Torturing The Truth

CBS' Meyer: President Bush Has Lied And Continues To Do So

(CBS)  This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

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"I've said to people we don't torture. And we don't."

That's what President Bush told Katie Couric yesterday.

That was a very odd thing to say on the very day his Pentagon repudiated interrogation "techniques" it had been using and embraced international standards for humane treatment of all detainees in military custody. These standards, by the way, will still not apply to detainees in CIA custody who can still be subjected to "techniques" — translation: torture.

The president also told Ms. Couric that one of the things he felt badly about from his tenure was Abu Ghraib. Now Abu Ghraib was where torture was photographed and then shown to the world. Similar torture was carried out, we learned, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

But, "I've said to people we don't torture. And we don't."

What is being tortured here is the truth.

The president's statement here is beyond doublespeak and above spin. It's untrue, it's egregious. The Pentagon's backhanded, long-delayed and uncourageous acknowledgment that torture was used also repudiated what the president has been telling citizens for years. We've been lied to and we are still being lied to. By the president.

Now, foes of President Bush are indignant that he can "get away with it." They blame a biased press, a manipulative regime and, I suppose, an electorate they see as ignorant.

The president's defenders also blame a biased press. They split hairs about what torture is — sleep deprivation is OK, but jumper cables aren't. They also argue that torture may be justified in some cases, though that is not really what the president himself has asserted.

I'm guessing that one reason that the president "gets away with it" is that many people do what the president's formal defenders do: make strong arguments themselves even though the president doesn't. If a voter sees a rationale for, say, "interrogation techniques," even though the president has never stated it, and in fact speaks dishonestly about it, that voter may still give the president the benefit of the doubt.

In truth, many people pragmatically and ethically believe that what anyone would call torture may be permissible if it has a certainty of preventing other loss of innocent life. This is an ancient, ongoing debate. It is not immoral to come out on the tough side. But the international community, through vehicles such as the Geneva Conventions, has long been on the other side.

The president has danced all around this. We do what's necessary, he says, but we don't torture. Right.

I can't see what the downside would be of a simple honest declaration now that the Pentagon is formally changing its policy. Something like: "Yes, in the wake of 9/11, military and intelligence agencies trying to protect our country, interrogated terrorists using methods that can only be called torture. We felt this was necessary to prevent the loss of innocent life, perhaps on a massive scale. This did involve a compromise with international standards and American values and we paid dearly for that. We are changing that policy, which we once felt was justified. But we reserve the right to do what is necessary to protect human life and certain U.S. agencies will not be covered by the new Pentagon policies."

I may not agree with that — but it is honest.

The administration, of course, is in the midst of yet again repackaging its entire justification for the war on terror and the war on Iraq. By invoking Hitler, Stalin and Nazism, they are trying to rev up their conservative base and somehow discredit the Democrats by implying they aren't worthy of taking on Adolf bin Laden.

This is a fool's errand. Voters already have a very modest opinion of the Democrats' national security credentials, and that will not change in this election cycle. Most voters also have settled views on the threat of Islamist terrorism.

What is unsettled for voters is their view of the president's and the administration's honesty and competence in combating what it calls the "great battle of the 21st century."

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Dick Meyer, a veteran political and investigative producer for CBS News, is the editorial director of CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C.

E-mail questions, comments, complaints, arguments and ideas to
Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.

[book54552134]

Never, in all the great wars of our nation, has any Presidential Administration seen the need to nudge the nation into the barbaric realm of torture. This is an Administration which constantly & consistantly flouts Constitutional Law, International Law, & the Geneva Conventions with complete impunity. GW can fudge & equivocate on the exact definition of torture but the fact that he seeks to overturn the War Crimes Act so that his Administration may continue it's practice of violating the Geneva Conventions is convincing proof that he & his Administration has been violating Constitutional Law since 9/11. If GW is allowed to get away with this, what will he move on to next? Perhaps suspention of domestic protections like Habeas Corpus, or the Bill of Rights. Given what this Administration has done thus far to undermine the Constitution, only the imagination limits one's ability to guess where this nightmarish road to barbarism will end.

