Obama And Top Advisers Scale Back Use Of Word “Torture”
The word “torture” apparently has all but vanished from the White House lexicon.
In the wake of President Obama’s decision not to prosecute those connected with Bush’s torture program, Obama and his top aides have dramatically scaled back their use of the word “torture” — a sharp contrast with their frequent use of it earlier this year to describe Bush-era techniques Obama banned upon taking office. Instead, they have been regularly employing euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
The use of the word “torture” is politically treacherous for the White House right now: It’s a reminder that those granted immunity by Obama used techniques prohibited by the international treaties Obama has vowed to uphold.
A quick look at many of the public statements by Obama and his advisers since the release of the torture memos last week shows that use of the word has all but evaporated.
At the White House press briefing yesterday, press sec Robert Gibbs avoided the word “torture,” instead using the phrase “enhanced interrogations” twice in answering a questioner who had used the T-word. At a religious conference yesterday, according to reporter Beth Marlowe, top adviser David Axelrod refrained from the T-word and instead referred four times either to “these practices,” “techniques,” or “enhanced interrogation tactics.”
In an ABC News interview on Sunday, Rahm Emanuel referred to “these techniques and practices.” In his statement last Thursday announcing the release of the torture memos, Obama repeatedly referred to “interrogation techniques,” a phrase he repeated during his speech to CIA employees yesterday.
By contrast, in the days and weeks after Obama signed executive orders revoking Bush-era torture techniques in January — and the White House wanted to signal a clean break with Bush practices — he and his top advisers used the T-word again and again.
On February 9th, Obama proclaimed that “we do not torture” and that “we abide by the Geneva Conventions.” Obama used the T-word on February 24th, as did another adviser that same month.
Gibbs repeatedly used the word in early March. Joe Biden used it in February and March.
Obama did use the T-word in early April, but that was in Turkey, two weeks before the final decision to nix prosecution was made.
The White House tells me there has been no intentional shift in language. It’s still possible, or even likely, that Obama’s top advisers are mindful of the political perils of using the T-word now, and have deliberately refrained from using it on an individual basis.
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Thats a bunch of bullsh*t. There HAD to be an intentional shift in language because Robert Gibbs was too deliberate with changing it to “those techniques” yesterday. The truth is if they use the word torture now in connection with not prosecuting the people who engaged in it then they are blatantly breaking international law. Its right in the Conventions Against Torture that “I was just doing my job” is not a legitimate defense. I understand why they are doing it, but lying about not doing it makes them look a LOT worse.
One more thing, Andrew Sullivan and other bloggers have repeatedly taken the national newspapers to task for not using the word torture when talking about the enhanced interrogation techniques. I imagine they are going to have a field day with this story.
The Obama Administration is starting to sound an awful lot like the Bush Administration.
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Yall have advertising in the comments now Greg? lol
Rahm may have mispoke
.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/white_house_rahm_didnt_mean_what_he_said_on_not_pr.php?ref=fp1
Yo SG — major kudos to you for catching this trend. Like I said, if this blog works, it’s because of people like you. Thanks.
I guess I am puzzled having seen Gibbs being cornered by Ed Henry at yesterday’s presser. Torture is torture and no amount of dancing around is going to help. The Obama Admin had better watch out: ordinary people can smell the bad odour emanating from the torture policy; calling it enhanced interrogation or whatever still gives off the odour.
Greg
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Happy to help. Your blog is really doing great work and I am honored to be a part of it.
When chief of staff remarks have to be put to legalistic analysis and carefully formulated code words need to be provided in public comments, things are going down a bad road.
“obama’s decision not to prosecute” is a meaningless sentence. obama does not get to decide who is or isn’t prosecuted in our system of justice. that’s up to our attorney general. this laziness of language in the reporting of this issue has not been helpful in educating the public. please amend.
Somebody needs to put Obama’s campaign quotes about torture and juxtapose them with the “enhanced interrogation technique” mentions by his top staff now.
The truth is Obama is tolerating torture at Guantanamo right now, no wonder he doesn’t want to use the word or authorize investigations. Al Jazeera has two well documented reports of torture from just last week. They have notified the DOD. The detainee’s lawyers have notified the proper authorities–absolutely no action has been taken.
“More claims of mistreatment of detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay have emerged after Al Jazeera obtained a letter from an inmate saying he had been abused since the Obama administration came to power.
Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni national held since 2001, said in a letter to his lawyer dated April that “oppression has increased, torture has increased and insults have increased”.
“I have seen death so many times,” he wrote. “Everything is over, life is going to hell in my situation. America, what has happened to you?””
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/04/2009416174526284984.html
Jill
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You nor I really know if any action has been taken or not so please don’t intersperse hyperbole with real facts. The prisoner didn’t say he had been tortured, he said he had been abused. While this might not seem like a big difference it truly is. I am sure there are prisoners in GITMO who are being abused by the guards there but that is more than likely something the guards are doing of their own volition to “punish” the detainees and for all we know the guards doing it have been disciplined. But there aren’t any new allegations of systematic torture that is approved from on high in an attempt to get intelligence. One is rogue activity by individuals, the other is an institutional norm.
What a tangled web we weave eh?
Once you start down the road of protecting criminal activity and you try and pretend that that is not what yuo’re doing, you start to look pretty hypocritical. Obama’s decision to defend torturers is indefensible and utterly immoral. He is obstructing justice by doing this and failing to carry out the duties of his office. I am enjoying how they are now trying to convince people there is evena hint of a chance that there will even be any investigation of the scumbags such as Bybee and Yoo. LMFAO!!!!! What a joke! They are lying! Change my ***! Obama is just another water carrier for the status quo. It is sickening.
Immunity? Huh? Did I miss the story about the issuance of pardons? Was there some (highly illegal) executive order to Holder ordering Justice not to investigate issued that I missed? Or did someone grant testimonial immunity?
I’m asking because if none of those things happened, nothing is off the table, no matter how hard the left or the the blogs hyperventillate about it. And if you parse the statements of Obama, Emmanual, Holder and anyone else in the administration with as much care as you’re devoting to the frequency of their use of the word “tortue,” you’ll see a fascinating pattern of options, caveats and outs.
Its amazing how fickle some people are. The decision not to prosecuted pissed me off but now people are saying that makes him Bush or worse. Oh well guess they won’t want to know that he just opened the door to prosecuting Bush officials by saying he is leaving it up to Eric Holder to decide. The same Eric Holder who pushed for the OLC memos to be published.
Maybe the DOJ and admin don’t want to prosecute because the court case would be a PR debacle. The enhanced interrogations resulted in valuable information:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042002818.html
The release of the torture memos has led to a much louder drumbeat of calls for accountability. Even the Grey Lady got excited about it.
So, one possibility is that, anticipating the opening of real investigations, the Administration is toning down the rhetoric to make it clear it is not them pushing the hue and cry – it is the honorable Justice Bybee pushing it with his own words.
It’s just as possible they’re stepping back to keep from queering the pitch as that they’re stepping back in order to tamp down the demands for investigation. (Rahm, of course, is the weasel he always was, and the chances that he’s privy to Obama’s inmost thoughts are slim.)
They’re doing this so the word torture still packs a legal punch. If they basically tell everyone it’s torture, then people won’t understand the value of investigating to make sure those who committed the international crime of Torture (think of it as big-T torture). I think it’s smart, and anti-torture advocates should appreciate it.
And so we see Obama’s administration start to sink into the torture tar pit. He’s been backing away from prosecution or any meaningful accountability for those who committed and authorized these acts, now he’s backing away from calling these acts what they are; torture. it’s like watching somebody’s soul dry up, crumble, and blow away in the wind.
Not that this is excusable or anything, but I am beginning to think that the Obama administration is attempting to “de-politicize” the stage for future torture investigations. I think they are trying to make it look as if they are being “forced” into action rather than doing so on their own accord (again, this is not excusable). Many have pointed out already that it is not up to the President to decide how the judicial branch is to perform its duties (well, not since the Bush administration, anyway
and let’s hope that Mr. Holder performs does just that!
It’s not “Obama” who has “vowed to uphold” those international treaties, it’s the United States of America. Treaties signed by the President and ratified by the Senate are the law of the land. The UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment is the law of the land.
“Enhanced interrogation” — wouldn’t that be questioning with aromatherapy, Enya, and a pedicure? Ah, the audacity of weasel-speak.
Hi, I think that Jane Harman ought to move over to the conservative Republican side. She seems to fit there better than with the Democrats. BG Villemez, las cruces, NM
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