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God bless Helen Thomas, the best thing about the White House Press Corps. More than a week after the revelation that President Bush knew and endorsed the Principals’ specific plans of torturing detainees, the media has been largely silent over it other than cursory mentions at best. But Helen Thomas isn’t about to go silently into that good night and becomes the first White House reporter to ask White House spokesliar Dana Perino about how the president could have lied multiple times that we do not torture only to turn around and admit that not only do we, but he approved of it.
Unfortunately, the designation of “spokesliar” fits Perino very well, as she denies and lies again that the U.S. does not torture. Who you gonna believe, Perino or your lying eyes?
During this afternoon’s White House press briefing, reporter Helen Thomas noted that Bush “has admitted that he did sign off on torture” saying it damages “the credibility of this country.” But press secretary Dana Perino denied that the United States has ever tortured detainees and referred to testimony from CIA Director Michael Hayden as evidence. [..]
In fact, during a February 5 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Hayden said outright that “waterboarding has been used” on three detainees in U.S. custody. But Hayden has refused to label waterboarding “torture,” calling it a “legal term” which seems to fit nicely with the Bush administration’s self-serving narrowed legal definition.
But waterboarding is torture and illegal under both U.S. and international law – with experts, government officials and those who have been subject to the harsh treatment all agreeing.
Seeming to acknowledge her colleagues’ absence on this story, an exasperated Thomas said out loud after her exchange with Perino: “Where is everybody? For God’s sakes.”
That’s the $64,000 question, Helen. Where is everybody?
Kossack Elisinora finds that no one in the Principals group really wants to be confronted with the reality of their decisions. (h/t Heather)
Full Transcript below the fold:
THOMAS: The President has said publicly several times, in two consecutive news conferences a few months ago, and you have said over and over again, we do not torture. Now he has admitted that he did sign off on torture, he did know about it. So how do you reconcile this credibility gap?
MS. PERINO: Helen, you’re taking liberties with the what the President said. The United States has not, is not torturing any detainees in the global war on terror. And General Hayden, amongst others, have spoken on Capitol Hill fully in this regard, and it is — I’ll leave it where it is. The President is accurate in saying what he said.
THOMAS: That’s not my question. My question is, why did he state publicly, we do not torture —
MS. PERINO: Because we do not.
THOMAS: — when he really did know that we do?
MS. PERINO: No, that’s what I mean, Helen. We’ve talked about the legal authorities —
THOMAS: Are you saying that we did not?
MS. PERINO: I am saying we did not, yes.
THOMAS: How can you when you have photographs and everything else? I mean, how can you say that when he admits that he knew about it?
MS. PERINO: Helen, I think that you’re — again, I think you’re conflating some issues and you’re misconstruing what the President said.
THOMAS: I’m asking for the credibility of this country, not just this administration.
MS. PERINO: And what I’m telling you is we have — torture has not occurred. And you can go back through all the public record. Just make sure — I would just respectfully ask you not to misconstrue what the President said.
THOMAS: You’re denying, in this room, that we torture and we have tortured?
MS. PERINO: Yes, I am denying that.
Elaine, did you have one?
Q I have one on Zimbabwe, actually.
THOMAS: Where is everybody?
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“God bless Helen Thomas”
I’ll second that
Everyone else is too worried about their lousy careers to say this stuff.
Torture has not occurred?
Wow.
That’s a statement…even for her.
God Bless Helen Thomas
hey, can we lock up perrino along with her bosses??
i want her to come out of jail a wrinkled old hag
btw, i didnt rob that bank…i liberated the funds
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Torture in the name of the free, more misery for you and me
They ship ‘em out so we can’t see the way they bring ‘em to their knees
-Wackiavelli
Erik @ 3:
Its absurd even in that this Q & A is utter torture.
Perino really feels she is superior. Her ego has the office next to hers.
