Rice Defends Post-9/11 Interrogation Rules

Secretary Of State Says Tough Methods Of Questioning For Terror Suspects Was Necessary

(AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday defended tough interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects approved by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11, saying they were necessary to protect America from new attacks.

In her most extensive public comments about how the administration dealt with detainee interrogations in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed, Rice insisted the methods of questioning complied with both U.S. law and treaty obligations.

But she acknowledged that those rules had since changed and that the United States was a "different place" then, adding that the administration's top priority at the time had been preventing new attacks and not necessarily observing fine legal points.

"The fact is that after Sept. 11, whatever was legal in the face of not just the attacks of Sept. 11, but the anthrax attacks that happened, we were in an environment in which saving America from the next attack was paramount," Rice said.

"But even in that environment, President Bush made clear that we were going to live up to our obligations at home and to our treaty obligations abroad," she told an audience at the headquarters of Google Inc.

Rice noted that legal restrictions on the treatment of detainees had evolved significantly between 2002 and 2003, when administration officials had allowed harsh techniques, including one that some believe to be torture, and the passage in 2005 of the Detainee Treatment Act that prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

"Now, there has been a long evolution in American policy about detainees and about interrogations," she said. "We now have in place a law that was not there in 2002 and 2003."

"So the ground is different now," she said.

Rice refused to specify what specific techniques might have been discussed or approved, but said America was safer because of interrogation conducted on al Qaeda detainees captured in the first months and year after the 9/11 attacks.

"We now know a great deal more about how al Qaeda operates thanks to what we were able to learn from those early detainees," she said. "We now have networks that give us information much better than in 2002 and 2003 and these issues have evolved.

"They have evolved in the context of democracy, they have evolved in the context of the constant debate about our values and ... I think that we are now in a different place now then we were," Rice said.

At the same time, she maintained that Mr. Bush's top aides had been scrupulous in making sure the early interrogations conformed to existing rules.

"I don't want anyone to believe that even when we were in that different place that we failed to ask the question: 'Are we living up to our laws and to our treaty obligations?' We asked the questions even then, but it is a different America now than what has been and gone."

Her comments came in response to a question from a Google employee who asked at a town hall meeting about the simulated drowning interrogation technique known as waterboarding that many consider to be a form of torture.

[pensacola88]

It is very clear that before the war, when our citizens were kidnapped - both military and civilian, they were tortured and executed. It happened in several countries and diplomatic channels didn''t reassure us that they were isolated cases and would probably not occur again, because our citizens were in places known for high crime.

Releasing videos of our citizens being decapitated was the last straw that broke the camel''s back.

Just about anyone who watches that will want to go push the Nuke button out of anger.

Condelezza Rice made great strides and then got cut off at her knees by other cabinet members in the Bush administration. President Bush''s choice to use Donald Rumsfield as DOD chief was clearly one of the worst decisions in his administration. Rumsfield will never be forgiven, and will be under the basement of the White House political "Out House" for devaluation of the State Department.

Tony Blair and John Howard, both Prime Ministers of England and Australia were elected out of office over participation in a runaway escalation of hostilites that fulminated into the Iraq War.

[factsearcher]

New technology has brought the advantage that everything is known... and quickly.
Can you imagine the circus we would have gotten on news media if we had the same technology back when Nixon was president? even Reagan?
I''''m telling you lots of things like this type of torture happened behind close doors...
That is not the humanly right thing to do.. absolutely agreed... but!
I''''m sick and tired of all the tyrants threating us on a daily basis.
You know something?
Whoever becomes the next president... I want him to have a bad temper and throw the biggest fit in the Oval office... I want him to foam at his mouth... and then make sure it is captured on TV. I want Kim Jong IL, Chavez, Ahmadenijad. Castro, Putin/Medvedev and lots of those towel headed guys to watch our president in action... and feel so threatened that they would stay awake at night worried if our president will press the red nuclear button (which will be next to our president''''s alarm clock)...
I want our respected America back... I want our fierce freedom and economy back!

[babooph]

No one turned in Osama for all the millions -if you had to PAY a million to bring the whole disgusting Bush administration to the world court for their crimes ,the line to turn them in would be very long !!!

[tootall10142]

All ofyou self righteous people who barely can spell war and have no idea of what is like to see the carnage live. If the enemie had your children or parents captured or kidnapped wouldyou want to do whatever it takes or just ,ask them politely to return them to you.you non violent non torture people make me sick to think that your children maybe guarding our borders someday

[veteran72]

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Progressives - Liberal Left Wing Heathens of America. Ascribing Advancement to Decay.


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Posted by pilgrimsprog at 10:51 PM : May 23, 2008
+ report abuse

Your ideas of what it is to be an American Citizen, Patriot, and Upholder of the Constitution and Rule of Law, are so skewed, I have no doubt you would have gladly supported Hitler or Musolini. You''re an Idiot.

Dear Congressman Conyers:

TOM STEPHENS and JOHN PHILO are out of their minds. Please disregard all of their nonsense. They are beside themselves.

[bgwinnett]

**CONDI RICE, THE "ARCHITECT" OF APPROVING TORTURE?**

Posted by dumbshun at 10:36 PM : May 23, 2008

What-- u mean shes a producer for Americas Got Talent... LMFAO!!!

