Now that Obama is inching ever so slowly toward prosecuting the torturers in chief, Dick Cheney’s bizarre behavior grows ever more perplexing. One would think that a potential criminal defendant might keep his mouth shut, rather than admitting all the elements of the crime with which he may be charged. Perhaps he should consult with competent counsel.
He has been telling the sycophantic Sean Hannity that the torture worked, which we all know is a dubious proposition at best. But from a legal standpoint, it is probably totally irrelevant. A murder can’t defend his act by arguing that the person killed deserved to die. The torture statutes and treaties presuppose that the person being tortured is an enemy of the torturer, and therefore they presuppose that torture might in fact yield something of use. But torture is banned completely, that fact notwithstanding. These issues are ultimately not decided in the court of public opinion, where Cheney would likely lose anyway. They are resolved in a courtroom, and likely a courtroom in Washington D.C., hardly the place I would choose to go on trial were I Dick Cheney.
He really should shut up. If prosecution comes, all the prosecutor might need to do is roll the tapes with Sean.
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