[hockeymanvt]

What a refreshing idea - having the president speak the plain simple truth. We have been weaned away from the truth during the entire Bush administration . Perhaps they now feel that it is too rich a diet for the rest of us. Probably some of the people sweltering in Gitmo are REALLY BAD people and deserving of conviction and punishment but as much as I would like to feel otherwise, the litany of lies coming out of the president's mouth leads me to give them the benefit of my doubt. How far we have fallen as a nation!

[bunionbabe]

Hey Meyer...good for you for calling a spade a spade. Too bad it has taken the media so many years to call this man what he is.

[dansmithdan]

The trouble with torture is not what it does to the tortured. Fear of torture might cause one to break and give up the desired information, but once an individual actually starts to endure the torment, that person will either remain silent at all costs or do whatever is necessary to stop the pain. Either way, the information is, more often than not, useless.

The true trouble with torture is what it does both to the torturers and to the societies within which they live. The torturer lives within a culture of fear, and that fear is the primary determinant of his or her world view. The same is true of the society that allows this.
As said the hunter that so despised his quarry that his hatred consumed his whole being: "I am become that which I abhor."

[random_radar]

I agree! I may or may not agree with someone, but I do appreciate honesty. How I wish I could have confidence in my government leaders, but I just can't get past the obvious untruths.

Lying has become so routine by all parties that it is done with a bald face now. It is laughable to hear all the lies spouted with no accountability. They get reported and complained about (to wit, look at me), but on we go.

As long as Americans simply vote for the lesser of two evils they will suffer evil. We need to recruit and support honest leaders if we really want honesty. I have participated in politics and it is a dirty game (money and power attract the worst element), but we cannot turn our backs and expect to remain free.

Like Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

[ajturnbow]

Its really amazing to me how two faced people can be. On one hand you have President Clinton. For whatever reason he had one of the most successful presidental terms in office. He did a bad thing and he lied about it. But it did not cost anyone thier lives or billions of taxpayer dollars (that will probably turn into trillions). But everyone was ready to hang him from the highest branch and brought him to the brink of impeachment. Now you have the setting president. He has lied to the American people time and time again but everyone is OK with it. He has sent American troops into battle under false pretenses and now thosands of fathers, mothers ,sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters have died and will never again see thier families, this side of heaven. Asma bin Laden is not, for all we know, in Iraq.......why are we? my question to this and i will wrap it up; why do we support a president who has his own agenda and it is costing americans and will for the next 6 generations? We have hungry citizens on the street, elderly that cannot afforde their medicine or basic medical care, and middle class americans that can no longer afford the american dream. When again will americans be important to a setting president?

[searingtruth]

"He [King George] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred right of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither."
Thomas Jefferson, deleted portion of a draft of the Declaration of Independence, June, 1776

"It is a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own."
Benjamin Franklin, letter to Samuel Cooper, May 1, 1777

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe repositories."
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 17, 1775

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Archibald Stewart, Dec 23, 1791

"Twice we have fallen; towers by enemies without, and freedom by enemies within."
SearingTruth

"Who would say freedom is not free, with the price being freedom itself."
SearingTruth

"Our government is no longer American, thus, as in the beginning, the people must suffice."
SearingTruth

[cincigal74]

The simple solution to all this is to vote this sorry low life congress out in November.They have aided and abeted the Bush cabal in every corrupt and illegal crime against this country and its citizens, that they are guilty of commiting.The people who are too lazy and ignorant to get out and vote are also guilty of the damage to the country.It is time for a new congress,one that will do the job of holding to account those who abuse their power to advance their own personal causes,at the cost of the american people,and the destruction of our constitution.Its a simple choice,do you want more lies and the same old stories we have heard for the past five years,or a return to a democratic government?Take control.Vote these Bums out on November 7.

