New Quaker Notebook

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about simulated drowning when he agreed this week that a "dunk in water" for terrorism suspects might be useful, the White House said on Friday.

On Tuesday the vice president was asked on Tuesday by a conservative radio host from Fargo, ND: "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?"

"Well, it's a no-brainer for me," replied Cheney as part of a campaign by Republicans to keep national security on the minds of voters ahead of November 7 congressional elections.

His comment prompted complaints from human rights advocates that he was endorsing a technique called "waterboarding" that simulates drowning and is considered torture by some critics.

White House spokesman Tony Snow insisted that US officials do not talk publicly about interrogation techniques because they are classified.

"The vice president didn't make any comments about waterboarding," Snow said at a contentious morning briefing on the topic.

He shrugged off Cheney's answer to what he dismissed as a "loosely worded question" and said the United States does not practice or condone torture.

Returning from a day trip to Missouri and South Carolina on Friday, Cheney told reporters on board his plane no one used the term "water boarding" in the radio interview and he had not been discussing that specific technique.

"What I was talking about was actually the water ordeal," said Cheney. The "water ordeal" was a technique used by interrogators during the witch trials in Colonial America. The alleged witch was tied up and thrown in deep waters; if the detainee sank, usually drowning in the process, that was considered proof of innocence.

President Bush defended Cheney's comments to the radio station after human rights groups criticized him as approving "water boarding," a technique the groups consider torture.

"This country doesn't torture. We're not going to torture. We will interrogate people we pick up off the battlefield to determine whether or not they've got information that will be helpful to protect the country," Bush told reporters.

"We use the water ordeal because it quickly establishes innocence or guilt. If they drown in the process, then they're innocent, and we want to know this."

Two from Democracy Now!

65 Active Duty Soldiers Call for End of Iraq Occupation

The Bush administration is facing new opposition to the war in Iraq from within the US military. For the first time since the invasion, a group of 65 active duty service members are formally asking Congress to end the US occupation and bring the troops home. The soldiers are filing Appeals for Redress to members of Congress. Under the Military Whistle-Blower Protection Act active-duty troops can file and send a protected communication to a member of Congress regarding any subject without reprisal. One of the soldiers is Marine Sgt Liam Madden of Rockingham, Vermont, who served in Iraq for seven months last year. He told a Vermont newspaper, "The war is being paid for by American people and they're not seeing any benefit from it, and neither are the Iraqi people. It doesn't make sense to me." The soldiers plan to publicly announce their campaign on Wednesday. Sgt Liam Madden said they hope to collect two thousand appeals for redress and send them to Congress on Jan 15—Martin Luther King Day.

US Drops to No. 53 on World Press Freedom Index List

Reporters Without Borders has released its fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index and it shows the level of press freedom in the United States continues to fall. In 2002 the US was rated as having the seventeenth freest press—now it is ranked fifty-third. Reporters Without Borders criticized the Bush administration for using the so-called war on terrorism to crack down on press freedoms. The report also criticized the United States for jailing journalists at home and abroad. Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf remains in a San Francisco jail for refusing to hand over video to the police. Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al Haj has been locked up at Guantanamo for over four years. Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held in Iraq since April. Neither Al Haj or Hussein have ever faced charges. Reporters Without Borders found that the nations with the freest press were Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands. North Korea was rated as the worst upholder of press freedom.

Apotheose de Bush

On Tuesday, when President Bush smilingly signed the execrable Military Commissions Act of 2006, my America became a very different country. I can't say now that the US is a safe place for my children, my grandchildren, my neighbors. This all happened with the aid of elected congressional enablers, even though the Bush administration continues to work assiduously in marginalizing Congress and in consolidating presidential power. What's worse is the smooth collusion of vast numbers of so-called Christians in the creation of a state that now incorporates the very elements that we abhor in the most contemptible governments in the world.

Among my few possessions is a Jean-Charles Pellerin print of Francois Georgin's Apothéose de Napoléon, depicting the deification of Napoleon. With some ink and scissors, that could be Bush in the picture. It could happen. It is happening.

Cheney says he referred to witch's water ordeal

Two from Democracy Now!

Apotheose de Bush