Time for Two Events: FOX Must Fire Hannity and Trump Must Be Impeached

Hannity Interviews Trump in the White House

(Screenshot of White House Interview)

Sickening interview and this headline (actual clip is below)

Sean Hannity Advises President Trump to Justify and Authorize Torture by Posing Hypothetical Kidnapping of a Journalist's Kids

Sean Hannity said in part: “If I had an opportunity to speak with David Muir, I would ask if he would water board hypothetical kidnappers of his children.”

SEAN HANNITY (FOX INTERVIEW HOST): “Waterboarding, black sites came up in your interview last night. And I was thinking, if I had an opportunity to speak with David Muir, I would say, “OK, two guys go in to your house, they kidnap your child, one guy gets away with your child, you tackle the other guy. That guy knows where your child is. Would you not water board that guy?” 

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: “So water boarding used to be used because they said it really wasn't torture. It was the one step slightly below torture. That's why water boarding happened.”

HANNITY: “That's why it was legal.”

TRUMP: “Torture is real torture. OK, water boarding is, I'm sure it's not pleasant, but water boarding was just short of torture. When all of a sudden they made it torture. So here's the story, look. I spoke with people the other day, who are in this world that we're talking about. They said, “Absolutely it works. Absolutely.” Now, General Mattis said that he doesn't intend to use it. I'm with him all the way. Do I believe it works? Yes, I do.” 

HANNITY: “We actually know it works.”

Okay, first a couple of things: 

(1) Fox should immediately fire that dufus brain dead Sean Hannity, who on live TV advocates to the president that he break the law. 

FYI: Torture is and has been for many decades: illegal and unlawful, and yes, since water boarding is torture, it is also war crime.

(2) Hannity is flat out wrong to say and imply “That’s why it was legal,” under Bush-Cheney just because the OLC wrote a secret memo saying it was legal … memos cannot change the law.

(3) Hannity’s weak ass ticking time bomb fallacy (what if children kidnapped would you water board a kidnapper captured?) is just plain sick… cite this example I posted about here.

Hannity has to go. Also, Mr. Trump for his stance to support illegal, unlawful, and war crimes acts by pushing the decision to break or obey our torture law onto the new Defense Secretary James Mattis while Mr. Trump still supports torture (and yes, again, water boarding is torture, period) is reason alone to impeach and remove him from office, or for anyone else who holds that view in elected office.

Related to this: Respected Georgetown University Law Professor Jonathan Turley has appeared on many shows to discuss torture. He wrote a column in May of 2009 wherein he discussed the case for prosecuting war crimes, for example, those committed by those in the Bush Administration. 

Turley outlined how the “status of water boarding as torture was established by the United States” for example when Army Maj. Edwin F. Glenn used water boarding in the Philippines way back in 1898. Glenn later he argued water boarding was “justified under the necessities” but those arguments were rejected and Glenn was “court-martialed and convicted of the crime of torture.”

Turley also has outlined how torture is a war crime IAW “The Torture Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2340.” Torture also is expressly prohibited by “The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” That is binding law that was signed by President Reagan.

Also related here from the BBC (also with ABC News clip and David Muir interview that Hannity berated).

Bush lawyers who were involved in granting permission for torture of detainees like Abu Zubaydah would want us to believe the country could have been attacked if water boarding had not been ordered. (More here on Zubaydah by former professional FBI interrogator Ali Soufan who actually broke Zubaydah and didn't lay a finger on his and he gave up good info including the ID of KSM).

However, the Washington Post for example, reported in March of 2009 that the multi times that detainee Abu Zubaydah was water boarded (by the CIA not Soufan) that it “did not in fact stop any attacks, or even foil any planned ones.”

Mr. Trump is in essence advocating preemptive unlawful and illegal acts and would be breaking and knowingly breaking the law.

That short FOX interview segment is here (less than 2 minutes) – it is sickening just to see those two and hear them say what they said:

I ask everyone to send a note, a tweet, make a call, send a Fax, or Email to FOX (Attention: Rupert Murdoch and tell him to fire Hannity immediately).

Related: Two cases of how torture was employed and ended up killing two detainees in CIA custody without revealing any actionable or worthwhile military information… these are two cases we all should remember. Here they are from NPR. In the Jamadi case they CIA thought he had info about explosives and bombs… if he did, the info died with him. Ergo: torture DOES NOT work, period and the so-called “ticking time bomb” is utter bullshit.

Thanks for stopping by.