AP: Obama says waterboarding was torture, backs memos

[FrenchieCat]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday night that waterboarding authorized by former President George W. Bush was torture and that the information gained from terror suspects through its use could have been obtained by other means. "In some cases, it may be harder," he conceded at a White House news conference marking a whirlwind first 100 days in office.
snip

Obama also said he was "absolutely convinced" he had acted correctly in banning waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, and in making public the Bush administration memos detailing its use as well as other harsh methods used on terrorist suspects. "Not because there might not have been information that was yielded by these various detainees ... but because we could have gotten this information in other ways, in ways that were consistent with our values, in ways that were consistent with who we are."

Cheney as well as some congressional Republicans have urged Obama to release memos they say will show waterboarding was successful in obtaining information. But the president, in a White House exchange with House Republican leader John Boehner last week, said the record was equivocal.

Obama told reporters he has read the documents Cheney and others are referring to but said they are classified and declined to discuss their details.

more.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama;_ylt=Am4HMyR7TM83qVrwAqIR75xOxBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJiNDZwdnVxBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNDMwL3VzX29iYW1hBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA29iYW1hc2F5c3dhdA--

[NYC_SKP]

1. I love the Obama "rope a dope"!

Put a little out there, nothing specific...

Get everyone's attention, get them talking about it...

Release a memo or two...

Then get a little more specific...

No need to "rush to judgment" when there are months and months of political "rope a dope" that can be had with this.

:toast:

[Cha]

2. P Obama was so

clear on this that I would image cheney raising his fist to the sky in his undisclosed location and yelling to Obama to do the same as he told Senator Patrick Leahy to do on the Senate Floor all those years ago.