re: #547 yma o hyd

Blydi patronising, that!

Downdinged you.
This debate is not about some lofty or extreme examples in a seminary about law and torture - this is about people who have to protect the USA and should not have to look over their shoulders because years later some ideologists might persecute them.
Its got nothing at all to do with not being able to debate some ‘extreme’ examples.

I disagree. There is no harm in government officials looking over their shoulders every once in a while when it comes to universal humanitarian rights. US security does not gain by giving a free pass to CIA to do theoretically anything immoral. On the contrary the better they think those things through the more effective they can be. Lofty discussions in a seminary might come down to ugly reality very quickly if you just assume that the boys “who protect the USA” are above any failures. I think history will show that Bush was one of the greatest presidents the USA ever had, that does not mean that he could not have overstepped proper conduct in this or in other cases, during the exceptional circumstances the USA were in after 9-11. And it does not mean that overzealous officials did not overstep legal or moral boundaries in their honourable effort to protect America.

I hope looking closely is right and the prosecutorial discretion can throw the case, because they will find no good reason to believe they’re guilty, and no evidence to make such case, but it would be unwise and unjust to decide just to forget about it without reviewing the issue first. The same goes for in 4 years.