[daddy4mak]

"..voters also have settled views on the threat of Islamist terrorism."

It sad to see some Jewish journalists and some evangelical Christians constantly insert the word "Islamic" or "Islamist" next to the word terrorism or terrorist.

You guys help make it easier for people to hate Muslims (people who profess Islam). The hijackers of 9/11 might have done it in the name of Islam....but they were at a strip club night before. They wern't practicing Muslims...they were doing out of hatred. Not because they were Muslim.

The Quran (holy book of Islam) says if you kill an innocent person...it's like killing all of mankind. It is against Islam to kill innocent peopel anywhere.

I don't blame the Jewishness of Isreal that has displaced millions of Palestinians and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese over the last 58 years

I don't blame the Christianity of America for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over the last almost 20 years -- something done _JUST_ for Oil.

Don't blame me & my religion for 9/11....Mister Meyer, you make it a little easier for Americans to be bigoted by adding the word Islam next to terrorism.

IF you make bigotry agianst Muslims easier, you make bigotry agains everyone -- including Jews more acceptable.

[huskybum]

Do you really think Bush believes he has any regret for what he's approved in the C.I.A. prisons? The only price "we've" paid is the political price we and the Republicans have paid, and that's why they changed the policy. I think you're engaging in wishful thinking if you believe any more than that was involved.

--Lee
http://feeds.feedburner.com/PassionateCenter
http://passionatecenter.blogspot.com

[irishchamps8]

Torture? Watching Katie interview George Bush was torture... The liberal spin she puts on stories is torture enough. I can't wait until the next episode of CBS NEWS, DUMOCRATS NEWS...

[getcentered]

The Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, The Senate should have done to G.W. Bush and his staff what G.W's parents should have done years ago; SLAP THAT FOOL IN THE FACE.
To bad for us, most of the above protections from presidential abuse will not be put in check with the RUBBER STAMP united GOP. That's why we need to VOTE these mindless talking point passing Republicans out of power, and replace them with folks who can think freely and listen. If we don't we'll be high on money and low on cash for the rest of our lives. Remember this: The days are long but the weeks are fast. So the next time cursory leaders want to take power in the United States, I'm not going to let them use up a tenth of my life doing it.

[BlueInWI]

Another thing with GW, is from the very day he has been elected, even BEFORE 9/11 he has used fear to push through every destructive and disastrous policy of his administration.

Fear of recession to push through record tax cuts, calling the inheritance tax on only the portion above $4 million for a couple the 'death tax', saying we can't sign the Kyoto accord because it would hurt our economy, mentioning 9/11 NINE times in his speech announcing the invasion of Iraq, calling the terrorists 'fascists' when they don't even come close to fitting the definition. They are terrible people but they are not fascists - we are in grave danger of becoming fascist, the US is getting closer daily under GW and his cronies.

Fascism requires a centralized totalitarian government, a government that is in a constant state of war - preferably against hidden enemies, a imperialistic government that runs up huge deficits to fund the military industrial complex at the expense of society as a whole to protect the economic interests of its corporate state, a government that sacrifices individual liberties to 'protect' its citizens, a government that ships people off to be tortured in foreign prisons without legal representation.

Wake up America!!! It may already be too late...

[avgeno]

getcentered....thank you for giving me the biggest smile of the day. Slapping that fool has got to be the answer...thanks for the chuckle.

[mperkel]

Wow! At last someone gets it that Bush admitted he was running secret torture camps!

Don't we impeach people for that?

The Church of Reality just issued an edict denouncing torture.

http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/current_event_edicts/

[andrew_sam]

I can't understand how the administration can honestly think they can make us believe anything this guy says. This is the kind of president that chould be inpeeched!!?? If the president were on a lie ditector it would blow up. The way he mumbled at the reporters question. Thats a BIG RED FLAG that this guy really does not even know what he is talking about. President Bush is a verry verry bad lier.

