CLINTON ON TORTURE….Yes, Andrew Sullivan suffers from Clinton Derangement Syndrome, but I’ll still join him in gagging over this nauseating piece of evasion from Hillary:
Clinton was similarly vague about how she would handle special interrogation methods used by the CIA. She said that while she does not condone torture, so much has been kept secret that she would not know unless elected what other extreme measures interrogators are using, and therefore could not say whether she would change or continue existing policies.
“It is not clear yet exactly what this administration is or isn’t doing. We’re getting all kinds of mixed messages,” Clinton said. “I don’t think we’ll know the truth until we have a new president. I think [until] you can get in there and actually bore into what’s been going on, you’re not going to know.”
Politics is politics. Spin and ambiguity are part of the game. But if you can’t even take a full-throated, non-weasely position against torture and abuse of prisoners in American custody, what the hell good are you?
UPDATE: Want to know how efficient the Clinton campaign is? Twenty minutes after I posted this I got an email from Peter Daou, their internet director, telling me that Hillary hadn’t been fully quoted. He promised a transcript ASAP. I didn’t get one, but Peter did send one to Greg Sargent, who posted Hillary’s full answer on his site:
HRC: Well I think I’ve been very clear about that too, we should not conduct or condone torture and it is not clear yet exactly what this administration is or isn’t doing, we’re getting all kinds of mixed messages. I don’t think we’ll know the truth until we have a new President. I think once you can get in there and actually bore into what’s been going on, you’re not going to know. I was very touched by the story you guys had on the front page the other day about the WWII interrogators. I mean it’s not the same situation but it was a very clear rejection of what we think we know about what is going on right now but I want to know everything, and so I think we have to draw a bright line and say “No torture — abide by the Geneva conventions, abide by the laws we have passed,” and then try to make sure we implement that.
Well, OK. I like the “bright line” comment, but “what we think we know about what is going on right now” isn’t exactly a ringing denunciation. I think we have a pretty good idea of what we know right now.