Love Helen Thomas, but she misses the mark. The issue is Bush’s definition of torture. Helen glosses over that and jumps straight to: Bush has admitted to torture. Helen needs to ask if Bush disagrees with the dozens of treaties, international organizations, the Nuremberg charter, in defining waterboarding, sleep deprivation, etc., as torture.
None of the reporters do their homework. That’s what kills me. This is the closest thing we get to a deposition, and nobody brings in the marked exhibits and reads the earlier transcripts.
Also dude…..keeping domesticated…within city limits…that ain’t legal either.
even though it looks like and feels like torture it’s not torture?? more like a thing fraternities do for initiation fun. now i get it..
“It ain’t a lie if you tell it enough.”
-Wackiavelli
Dana Perino works for Bush she’s going to spin for Bush.
Her own conscience will make her ill at some point.
Yes, where are the calls for their resignations and trials to begin?
Where are our leaders on this war crime?
Helen Thomas and the ACLU are the only ones speaking out?
WTF?
this administration is fucked-up.
When I grow up, I want to be just like Helen Thomas.
She is one of the best arguments I can think in favor of the advancement of cloning technology. We need a 100 of her.
I imagine Perino was well briefed on how to fluff the answer. Disgusting and weird these Republican statements.
When Obama is inaugurated, the first thing he should do is bestow a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Helen Thomas. The second thing he should do is ask for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration war crimes.
If we had more like Helen, we might not be in this stupid war.
bless her. and fuck Perino for being the dirty lying [deleted–that word may be okay for McCain, but not okay for this site] she is.
“Where is everybody?” — Helen Thomas
Was she asking where are the sheeple? I’m sure she must know the answer to that question.
Whenever I hear Dana Perino, I immediately think of Retired General Tommy Franks’s comment that former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith was the “f****** stupidest guy on the face of the earth.” Dana Perino, in addition to being a serial liar, like virtually everyone else in the Bush administration, is undoubtedly in contention for the role as the “f****** stupidest woman on the face of the earth.”
God bless Helen Thomas. The rest of the White House press corps should be ashamed of themselves.
This great lady has more “cojones” than any other person in the Washington corps. The rest are just afraid to tell the White House off. What a bunch of fearfull idiots!
I don’t know about the rest of you, but Dana Perino gives me the creeps with those soul-less eyes of hers.
May she forever be haunted by her lies, her deceit, her cover-ups.
Most of all, may the ugliness inside this woman manifest itself on that pretty exterior. She gives new meaning to the expression, “beauty is only skin deep.”
There was only one angel in that crowd, and that was Helen Thomas, who recognizes evil when she hears it and sees it.
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Yeah, Bush doesn’t think waterboarding is torture. Isn’t that what you do at the beach? You take the big board and float on the water… ride some waves and stuff. Probably did that with his frat buddies on spring break. We didn’t torture them, we took them to the freakin’ beach! Idiots.
I love Helen.
“Where is everybody”?
Are you kidding me?
These people have very cushy jobs, jobs their brethren would kill for (reporters are getting laid off in favor of pundits these days), and all they have to do is toe the line and go along with the farce.
And they know, they all know, that to step out of line, to dare to ask a non-softball question, is to lose the cushy job, to not be there the next day, to have their place filled by a rabid, young, “ends justify the means” smarmy business type, willing to say and do whatever is needed and required by his bosses.
And people wonder how nazism started…
I have exchanged emails with Helen on two different occasions. She is very warm and approachable. If you want to send her a personal appreciative email, here is her contact:
hthomas@hearstdc.com
In the world of Bush
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck they’re going to tell you it’s a cat because that’s how they’ve set the definitions.
Ms. Cappuccino…er … Perino has been told that if she admits that when Bush admitted to torture that he admitted to torture she would be tortured. Er…. Something like that. It certainly is torture listening to her bullshit the bullshitters, isn’t it?
Helen kicks ass. Perino is repulsive.
