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Liz Cheney's Stance On Torture Puts Her At Odds With Petraeus

First Posted: 04/21/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:35 PM ET

Iraq Vote

Via Christina Bellantoni, we have Liz Cheney, yesterday at CPAC, aflutter with concern that the lack of torture is diminishing the potency of the Cheney family seed:

I worry though when we capture these leaders that we no longer have the option of using any of the enhanced interrogation techniques because the president took those off the table. When you've got people in captivity we'd like our CIA officials in particular to have the capacity to do more than just ask the terrorists to please tell us what they want.

Liz Cheney proposes, Spencer Ackerman disposes. But here's a sentence that really jumped out at me:

It would be interesting to hear her tell Gen. David Petraeus why the Central Command leader is wrong about the relationship between torture and success in counterinsurgency, to say nothing of Petraeus' views on the relationship between torture and the moral fabric of America.

It strikes me as an essential truth that America's Top Torture Thrillists are virtually, to a man, the sort of people who would tout Petraeus as the greatest military leader since King Leonidas. How do they reconcile their fandom for Petraeus with Petraeus' crystal clear opinion on torture being a strategic detriment:

The top U.S. commander in Iraq admonished his troops regarding the results of an Army survey that found that many U.S military personnel there are willing to tolerate some torture of suspects and unwilling to report abuse by comrades.


"This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we -- not our enemies -- occupy the moral high ground," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus wrote in an open letter dated May 10 and posted on a military Web site.

He rejected the argument that torture is sometimes needed to quickly obtain crucial information. "Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary," he stated.

What ever became of "listening to the generals on the ground?"

RELATED:
Liz Cheney Loves Torture, Doesn't Understand Interrogation [Washington Independent]

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Via Christina Bellantoni, we have Liz Cheney, yesterday at CPAC, aflutter with concern that the lack of torture is diminishing the potency of the Cheney family seed: I worry though when we capture th...
Via Christina Bellantoni, we have Liz Cheney, yesterday at CPAC, aflutter with concern that the lack of torture is diminishing the potency of the Cheney family seed: I worry though when we capture th...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lapdogs
Avid News Reader
02:01 PM on 03/04/2010
Liz Cheney at odds with General Petraeus?

Guess that puts Cheney in the same crowd with MoveOn, when they were against the Surge in Iraq.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
gvscmr
www.seanbond.me
08:23 PM on 02/22/2010
Himmler Cheney and Lizzie Borden Cheney an American Disgrace!

http://wp.me/pzOmW-3Q
10:27 AM on 02/22/2010
She doesn't realize how insignificant she is, does she?
02:08 PM on 02/21/2010
cheney,like her father, is a monumental coward who knows nothing about the military or its values. If she wants to get some experience, she should join the Army and spend a year in ground combat. If she survived, she would be better acquainted with the military and the honorable soldiers who serve in the Army. She would not, however, be permitted to make any decisions; she is not nearly intelligent enough for that.
11:50 AM on 02/21/2010
I believe this torture push from the conservatives (very rich) is more about future domestic control.
07:20 AM on 02/21/2010
If you do not like torture you can take action.

Please read the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague:

http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/EA9AEFF7-5752-4F84-BE94-0A655EB30E16/0/Rome_Statute_English.pdf

Article 7 defines crimes against humanity. Article 8 defines war crimes. Article 15 describes the process of prosecution.

You can contact the Prosecutor with evidence:
http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Contact

A link to last Sunday’s television performance by Dick Cheney would be an example of great evidence for the ICC.

Where is the outrage? Please take your keystrokes to places other than HP and make a difference. Feel free to cut & paste this post and share with your friends.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SPQR1775
07:03 AM on 02/20/2010
she was at state because of family connect, she was a spy at the DOS. She knows nothing, torture is the reptilians wasy of living or regenerating, they use to shapeshfift.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PNic
nyc filmmaker
12:46 AM on 02/20/2010
WHY exactly does this former junior state dept official get to spout off regularly on national news programs???

Liz Cheney is walking, talking proof of the evils of nepotism.

Enough of her already. ALL the Cheney's should be resigned to the dust bin of history.
11:47 PM on 02/19/2010
Both Cheney and Petraeus 2ionist war monger criminaIs.
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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
lazercat2008
11:50 PM on 02/19/2010
Yep, pretty much.
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HUFFPOST PUNDIT
lazercat2008
11:35 PM on 02/19/2010
What people like Liz and her father don't understand (because they never served) is that torture puts our men and women in the service at great peril.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
aznurse
11:50 PM on 02/19/2010
They just don't care. period.
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Hobsonschoice
Relentlessly curious...
03:41 AM on 02/20/2010
Absolutely right, lazercat - neither Cheney nor his ice princess daughter served our country, and they do not understand terms like "honor" or "occupying the moral high ground" relative to the treatment of prisoners and alleged terrorists. Patraous' comment that the use of torture by our goverment was tearing at the moral fabric of the nation was spot on, too. The loss of our national sense of honor during the Bush years desensitized many of us, and demoralized the rest. It's pathetic that the Cheneys continue to reveal the darkness in their hearts - not surprising - just pathetic
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
carolr51
11:56 AM on 02/20/2010
Liz and Dick don't even understand the term "moral fabric", it is irrelevant to them. To them, the ends always justifies the means. I agree they are pathetic, and it is also pathetic that so many people listen to them and agree with them.
11:15 PM on 02/19/2010
who care what she thinks.
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dtmfman
2 most common elements...Hydrogen and Stupidity
11:08 PM on 02/19/2010
liz who?.....(crickets)
11:06 PM on 02/19/2010
To use a headline like "Liz Cheney's Stance On Torture Puts Her At Odds With Petraeus", much less have an article on the point, elevates Ms Cheney to a position she does not deserve and thereby furthers her agenda.
11:04 PM on 02/19/2010
listening to Liz is TORTURE!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
LeLoup
Res ipsa loquitur, ergo tace!
11:02 PM on 02/19/2010
Two comments:

1) "What ever became of "listening to the generals on the ground?" It's called selective attention. Very common in psychopaths and sociopaths.

2) Can the media STOP giving exposure to a nubile, still wet behind the ears conservatoad like Liz Cheney? What does she brings to the national debate that has any value whatsoever??
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
huffy2001
We are sorry, your micro-bio did not meet our guid
08:31 AM on 02/20/2010
Nubile? really? You have very questionable taste in women.
06:08 PM on 02/22/2010
Nubile? Maybe she seems that way, if you're a practicioner of the Sapphic arts, for the rest of us she is one dangerous wingnut.