[jasonking4]

Thank god someone has the guts to just SAY what everybody is thinking. Were being governed into the ground by the most inept administration ever.

From the adversity of 9/11, we should have risen, instead we have fallen. We tried to take the moral high ground, demonising everybody who dared not to think like us (your're either with us or against us - how insulting is that to other countries!). By seemingly taking the moral high ground, we apparently also lowered our threshold for basic human rights, THE VERY RIGHTS WE SOUGHT TO UPHOLD AGAINST TERRORISM - oh the irony. We tortured, we maimed, we killed all in the name of freedom, whilst millions looked on in horror. This is why from supporting America just after 9/11 the majority of the world opposses America (the government, not "us" citizens as I have found on my travels around the world).

I love my country, but I also hate my country. Thank George Bush.

[sumdumguy2]

although, i agree that congress, in general, needs to be voted out (get off your ***** people!) and start over, they also have to hit the reset button, as it were, take away all the gifts and perks and make them work for the people instead of just robbing us blind and getting a free ride. i think shieffer got it right when he said that congress just doesn't WANT to come up with solutions to problems and takes the easy way out by taking on the next creampuff issue and puts the tough ones on the backburner. that's not verbatim but you get the point. people like hillary scream and shriek till they're blue in the face but never get anything done that benefits the people. if anything ever does remotely get accomplished - with as little effort as possible - they're (she's) the first in line to take credit for everything. if it turns out to be a mistake then instead of taking the blame for it and acknowledging it and fixing it, "well, i, uh, my subcommittee, didn't know, uh, IT'S BUSH's FAULT!"
He's just one guy. they're the ones that are supposed to be doing the legwork. you REPRESENTATIVES are supposed to REPRESENT the will of the people - not your own! we'd be more than willing to give credit where it was due if you ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING THAT WAS WORTHWHILE. straighten out the taxcode, quit overspending, quit adding "riders" to everything (the reason most everything gets screwed up aside from partisanship), REPRESENT THE PEOPLE THAT VOTED YOU IN.

[sumdumguy2]

handfuls of people keep claiming the president has lied to them, etc. etc. yeah? what's your point? your senators and representatives have been doing it well before he or clinton (or name your favorite president) were ever in office. stop voting for screwups and quit all the partisan b.s. start nominating people at the grassroots level that will actually represent you properly and get the job done. also keep in mind, that regardless of the desires of the media, there will always be things that the gov't CAN'T tell you in order to keep you safe. if they had other reasons to defend the country (aliens, mimes, elvis impersonators), they can't always say it and need to give the media something else to chew on. it's called "misinformation" and they do it ALL the time.

The only thing worse than lying is fatuous lying. This is fatuous lying displaying, as usual, the President's contempt for the intelligence of the public. There is a comment above by one of his supporters that suggests such contempt may be reasonable, at least when applied to his cheerleaders. One can only hope that the 60% who are not his cheerleaders make it to the polls this November. Then we will see just how far the President's contempt should apply.

Joseph Marshall

[ericksb-2009]

Hey ***,
Since every story CBS puts out is full of lies and spin, it's hard to take you serious. Remember Dan Rather.

[demoguest]

Are you related to Dan Rather? It's Liberals like you who have weekend our country and taken American Boys lives to try and fix the problem. Guess what? We have a enemy that is trying to kill us who is not civilized and does not play by civilized tactics. So you suggest is capture, ask them nicely did you blow up that building, and when they say no we let them go! This enemy understands are weaknesses and in particular morons like you who aid the enemy.

