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Rice Stands by Bush Policies During Calgary Appearance
CALGARY - There are days when former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice perhaps wishes she would have become the concert pianist that she dreamed of as a child.
Desiree Fairooz jumps up in front of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before Rice testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington October 24, 2007. Fairooz, an anti-war protester waved blood-colored hands in Rice's face at a congressional hearing on Wednesday and shouted "war criminal!", but was pushed away and detained by police.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) One such day was last week, when a Grade 4 student at a Jewish primary school in Washington asked her about waterboarding at Guantanamo.
Another was Wednesday, when she was dogged by protesters in Calgary and a former aide testified at a U.S. congressional hearing that Bush administration officials engaged in a"collective failure" on the detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists.
But Rice, dubbed "the Warrior Princess" for her role in the Bush administration, told a Calgary audience Wednesday night that she is not bothered by such short-term views.
"Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same," she said, without referring directly to the accusations of torture against the Bush-era administration swirling in Washington.
As George W. Bush's national security adviser from 2001 to 2005, Rice was among top officials to approve so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" adopted by the CIA, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other coercive tactics, which critics have labelled as torture.
Rice declined to take questions at a photo op to open the University of Calgary's new School of Public Policy before her appearance as the keynote speaker at a $500-a-plate dinner for 1,100 people, which raised $1 million.
Later, in her first Canadian appearance since leaving her post as secretary of state in January, she told the crowd to "focus not on today's headlines, but on the principles and values that are sustaining the right outcomes later on."
No man or woman, she said, "should be condemned to live in tyranny."
After her 30-minute address, Rice took several questions including one on Alberta's "dirty oil."
She called Canadian oil necessary and said the answer to reducing carbon is technology and a "slow transition" to alternative energy.
Rice's appearance was opposed by critics on campus who circulated a petition urging the School of Public Policy to cancel her speech. At Stanford University, where Rice is a senior fellow of public policy and a member of the political science faculty, students want to run her off campus. Canadian activists unsuccessfully lobbied the federal government to have her and Bush, who spoke here in March, barred as people who stand"credibly accused" of war crimes.
But Jack Mintz, director of theUofC's School of Public Policy, defended its selection of Rice.
"The role of the school is to try to bring issues to bear that are subject to debate. I think that is very important," he said before Rice was presented a Flames jersey by Mayor Dave Bronconnier.
Premier Ed Stelmach went one better, telling the dinner crowd Wednesday that Rice is "a fine role model for our youth" whose "admirers are many"--a view at odds with the two dozen protesters outside the downtown hotel where Rice spoke.
Holding signs with messages such as "Condi War Criminal of the $ Empire" and "Blood and Oil," the activists took issue with the university's decision to invite Rice to speak.
"Frankly, I think it's an affront," Peggy Askin, a former Marxist-Leninist party candidate, said of Rice's Calgary appearance. "Why should war criminals be an example of who students should follow or our public policy should follow?"
Bush-era administration officials have been quick to note that the harsh interrogation tactics they employed were only undertaken after a review of their legality by the U. S. Justice Department.
Recently released Bush administration memos showed Justice Department officials argued that waterboarding and other interrogation methods did not violate U. S. laws against torture.
But one expert in legal ethics, professor David Luban of Georgetown University, has said that the Bush administration "cherry-picked sources" that "twisted and distorted the law."
Wednesday's hearings in Washington by the Senate judiciary subcommittee included testimony from a former interrogator who said the rough interrogation methods were "slow, ineffective and unreliable."
Philip Zelikow, who served as a top adviser to Rice from 2005 until 2007, told the hearing that the interrogation tactics were a "collective failure."
Zelikow said he did not comply with an order to destroy a memo in which he warned that some of the tactics used on suspected terrorists violated the U. S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Judiciary committee chair-man Patrick Leahy said at the hearing that the "rule of law in the United States means no one is above the law."
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45 Comments so far
Show AllNow that Obama decided to defend the policies of the Bush administration, it's a no brainer for Condi.
Why are they all going to Canada? I guess it is one of the few places they won't get arrested......lol
"Premier Ed Stelmach went one better, telling the dinner crowd Wednesday that Rice is "a fine role model for our youth" (Premier of Alberta....oil country...The real North Texas...)
What the ....!!!!
Premier Ed Stelmach...
Scum, plain and simple. Just like the rest of the alta tory party. They've been in power nearly forty years now, and are more corrupt than any rural albertan would beleive. They'll not leave power because the seats of the legislature are gerrymandered; in Edmonton on MLA reps 50-75,000 people, the rural MLAs average 5-15,000. I'd shoot the buggers, if doing so was worth the price of the gunpowder. (it's not, so don't interpret this as any sort of threat of violence, it is an expression of contempt...)
