US Secretary of State Rice defends torture at Google event
[Quote:]
After a panel discussion in which Rice and Miliband fielded queries from Google Senior Vice President David Drummond, the audience of Google employees was invited to ask their own questions from floor microphones.
One of the first employees asked Rice: “If an American held by another country were subjected to simulated drowning by waterboarding, would that shock your conscience and would you consider that torture?” He continued by asking Miliband to what extent US use of the torture method against detainees had created a “strain between the United States and your government.”
Much of the audience responded to the question with applause.
Rice dodged the specific question, but spoke at length in defense of the administration’s interrogation methods, framing them as a necessary response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
[..]
Not satisfied with Rice’s answer, her questioner at Thursday’s meeting pressed further, demanding whether she was saying that waterboarding does not constitute torture. “I think I’ve answered your question,” the Secretary of State responded with a tight smile.
The Google executive cut the employee off and started to move to the next questioner before realizing that the British foreign minister was preparing to make his own reply.
Standing firmly in defense of the “special relationship” between London and Washington, Miliband acknowledged that there existed “differences in national law and national practice,” but insisted that these divergences did “not call into question the fundamental nature of our alliance.”
In other words, the British government is made up of war criminals as well.