[henninger99]

Has just about everybody lost their minds here? Especially Meyer! You want to compare being deprived of sleep to being charged with jump cables? Good heavens! Have we so quickly forgotten 9/11 that when we catch the people responsible and others who were deeply involved you think we should set them up in "Club Fed", give them a nice cushy robe and slippers, a massage, etc.? These people are terrorists! They are responsible for killing almost 3,000 Americans ON AMERICAN SOIL! Not to mention the embassy bombings, the USS Cole, and other terrorists acts they have committed against our country and others. I can tell you this much, if you want to torture me by stripping me down, covering my head with a bag, and embarassing me, go right ahead! It's better than being decapitated and having it recorded for all the world to see. America has gotten soft. I dare you to try and sell your view to a soldier who served in World War I or II and all the other wars in previous years. The left are trying to tie our hands and are turning our country and its military into a bunch of "wussies"! We are becoming the laughing-stock of the world. I yearn for the day when we can raise our heads proudly and say, "Don't mess with us or else" and then actually follow through on that "else"!

[horse3farm]

The president lying, and the present administration (which will go down in history as the worst ever) notwithstanding, who cares about torture. This is war you idiots. "These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein." (Dr. Vernon Chong, Major General, USAF, Retired) Get over it. We need to stand together as a country and get off our moral high horse. Or we perish. If we don't win this war, we won't be here. And to the media...stop fueling the fire.

[tomshannon01]

Mr. Meyer, your implication that the Bush administration approved of the toture at Abu Ghraib is the real lie here. Those service men and woman have been tried and sentenced for their actions because they violated America's policy against torture.

Further, your egregious distortion of the facts as a member of a major news media organization, even if it's just an "editorial," is subversive and dangerous to the welfare of America and its citizens. You have a responsibility to print the facts, even when posting your personal opinion. If you can't do that, you should resign your position immediately.

[avgeno]

Sorry tomshannon01, your way off base bud...those service men and women were tried and sentenced for their actions BECAUSE THEY WERE CAUGHT....caught in the public eye, not caught by this administration. Hell, these types of abuses take place daily right here in the good old US of A. I really don't give a @#%$ if they beat the *&%^ out of them or torture them for what they may know, as long as it saves one life of our people, our soldiers, thats all I care about. But don't insult us with the constant denials in defense of a failed administration and policy. To stand up there and suggest that he wasn't aware of what was going on or did not authorize it, is *&(((^&%. And for you and all those other fools that seem to think that defending this administration is the in thing to do, just shows your true ignorance.

[ineednews]

Reading the last few posts, I can offer that we are all entitled to our opinions, however biased they be. I am interested in the FACTS. Not the spin or interpretation you desire to put on the facts.

I would like to see an indepth report into what did the White House know, if anything, regarding torture of those captured post 9/11. How much was within existing laws? Which committees within Congress were duly notified/informed? How many times were we in violation of the Geneva Convention? What is meant by being on a "war footing" and just what are the benefits? I would like to know why civil liberties must be threatened even during wartime?

That the White House is redefining "torture" as defined under the Geneva Convention is somewhat troubling to me. It can only lead to confusion for each signatory government to provide its own unique definition of torture. Afterall we pride ourselves on being a nation of laws, of setting the standard for others, of being people who stand by their words.

I am no fan of this administration but I also would not dream of being in their shoes in these troubling times (often made more troubling by the administration's own actions).

[rubraindead]

What a bunch of junk:

The liberal democrats are anti-God and anti- American. Holding the President responsible for torturing prisoners is not very intelligent. I know he did not call the gaurds up at the prison and order them to strip and torture them. It was wrong minded soilders that dropped the ball.

It was not the President who fumbled in New Orleans but the Mayor and Governor did!

Talk about lieing. All the biased so-called reporting that so-called news networks pump out as truth. I ask are you braindead?

I wonder if the President had not taken the initiative against terror how many time we would have been hit in the USA?

[sniksder07]

avgeno

First you have to prove the lie....you can't and neither can Meyer....and its always funny to see Liberals such as yourself, that when you know you have no argument to turn to name calling and cursing......