I sure hope they prosecute these assholes when all is said and done.
More important that all this ‘ harsh language and gentle slaps of naughty detained people’
Is this
alas poor Britney/ Paris/ and whatshername move on over.
Matt Hussein in Texas @ 17:
sure. i’d recommend patrick fitzgerald. he’s a republican, lest anyone accuse obama of waging a partisan witchhunt.
and has no one else noticed karl rove’s name didn’t turn up on the torture cabal list?
looks like someone was smart enough to call in sick to work that day…
i bet when all the 9/11 stuff gets out, you won’t find rover’s fingerprints, either…
i bet his already jumped ship and fingered everyone. i bet he’s that good…
*he’s
(sorry, i’m an old man with trembling fingertips and i’m still kinda gettin’ used to these internets…)
Don’t you just love fascism with a smile and designer clothes? I love the way Perino stands there and acts as though what she is saying has any shred of truth or legitimacy to it. It is as though they humor poor Helen and use words like “conflating” to make it seems as though the journalist is out of touch, when in fact Perino knows she is a bald-faced fascist liar. I’m not that old yet, but I certainly hope I live long enough to see each of these pricks in orange jumpsuits and wetting themselves as they face the gallows. I’ll bet not a one of them goes to their execution with half the dignity that bastard Saddam did. On the other hand, if they are never made to pay for their crimes, I’m not sure I want to be around to see the kind of world they will create. It’s rather sickening.
Regards,
Robert
Matt Hussein in Texas @ 17:
and the third thing is have dana perino thrown before a grand jury for
perjury and her part in the bush crimes.
Rove is he has any sense is getting ready to finger the others, first ones to tell all, avoids the lengthy prison sentences.
gffish @ 20:
i think dana beats out paris hilton for fuckingstupidestwoman.
O/T But why does the Clinton campaign get away with including Michigan and Florida in the delegate/popular vote conversation? If she keeps it up and she happens to win the nomination I am beginning to think I will NOT vote for her. It is just over the top. Sorry for the off topic post. I had to vent.
Another day, another small step toward corpocracy.
I’m now growing my own tomatoes and turnips. It makes me feel cleaner.
wonder how 7,000 documents held by the CIA will change that?
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/....._0423.html
americangoy @ 24:
God dammit, don’t call Bushism Nazism! Nazism emerged in a very different time and a different climate.
What we’d be witnessing is the genesis of the Theocrats and plutocrats merging. That’s where the American Fascism will come from. Not from Hitler’s movement that was destroyed. The American Right isn’t forgiving of historical losers, and Hitler lost big time.
Bushism is an American counterpart to Bismarckism, with Bismarck having more genius at it, but that’s what it is. Bismarck provoked a Culture War (Kulturkampf) and then resulted in the lowering of German political discourse.
Hitler wasn’t even born when Bismarck was doing this.
I agree that Bushism bears stronger resemblances to fascism than it’s given credit for, but it isn’t even worthy of tying Italian fascism’s jackboots.
Good lord. Bush has bragged about it. What is Perino smoking?
At this point, the WH line has been, ‘We did torture, and it was both necessary and legal.’
1Watt @ 40:
Szymany is not well covered by Google maps (surprise), compared to other Polish towns and areas.
This administration has to be a Star War Fan!
“These aren’t the torture droid your looking for” *Dana wave arms across the pulpit*
“these aren’t the “Hayden torture memo” your looking at” * Dana waves arm again*
I bet she plays hide and seek by closing her eyes and pretend she is invisible!
ferrofluid @ 43:
Szczytno the nearest large town is empty of detail apart from road info too.
Tim in Japan @ 15:
Therapeutic cloning research is working towards make parts for replacing her worn ones. Can’t expect clones to be good thinkers just on genes, setting your kind sentiment aside.
Duplicating her ability to reason and care? That’s going to take education and individual effort.
Widespread @ 39:
Too late, it’s here.