amen to that! I'm a retired US Army officer, and a lifetime Democrat, who never uses profanity but try to use a little common sense, and my comments are usually obliterated.

[jimbeaux1961]

They told a 4th grade class to take it easy on her?! Pitiful.

[Soundofthunder]

Outflanked by a 4th grader. Notice her answer doesn't deviate from how she talks to college students. Rice and all the Bushites talk to people like they are children who just don't get it. We get it, all right. You're all a bunch of condescending criminals.

SOT

[petef59]

I do not think you can find a tape of GW Bush speaking in public in which he uses phrases longer than 6 or 7 words ( like we are children, as you note).

[Southrnbelle]

You've got to hand it to her - she is a bald-faced liar to the very end.

I guess after the Sanford embarassment, she will be limiting her speeches to elementary school children, not so much of a threat. Especially when they are forbidden to use the word 'TORTURE."

Here is a question I have wanted to ask Dr. Rice for years - HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT???????

[dphilip]

..you dems aren't so much anti waterboarding as you are pro radical Islamist..­..there it is..

[macweenie]

Yeah, clever. You Thugs aren't so much Pro-America as you are Anti-American. How's that taste?

[dphilip]

did you hurt yourself on that stretch?

[calvinphoon]

since when does opposing torture automatically mean you're for the enemy?

[dphilip]

My comment isn't based solely on this situation.­..there is a mountain of evidence that backs my statement.­...doesn't your lack of honesty on issues such as this eat a hole in you?......­.yeah, it does.

[Southrnbelle]

Democrats are PRO-HUMANI­TY...THERE it is!!!

[Oonagh]

No, we are against torture because it is wrong... it is not pro anything..­. waterboarding is wrong, torture is wrong and you cannot spin it into anything else.

[Soundofthunder]

Yes, nothing says justice and freedom like breaking 111 year old laws banning the practice of water boarding. Some, like you, when they get scared, they cling to mama's skirt. Other, such as us Democrats and other rational people, we cling to the Constitution. Nothing makes me feel safer than that.

SOT

[dphilip]

I know how to clear all you out of here; ...are the insurgents in Iraq comitting terrorist acts aginst their own people? or an occupied people fighting for their own freedom?

[archtoplee]

That is the reason we have dictionaries so that politicians like Rice and Bush and Cheney can not put their own "spin" on what torture is. The dictionary was designed to keep confusion from words intheir proer context and to clarify thier true meaning.

The "New Speak" of Rice// Bush /Cheney notwithstanding, the former secretary of State would have had a tough go at it had the 4th grader read that definiton out of her dictionary.

Circunstances like doing "everything to protect the country" won't cut it by changing the meaning of torture to something that the Bush team hoped people would accept due to being frightened by 19 hi-jackers with box cutters.

Stealing for example is defined by webster's as" to take or appropriate (another's property, ideas, etc.) without , dishonestly, or unlawfully, especially in a secret or surreptitious manner."

The Rice/ Cheney/ Bush triumverate, not only changed the meaning of the word torture, but they also did so in secret memorandums, (in other words in a conspiracy), and took our trust in them and used it against us in an unlawful manner.

Torture is unlawful. They trying to justify it by telling us thay they did it for our own good is also a lie- a BIG LIE- because since 9-11 our Bill of Rights guarantees under the Constitution have been attacked by the Patriot ACT and the Facist Dept. Of Homeland (in) Security!