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UN Rapporteur: Electing Mitt Romney Would Be “Democratic Mandate For Torture.”


7408192912_a43a3b6d34_zUnited Nations special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights Ben Emmerson came out and took aim at Republican candidate Mitt Romney on Friday telling The Canadian Press, “There is no doubt that the Romney administration would be able to claim — in the event of a Romney presidency — a democratic mandate for torture.”

“That would put Romney as the first world leader in history to be able to claim a democratic mandate for torture,” Emmerson said.

Emmerson said he planned to raise his concerns in an address to the UN General Assembly later this month.

Colin Perkel writes,

During a debate in 2007, Romney said he opposed torture in any form, but ducked the question of whether he viewed waterboarding as torture. He also said he wanted other terrorists to face the same kind of treatment as Mohammed did.

Last month, when asked directly if he believed waterboarding to be torture, he responded, “I don’t.”

Romney has criticized his Democrat rival, President Barack Obama, for unequivocally ruling out the use of waterboarding. The Republican’s advisers are pushing him to campaign on scrapping the president’s ban on such techniques, the New York Times has reported.

Nat Hentoff at WND writes,

It’s not torture?

Dig this: Under the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1949 Geneva Conventions (both of which we signed) and our own Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, the basic definition of torture is: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” (Those descriptions that follow “torture” are also embodied in the definition of that punishment.)

“The re-introduction of torture under a Romney administration would significantly increase the threat levels to (Americans) at home and abroad,” Emmerson said.

“Such a policy, if adopted, would expose the American people to risks the Obama administration is not currently exposing them to.”

Emmerson says he will address the UN with his concerns. He also expressed concerns over Barack Obama’s drone strikes.

If Barack Obama gains re-election, he announced he will seek to close Guantanamo Bay.




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  • 1xgi

    OK Ben here is what we will do, if ANY terrorist group attacks our country and a member gets captured, they will be interrogated, they will reveal the location of their cohorts, and if they don’t answer they will get shot for their treachery. We might even consider using a pigs hide for bullets. How do you like that idea? no torture just death by pig hide. America should withdraw from the un it is un American it is un patriotic, has no elegance to America and it is un except able to pay them for nothing. GOD BLESS AMERICA

  • concerned

    Sounds to me like more liberal lies. Where does this man come from and if he is not an American, what business is it of his? Do terrorists abide by the UN rules when they kill people, torture; do the dictators that are in the UN abide by UN rules when they torture and kill their own or allow their people to be killed by muslim terrorists? What is the UN doing about the torture, rape and killings in these countries that have dictators? Why does the UN worry about a democratic republic when we abide by a Constitution and the little dictators get away with murder all the time. Just my concern.

  • concerned

    More reasons to disband the UN from the U. S. It is also the ultimate when a group of dictators from the UN want to monitor OUR voting on election day for fraud!!! What’s up with that? Is that something OUR president is allowing them to do?

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