Actually this would fall under Federal Jurisdiction. Ms Rice could visit any province in Canada and not be arrested
GW, I was refering to the provincial politics of alta. Yes, Rice and Bush are free to visit (wish they had been arrested...) but listening to that idiot praise Rice/Bush/et al, is disturbing. I was also trying to explain why alta politicks are so screwed up that they make the pols of BC look sane. (grin)
Yes you are correct..That was my point when I said Canada
I left Alberta many years ago. It was not so bad then. Peter Lougheed was a Conservative but not like this latter crop.
There still a distinct difference between the Northern half of the province and the Southern half and it seems the Southern half is in the ascendant.
Actually this kind of reporting, even though it isn't a US source, is precisely the problem.
"He said X."
"She said Y."
And we string all these quotes which came from separate narratives together so they sort-of, but do not quite, hang together as a story about some people who say "X" and other people who say "Y"
Ending with the quote that we supposedly can all agree with that "no one is above the law"
The job of the fourth estate is certainly not well-served by this rushed distillation of about 3 different wire stories.
I would appreciate one instance of where history has looked back favorably on torture. I certainly can't think of any off the top of my head.
I guess it depends on who's history. I am sure the Catholic Church remembers the Inquisition with fondness, American Evangelicals wistfully remember the Salem trials, and the South would love to relive the heady days of the KKK.
Now with Obama flip-flopping, I may even mount the bumper sticker "I miss W", because at least back then I knew I would be outraged and 'tortured' every day.
Sioux Rose
WTF: There is a powerful link between the belief in a punitive God and how people routinely treat each other. This association also explains why the churchgoing crowd polls highest in advocating FOR torture, and supported a warrior like Bush as he engineered a new 21st century style crusade, unbelievably cruel weapons, included, but then burning live women as witches wasn't exactly a painless spectacle. Religion has sullied the spiritual fiber of mankind in a great many places and instances, and is one of the wounds we must learn to heal through a higher understanding. Those who argue that atheism, science, and cold logic provide substitutes miss a great deal. Denying the Divine Intelligence behind the universe is not the same thing as opposing the dangerous tenets of organized religion. The Higher Power/Great Spirit/Infinite is unlike what most religions teach, and thus they grant this Essence false witness. A shame that many throw away the mystical due to their anger at the betrayals of their family of origin's religious training.
"I am sure the Catholic Church remembers the Inquisition with fondness..."
I assume you trying to engage in some kind of humorous flippancy.
Most notable Catholics I've hear of are leftist heroes like Michael Collins, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, Thomas Merton, the Berrigans, Sandidnsta Fr. Miguel D'Escoto and thousand of other liberation theologians, Kathy Kelly, Sr. Prejean, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, Sr. Joan Chittser, Fr. John Dear, the ploughshares movement; Latin American Presidents Chavez, Morales, Fr. Lugo, and many more.
All the rest of notables on the left are Jews.
Almost no Protestsnts or scowling-athiest types are doing anything useful.
It doesn't take very much thought to refute your assertion that only catholics and jews wage for peace:
Ghandi, King Jr., Dalai Lama, Tutu, Schweitzer, Nhat Hanh, Suu Kyi, Norman, Nansen, Seger, Andropov, Mandela, Addams, Chief Seattle, Zana, Williams, Pauling, Rankin, Hirabayashi, Tenayuca, Bonhoeffer, Clay, etc., etc., etc Lots of scowling athiests, protestsnts, buddhists, muslims and unbelievers from the dark continent.
Peace is a universal gesture, practiced by most free-thinking souls. Religion has no monopoly on peace, but instead, may be it's worst enemy.
"A US senate intelligence committee report said on Wednesday that Rice, then national security adviser, verbally gave the green light to the CIA in July 2002 to use waterboarding on Abu Zubaydah, an al-Qaeda suspect held in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba."
Hang together or hang seperately?
"At Stanford University, where Rice is a senior fellow of public policy and a member of the political science faculty..."
...and probably pulling more than $250,000/year plus speeches.
Stanford U. One would have thought better of a Californian university, but hey, we are seeing San Franciscans voting for Pelosi. What next, red state?
Kansas is starting to look more progressive.
Not ...your ex-governor does not support single payer
Ex Governor Sebelius knew she would not qualify for an Obama appointment if she supported single-payer.
Sioux Rose
I believe if this serpeant were cut, she'd bleed green blood. No heart dwells in this one, small wonder, she found kinship with the likes of heartless Cheney.
I can't keep the image of Kim Hunter as Dr. Zira out of my head.