You folks are ridiculous. Perhaps we should ask the nice little terrorists to simply tell us everything they know and if they choose not to, well then by golly, I guess we''ll just have to live with that......

Oh, wait I know, Condi works for Bush and everything Bush does is wrong all the time, right? So Condi can''t be right can she?

Or is it that America''s chickens are coming home to roost? Is that it?

================
Progressives - Liberal Left Wing Heathens of America. Ascribing Advancement to Decay.

[cdfoxtrot]

9/11, 9/11, 9/11. The same excuse, over and over, for every stupid, extreme right-wing idea. The neo-cons must have been SOOOOO happy on the evening of 9/11.

[cockapoo1]

"Don''''t you know that all of the worlds problems can be solved by grinning and waving?"

Thats usually when I whisper under my breath: "Jagoffff.."

[veteran72]

An Open Letter to John Conyers

The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney and Co.
By TOM STEPHENS and JOHN PHILO

Dear Congressman Conyers:

We write to ask that you take the lead in efforts to appoint special counsel to investigate the top officials of the current US Government executive branch and their leading co-conspirators. The targets of this proposed investigation include, but are not limited to George W. Bush, *** Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Stephen Cambone, Douglas Feith, Lewis Libbey, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, Newt Gingrich, and John Ashcroft.
The subject matter of this proposed investigation is the conduct of the so-called "war on terrorism," and the illegal and catastrophic US war of aggression against Iraq. Specifically, we believe that these individuals and others conspired to commit war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and to cover up their wrongdoing in connection with these crimes. These crimes include systematic violations of fundamental human rights guaranteed by the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on Torture, the Alien Tort Claims Act, lying to Congress and to other federal officials, and violations of other laws, treaties and obligations, including internal regulations of the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.

[omnibus66]

Don''t you know that all of the worlds problems can be solved by grinning and waving?

[veteran72]

veteran72: I have no crystal ball but I can visualize a scenario around September where something happens close to a major Israeli city which the Israelis will attribute to Iran. We will declare Iran a "national threat", invade Iran, and declare Martial Law which only the President can lift when he decides that the threat is no longer there. Until such time, federal elections are postponed and the Constitution suspended. The population naturally will be up in arms at least until the next series of American Idol comes on.


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Posted by ajayvee at 06:59 PM : May 23, 2008
+ report abuse

I''ve been thinking October, as in "October Surprise",
just before elections take place. These guys have the Money Faucets wide open and I just can''t see them walking away from it. They''re addicted, and also have proven they can break the Law at will, with absolutely no consequences. I hope the American people vote out every Incumbent in Washington, and shut K Street down once and for all.
(It''ll never happen of course....the Sheeple love their Maaaaaaaaaaaasters.)

[cockapoo1]

9/11, collapse of the economy, whatever. The weeds in my backyard will stay the same.

[bgwinnett]

Posted by ajayvee

LOL. It''s always around September isn''t it? Personally I think that a collapse of the US real economy will be the trigger for attacking Iran.

[cockapoo1]

I still don''t know how they''re going to move that island.

[ajayvee]

veteran72: I have no crystal ball but I can visualize a scenario around September where something happens close to a major Israeli city which the Israelis will attribute to Iran. We will declare Iran a "national threat", invade Iran, and declare Martial Law which only the President can lift when he decides that the threat is no longer there. Until such time, federal elections are postponed and the Constitution suspended. The population naturally will be up in arms at least until the next series of American Idol comes on.

[liberalme]

If the US President and Congress agreed to call for an International War Crimes Tribunal, they could indeed try ALL the Neocons responsible for the last 8 years of War Crimes and Mass Murder for Profit. Getting past foreign extradition laws might be more difficult, but they could be found guilty in absentia, leaving them as Pariahs and uncaptured World Felons, forever watching over their shoulders, marked as enemies of all decent people everywhere, doomed to die in disgrace.

Posted by veteran72 at 06:38 PM

Unfortunately, they will be living in peace in Paraguay, where there is no extradition and vast amounts of natural water sources--thought to be our next world shortage.
How sad the evil won''t suffer unless we start now to put them all behind bars.

[liberalme]

If the US President and Congress agreed to call for an International War Crimes Tribunal, they could indeed try ALL the Neocons responsible for the last 8 years of War Crimes and Mass Murder for Profit. Getting past foreign extradition laws might be more difficult, but they could be found guilty in absentia, leaving them as Pariahs and uncaptured World Felons, forever watching over their shoulders, marked as enemies of all decent people everywhere, doomed to die in disgrace.

Posted by veteran72 at 06:38 PM

Unfortunately, they will be living in peace in Paraguay, where there is no extradition and vast amounts of natural water sources--thought to be our next world shortage.
How sad the evil won''t suffer unless we start now to put them all behind bars.

[veteran72]

And the secret societies, the true puppet masters in all of this.


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Posted by bgwinnett at 06:26 PM : May 23, 2008
+ report abuse

I''m actually tired of waiting for them to get this master plan cranked up. I want them to attempt their "National Emergency" and institute Dictorial Authority so we can get on with wiping them out once and for all. It''s time to get our Nation and Freedom back.