Norah O'Donnell grills Liz Cheney: "Now that the world hears that America no longer cares about torture... is that the message we send?"
April 23, 2009 5:20 pm ET
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I think in this case, O'Donnell should have given Cheney just enough rope to hang herself. Her attempts at justifying or defining the torture were made of the same stock that you could expect from any other Bush administration mouthpiece. If O'Donnell had been perhaps a little more prepared or maybe had not gotten lost in the moment, the 'grilling' would have been more savoury.
By the same stock, I mean specifically, and perhaps the easiest target, the notion that because American special forces were trained for resisting waterboarding that waterboarding isn't torture. Also there's the idea that cutting off the head of an American is an al-Qaeda equivalent to(and thus justification for) so-called 'harsh interrogation techniques'. Both use flimsy, overly simplistic logic that's easily transparent.
Yes, that's Dick's daughter. It's important to get someone up there to try and state what we know are lies and frankly, I think Liz is brave to try and do it. Of course what was done was torture and of course if the Bush Administration had any exculpatory evidence, it would have been released years ago.
Of course her dad won't appear unless it's with someone who questions him thusly: "Tell us again of your brave and mighty and heroic deeds, O Magnificent Vice-Leader!!!"