The lady with the paint on her hands is the same person who recently confronted Rumsfield up close. You would think the security would be able to recognize these people... I mean, if I can spot the same protestors, why can't the capital hill security?
Anyway, I'm glad she sneaks in. She rocks.
And George Galloway was bared from Canada for being a terrorist, go figure.
To think at the beginning of the Bush error, Condasleeza Rice was being talked about a future presidential run after her putative boss left the scene. Thankfully for the USA and the world, the stain from wreckage of Dubya, Cheney, & Co. has hit her designer wardrobe as well, so she would be lucky to be elected dog catcher.
It is also not surprising that she has followed her former boss in regards to her first speaking engagement outside of the USA to one of the most conservative cities in Canada, Calgary.
Who is the next US war criminal to test traveling to foreign countries by dropping into Calgary, the wannabe US redneck capital?
These Albertans that wear cowboy/girl hats are known as "Peace River Texan's"
There is a fundamental problem with how torture, the invasion of Iraq and the like are being supported.
Those that do all base that support on a given outcome.
Take two 5 year old girls, both blonde blue eyed with loving parents needing a kidney transplant within 6 months or they will die.
8 months later both children are healthy and happy having received the transplants. There is no doubt this a good outcome.
But then it discovered.
Parent 1.
Waited for a donor. A Young child died and her parents donated her organs.
Parent 2
Had some Doctor in the third world harvest that kidney from a street orphan paying 200,000$$ for it.
Are both instances still GOOD?
It is HOW we get to a specific point that defines us a nation not the outcome itself. Murdering and torturing our way to "democracy" is NOT good and defines us as nations that will murder and torture.
So to these two parents. It discovered that Parent Two hired some doctor in the third world to murder a child to harvest her organs.
Do we keep this information supressed and secret so that said parents child is not harmed by the "blowback". What is in the SOCIETIES best interest?
DO we refuse to prosecute because his motivations are "good" and we must look to the future? Do we refuse to prosecute because "In the future we can not have parents who are worried about doing all they can for their children because they might be prosecuted" ?
>>focus not on today's headlines, but on the principles and values that are sustaining the right outcomes later on
So Ms Rice what PRINCIPLES and VALUES cause the USA to torture, to bomb children, to assassinate peoples the world over or to invade countries based upon lies and fabrications? Is it immaterial how a RIGHT outcome achieved?
If they are truly VALUES and PRINCIPLES that were used to get the USA to a given outcome, why are they being kept SECRET from the public?
Why must they be hidden away out of site unless they are a DIRTY secret that do not speak to principles or values at all?
Sioux Rose
GW NORTH: My friend, words like freedom and democracy are MERE marketing terms, they have no weight, credence, or influence over what America--under the guidance of these criminals--does and intends to do around the world. It's all about the money and temporal power, anything else is just a prop used to create enough reasonable doubt for these spiritual delinquents to thus far get away with grand larceny, an ecological holocaust, and the murder of thousands and thousands of innocents. The Spanish Judge gets it! Too many others get lost between the words.
Rice is haughty and arrogant and deserves to be brought to account for her role in the run up to the Iraq War and for her role in torture.
She will just flee to the ranch in Paraguay if the heat gets turned up. Paraguay doesn't extradite criminals.
Sad to say I live in Alberta and have Ed Stelmach as the provincial premier. He is a fairly under educated pig farmer who relies on the Fraser Institute, an extreme right wing think tank whose mission is to undermine any social programs in favour of full privatization. This includes our public health care system. He is threatened by those with opposing view and uses ridicule and putdowns to bolster his self esteem.. In Alberta he is often referred to as the default premier coming up the middle when the two leading candidates for leadership, who detested each other, knocked themselves out of the running. During question period, Stelmach is frequently at a loss for words, and stumbles embarrassingly through question period, looking uncomfortable and uneasy in his own skin. He refuses to meet with citizens and avoids attending open public forums unless they are tightly scripted. He has support of the oil and gas industry who essentially run the province through their proxy, Premier Ed Stelmach. He supported George Bush unequivocally during the invasion or Iraq and regards himself as a great patriotic Canadian.
Sounds like this guy would make bush look inteligent.
yep.
I believe Rice was correct. I try to imagine if me or my children were in danger I would hope that the American government would do anything to save my life or the life of my children. What say you??
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Clearly the only sure way to protect America is to murder every person who is not living inside the US and then kill all the resident aliens.
Come to think of it you're making a good start.
Guess which one of the two women pictured above goes to Hell.
Welcome to Calgary, where war criminals and torture enablers are free to come and go and collect half million dollar speaking fees.
This woman is a "WAR CRIMINAL" why is she in "CANADA" and which "CANADIAN WAR CRIMINALS" allowed her into the country? She is at the very least as guilty as those we have deported.
