DNI Confirmation Hearing: Blair Won’t Call Waterboarding Torture, WTF?

Who's Blair? What's the DNI?

“National News in Context,” eh?

Yes, first names are helpful for providing context. ; )

ho lee shit.

I know they are circling the wagons, but for fucks sake Levin should just spike the nomination right there and get Obama on the phone and lay down some ground rules.

Have to be shitting me.

Added!

Le sigh. Sorry. DNI = Director of National Intelligence; Blair = Ret. Adm. Dennis Blair. I wrote like 15 posts and wrote them fast. Sorry about that.

DNI = Director of National Intellgence, supposed the office that coordinates all intellgence activities in the Federal Government (nevermind that's what the CIA was created for.)

So the head of that office is a big deal intel wise, at least on paper. Blair is Obama's nominee. So you've got Obama's top spy nominee refusing to refute waterboarding.

Fuck that

Blair, when working with the Clinton admin during the East Timor independence efforts, lent moral if not material support to the Indonesian military which in turn lent direct support to militias that were massacring East Timorese. This in contradiction to the wishes of the Clinton admin.

See:

http://etan.org/news/2009/01blair.htm

for more information.

There's a simple way to get Blair to 'fess up. Ask him if a US Navy pilot or SEAL was captured and subjected to waterboarding, would he consider it a) a violation of the Geneva Conventions and b) torture of US military personnel?

As a retired admiral, he would have to answer to all the active duty military personnel if he equivocates on waterboarding.

“WTF”?
The answer's obvious. He's trying to maintain the peace within his organizations under his purview. He's trying to “look forward not backward.”
“You’ll just have to make the inference from my answer that on my watch we will not waterboard,”
People thought they were following orders. He doesn't want to have to work with people who are being told they are torturers, even if not charged with it. Military logic is simple: following orders is good, disobeying them is bad. The orders were bad. The people who followed those orders do not want to feel responsible, since they did the “right” thing . Ever heard of Stanley Milgram?.

And is, then, all which is just pious? Or, is that which is pious all just, but that which is just, only in part and not all, pious?
The military is founded on an ideal of piety. The government is founded on an ideal of justice.
Blair understands the conflict more than you.

Isn't that the Nuremburg defense? “I was just following orders”?

Obama should withdraw his nomination. WTF!

What needs to happen is that a mid-to-high level Army officer or CIA operative needs to get charged with war crimes. Somebody at the rank of Major or Lt. Colonel would be about right. And when they realize that they might spend the rest of their lives in jail, they will sing like a parakeet and gladly cut a plea bargain deal. That is how we get to Yoo and Rove and Addington and Cheney.

OUT OUT OUT.

Waterboarding has been deemed to be torture at least since WW2, if not before (didn't Holder say something about hte Summerians?) so it should still be torture. I don't think the technique has changed any to be less disgusting and terrifying, has it?

I listened to last part of the hearing, including the part where Blair equivocated on waterboarding. Clearly he wants to try to protect the lower level agents. Does anyone know if anyone asked him about East Timor?

So, it's not torture if it is “authorized at the highest levels” and someone claims they “acted within their duties”

Ah.

So.

One would expect a retired Naval Admiral to actually have the stones to provide a substantive reply to a question like that.

IMO, ADM Blair's refusal to provide such a reply is sufficient grounds to vote against his confirmation.

Has Obama nominated any decent human beings?

Blair”s answer should be disqualifying for any job in the U.S. government.!

And Senator Levin should have said “I will not vote for anyone that answers like that.”

Thank God we made it to the point where we now have the choice of what to do about our past Nazi-like government. I didn't think we'd make it this far.
On the other hand, if they succeeded in destroying our economy, which they may well have done, we may see a sudden return of the Right. These people actually do see Hitlers' regime as a template, but they are creative as well, and could have a second act in store for us. We would be making a terrible mistake to simply set them free to continue whatever plans they may have.

Thank God we made it to the point where we now have the choice of what to do about our past Nazi-like government. I didn't think we'd make it this far.
On the other hand, if they succeeded in destroying our economy, which they may well have done, we may see a sudden return of the Right. These people actually do see Hitlers' regime as a template, but they are creative as well, and could have a second act in store for us. We would be making a terrible mistake to simply set them free to continue whatever plans they may have.

He's career military. He's protecting his men. In his mind, it's the honorable thing to do; and, in a way, it is. It's just not the best thing for the country at this point. Given his record and his other answers, I would tend to cut him a break on this, and hope he can get his priorities straight when the rubber hits the road.

[...] will be strong voices against torture. And the new DNI, Retired Adm. Dennis Blair (though he had a bizarre exchange with Sen. Levin in his confirmation hearing today) has indicated previously that he’ll be a strong [...]

Republicans extreme eagerness to find any hypothetical to justify the torture they want is frightening. Luckily the GOP is being relegated to a southern, rural party without power.

[...] will be strong voices against torture. And the new DNI, Retired Adm. Dennis Blair (though he had a bizarre exchange with Sen. Levin in his confirmation hearing today) has indicated previously that he’ll be a strong [...]

In basic training we were told in very clear language that it was our duty to refuse to obey an illegal order.
That was the Korean War era.

Wasn't this the defence's position at Neurenburg… “We were just following orders!”?

Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor, Xavier Becerra for US Trade Rep (neither perfect but both pretty good), Dick Gregory, Secretary of Comics (just wanted to see if you're paying attention)

What's this got to do with Republicans? Blair is Obama's nominee. And not only was his reply to the waterboarding issue full of air but look up his relationship with Indonesian General Wironto on Allen Nairn's website. And then call some US Senators!

Respectfully, I'm a veteran, and I don't see it that way at all. And I don't suspect that many of the men and women I served with would see it that way, either.

Your point about protecting his men is fairly made, but protecting one's men and sticking one's neck out to cover for men who may have committed felonies (and thereby making oneself an accessory after the fact) is quite another. In the US Army in which I served, guys who made mistakes got second chances (usually after having to accept punishment). Guys who screwed up really badly got disappeared, either by being sent to other units or just plain discharged.

I suppose that we shall have to agree to disagree on this point.

Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor, Xavier Becerra for US Trade Rep (neither perfect but both pretty good), Dick Gregory, Secretary of Comics (just wanted to see if you're paying attention)

What's this got to do with Republicans? Blair is Obama's nominee. And not only was his reply to the waterboarding issue full of air but look up his relationship with Indonesian General Wironto on Allen Nairn's website. And then call some US Senators!

[...] The Washington Independent » DNI Confirmation Hearing: Blair Won’t … [...]

Respectfully, I'm a veteran, and I don't see it that way at all. And I don't suspect that many of the men and women I served with would see it that way, either.

Your point about protecting his men is fairly made, but protecting one's men and sticking one's neck out to cover for men who may have committed felonies (and thereby making oneself an accessory after the fact) is quite another. In the US Army in which I served, guys who made mistakes got second chances (usually after having to accept punishment). Guys who screwed up really badly got disappeared, either by being sent to other units or just plain discharged.

I suppose that we shall have to agree to disagree on this point.