[ineednews]

avgeno, I understand your anger and desire to protect fellow Americans but why always assume the nature results of torturing some captured person is the disclosure of some nefarious plot that will save lives? What would you say if virtually all torture yields nothing and more often than not will be perpetrated against innocent people?

[avgeno]

INeedNews

You are right...I was wrong. I allowed anger, anger the brews daily with this administration, to rule this conversation. I allowed it to put forth an arguement on torture that in fact is not of my thinking or belief. I just found it absolutely amazing that there are those who can sit back and defend a statement by GWB knowing full well that it flies in the face of being truly absurd.

[tonydebock]

What is wrong with you????
keeping a person awake is not torture, playing music is not torture,scaring a person is not torture. If you want to see torture go to Iran, United Arabic Republick,china prisons.
The information gained is well worth there discomfort,But aperantly you hate Bush so bad you do not care to save American lives.

[susannesd]

Why doesen't meyer just admit he hates the U.S. and what it stands for. Torture consists of physically abusing a person. I am sure he & Rather will be the first people to complain when another attack occurs against Western culture. But then of course they will say it's the West's fault. Reading the editorial reminded me why I obtain unbiased news via the web(NOT CBS) and the Wall Street Journal . The Journal is more reliable & unbiased, doesn't spread outrageous, irresponsible propaganda and is published for readers who think on their own and base viewpoints on fact, not emotion.

[jshudson2]

By the standards of the treaties we (the United States) have signed with other nations we clearly DO torture people. And yes, these standards can (and do) include sleep deprivation and "scaring" people.

Bush has simply changed the definiton to suit his own purposes, but that doesn't change the reality that he supports and encourages the torture of innocents.

[bproberts1]

Mr. Meyer, please put into your words (cheap as they might be) what America should be doing after 9-11....You didn't take an oath, the President did, and while his actions are difficult for all Americans he is trying to live up to the oath...words as eloquent as they may be, they are easy,cheap, and often untrue. Just listen to all the words used at the United Nations and where are we? And yes you may be speaking FACTS but they are still just words which bend, distort, and "signify nothing"...

[darthstar_99]

Well said...bush is a liar, and the bottom line is this: Noone believes you anymore, Mr. President. Period.

[sharncedar]

"please put into your words (cheap as they might be) what America should be doing after 9-11"

The answer to me was obvious at the time. We should have treated it like other terrorism acts. Terrorism is a law enforcement problem. The closest analogy we have in modern times is the mafia or other gang crime. We need to infiltrate the organizations, prosecute, turn witnessess (not through torture), and dismantle the organizations involved through patient and diligent use of legal means. Each legal trial of a caught terrorist would discourage hundreds of others, since for these guys their greatest fear is not death but to be contradicted and shown as being ignorant in a public forum.

Bush's response to 9/11, many people believe, had nothing to do with combatting terrorists but was a power grab by a group of extremists who had been plotting various wars for many years. The plan for the war in Iraq was in circulation for years before 9/11. If this is true, it is a criminal act, I think most defenders of Bush are good Americans who have been misled and they will certainly want to prosecute him and his gang when they fully understand how he misused 9/11 and left us vunerable to terrorists.

[dnamj]

Thank you for this. Y'know, sooner or later the truth will come out about all of this, whether everyone likes it or not. We need to abide by international law, even when dealing with murderers.

[phijef]

You are a true patriot who loves his country and stands up for what is right. The President lied. It doesn't matter whether he did it to protect us (in his mind) or if it was for nefarious reasons (personal vendetta against Saddam). What matters is that the lied to us and continues to lie to us.

It is like a mother lying to her grown son. It isn't cute anymore. The son needs to be told the truth. Otherwise it looks as if the mother is lying just to protect herself and not her son.

[tylerdurdenq]

to the moonbats who continue to defend bush and his lies:

i am completely aware of the face that, in your eyes, admitting fault would be a crushing blow to your existence. even when the evidence is in front of you acceptance of the truth would mean admitting defeat.