We need to know who the traitors in this country are. How do we lay charges, or do we get armed?
Having blood soaked hands seems to be a requirement for the American Secretary of State.
"Focus on principles and values that are sustaining the right outcomes later on"
Bitch
What you are saying is that torture, lawlessness, lying, murder will, in time, bring about a society we all want our kids to live in.
The end justifies the means, right?
Your former boss loved the teachings of Jesus so much, he must have skipped the part about figs not growing on thorn bushes.
Lets face it, Bush Rice and their bunch make people doubt if there is a God.
The article says the following.
QUOTE:
But Jack Mintz, director of theUofC's School of Public Policy, defended its selection of Rice.
"The role of the school is to try to bring issues to bear that are subject to debate. I think that is very important," he said before Rice was presented a Flames jersey by Mayor Dave Bronconnier.
Premier Ed Stelmach went one better, telling the dinner crowd Wednesday that Rice is "a fine role model for our youth" whose "admirers are many"--a view at odds with the two dozen protesters outside the downtown hotel where Rice spoke.
END QUOTE
These so-called Canadians are all examples of Canadian brown-nosers nosing the brown of the USA's ruling elites. Why? Consider 'War is a Racket' (former USMC Major General Smedley Butler's book), for one example answer. They brown-nose because they're soulless, deceitful, ... racket-oriented ... sub-humans who have absolutely [no] true care for laws they and their federal government are bound to abide by; only caring about elitism, wealth, ..., practicising corporatism, etcetera, and criminally contributing to cover up the nonetheless obvious fact that the GWoT wars are entirely criminal, blatant aggression.
These jerks are therefore rather complicit in these war crimes and all related crimes they try to excuse, like torture and extraordinary renditioning, and of mostly innocent people for extra "generosity".
They're of the imperialist, aristocratic, corporatist, fascist, ... kind of people and therefore sub-human; deserving absolutely [no] respect from [anyone]. And they certainly get none from the ruling elites in the USA, who only want such Canadian brown-nosers for the little extra military, warfare help the Canadian government is treasonously willing to provide at the expense of fooled Canadian soldiers. These Canadian brown-nosers look for the scrapings or scraps, or both, thrown or provided to them from the tables of the ruling elites of the U.S. government, particularly those who meet only behind closed doors with U.S. leading "politicians".
Shmucks!
They must surely know that Rice and basically the whole Bush-Cheney administration are war criminals of the supreme kind and that she's a hypocrite and liar, as she again demonstrated at U. of C.'s Public School of Public Policy; what an oxymoronic name for a school receiving real war criminals as speakers as if they're innocent, did only right things, etcetera.
It, however, is welcome to read that there was some good protesting in Calgary and that students at Stanford U. in California want her bounced from her job there. Keep that spirit up and going, folks!
Bring America Back !!!!.....What did you expect?? Condi pleading guilty to 8 years of war crimes and constitutional crimes ?????
***She must stick to the King George party line, especially since Saviour Obama is covering up, doing everything he can to look past those 8 years of fascist Neocons, and his fellow/sister Demmy Enablers !!!
Don't look for Condi to 'fess up anytime soon, and she will be heralded in the King George Library with a whole special room on the Warrior Princess.
I can't believe that the government of Canada would prevent a British MP George Galloway from coming into the country because he assisted a Palestinian charity but lets in This evil witch and her murderous boss, both high profile war criminals. As for Ed Stronach, that hypocritical fool sholud be looking for another job. Once she is found guilty of war crimes it will be interesting to ask Mr. Stronach if he still thinks she's a good example for our youth.
Canada's elites are increasingly fascist and eager to demonstrate their obeisance to the Imperial court. It is significant that neither the national student or faculty organizations registered official objections to Rice speaking at U of C. The increasing americanization of Canada has been relentless. Prime Minister Harper was the most pro-Bush leader in the western world. Michael Ignatieff is also very pro-american. Now comes word that NDP Leader Jack Layton is headed to Washington to pick up campaign skills from Obama's communications team. As for US war criminals there's more coming. On May 29,in Toronto, Clinton and Bush will speak for 2 hours and get $200,000.00 each. On May 31, John Bolton, Michael Chertoff and Zionist Rabbi Marvin Hier will be in Toronto for the 'Spirit of Hope' Benefit for FSWC, of which Liberal MP Bob Rae is a Director. Collaboration and puppetry are everywhere and progressive forces are in complete disarray and disrepair.
Be nice to America or we'll bring Chenecracy to your country.
Jesse Ventura said he would like to waterboard Dick Cheney. He should put Condi on that list. We could then see if it really works or not. Betcha old Jess could make them spill the beans about all the people involved in war crimes.