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Thursday, December 8, 2005 09:15 AM
Original article: Condi's trail of lies

Include or exclude?

In the paragraph:

"Torture is a term that is defined by law," said Rice. "We rely on our law to govern our operations." She neglected to explain that "torture" as she used it has been defined by presidential findings to include universally defined methods of torture, such as waterboarding, for which U.S. soldiers were court-martialed in 1902 and 1968 specifically on the basis of having engaged in torture."

I believe that the word "include" is probably meant to be "exclude". Is the point that Rice is lying

outright when she says the US doesn't torture because waterboarding is torture and the US does it?

Or is the point that she's evading the question because she and her cohorts have specifically excluded (via the finding) waterboarding from their definition of torture?

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