Furthermore, does anyone else notice that conservatives are less likely to put together coherent arguments? It's not so much an intelligence thing as it is just saying catchphrases with 'freedom' or 'terror' in them so you can make your points.

War on 'terra' indeed.

[nynative1340]

'Shrub' is living proof that you should listen to your parents.

[deanclemens]

You, *** Meyer, May not agree with the President
About what is torture and what is not torture, And that`s OK, becouse in this great country. That is what we do.Disagree. So what would you call it when they TORTURE and then chop off there heads? Now that is torture!! Thank You.

[boulder1153]

I hardly ever write comments like this but really felt the need to do so here. You are a dangerous fool. We are at war with these terrorists who want to kill you, me and our families.
There has never been any proof shown by anyone that our government conducts torture. If we need to keep some killer up a few days to weaken him and have him give up information that literally would save lives, I say go do it and keep us safe.
You would be the first to write a column critical of Bush if another attack happens. You can't have it both ways. Your column is typical of why people don't take CBS news seriously. Poor Richard Salant must be turning in his grave.

[truthguys]

*** Meyer, you have lost me. I try, I really try. I think the only thing it will take to get you liberal Bush haters to get on board with this Terror war is half of Manhatten levelled by a al Quada Nuke... then you will hurt those "poor little Terrorists". Meyer you will never put this on the board... you moron.

[catbell53]

Very irresponsible article on your part. Maybe facts, instead of accusations, would be more appropriate. This did not help CBS

[blueboyinthe]

You sir, are a factless reprobate with the stink of eastern liberal on your shoes...Facts talk and BS walks. If your nose wasn't tilted so high, you might recognize the smell. You are shameful in your assertions and might want to leave your shoes at the door next time you think you are thinking.

GLW

[illinois60-2009]

Does amyone out there remember 9-11? WTC '93? USS Cole? It wasn't Bush,Clinton,the Democrats,or the Republicans,it was al-Qaeda *** it! Can we all get on the same page before al-Qaeda (the ENENY) blows the hell out of us.......again?

[getcentered]

You have been sensationalized! The anger and name calling coming from the right is all they have left. The GOP/right/conservative voting base needs to relieve themselves from blame for the thousands of needless deaths in Iraq. The GOP needs the folks that voted for Bush to stop feeling bad about having some responsibility for all the dead and injured US service men and women, and the civilian and child deaths and injuries. You all remember the term "Flip Flop" right? Now it is reverberating in the heads of all those GOP voters. See Rove made it a "sin" to change your mind. So what you have is a GOP voting public that is afraid to change their minds but need more talking points (like Clinton is to blame for 911)to be able to keep their justifications, for whatever policies, in reality. We have been divided, sensationalized and exploited. Get Centered! Get Real.

[cbsstinks4]

Meyers should go get a job at Al-Jezeera. I heard that disgraced liar Dan Rather is working there now.

Sleep deprivation is not torture.

Torture is watching Leftists so caught up in Bush hate that they are willing to aid the Islamist propaganda machine with lies about their own leaders.

Torture is the desire to betray the Iraqi people - whose country we turned upside-down (for a GOOD cause) for an off-year election Leftist power grab.

[ourtomorrows]

Mr. Meyer's commentary is unfortunate. He condemns the President for "lying" without offering any hard evidence to back up his opinion. I realize that this was, in fact, an opinion piece, but that is not always an effective excuse.

There is a difference between tough interrogation techniques and torture. Webster defines torture as:
1 a : anguish of body or mind : AGONY b : something that causes agony or pain
2 : the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure

I have heard of no evidence that proves conclusively that the United States has government has formally authorized the intentiona "tortured" anyone in the current campaigns. I admit I could be wrong but evidence would be nice.

Mr. Meyer puts forward his opinion as fact, just who is really lying here?