Obama: Yes we did #torture; what's that worth?

He's saying this, admitting this, in large part because it didn't happen on his watch, and he'll continue to oppose lawsuits against the USofA over this, but half a kudo to Dear Leader for using the word "tortured":

"We tortured some folks," Obama said at a televised news conference at the White House. "We did some things that were contrary to our values."

On the other hand, crimes against humanity do not have a statute of limitations in the International Court of Justice.

And, given that Obama expanded on his initial words with this:

Obama's remarks on Friday were more emphatic than his previous comments on the subject, including a May 2009 speech in which he trumpeted his ban of "so-called enhanced interrogation techniques," and "brutal methods," but did not flatly say the U.S. had engaged in torture.

At an April 2009 new conference, he said, "I believe that waterboarding was torture and, whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake."

In addition to water boarding, the CIA used stress positions, sleep deprivation, nudity, humiliation, cold and other tactics that, taken together, were extremely brutal, the Senate report is expected to say. Obama on Friday did not mention a specific method, but he said the CIA used techniques that "any fair minded person would believe were torture."

"We crossed a line," he said. "That needs to be understood and accepted...We did some things that were wrong, and thats what that report reflects."

I suspect that we'll not see Dick Cheney travel abroad to Halliburton's shiny new global headquarters in Dubai.

But, the reality is that, Obama's casual use of "folks" is more indication that he will continue to look forward, not backward, per the Ted Rall cartoon.