Cheney Offers Sharp Defense of C.I.A. Interrogation Tactics

Deadline Poet

By Calvin Trillin

This article appeared in the September 21, 2009 edition of The Nation.

September 2, 2009

      --Headline in the New York Times

Again, Dick says that torture's good,
As waterboarders understood,
Protecting us from those who would
Have killed us in all likelihood.
He'd change our values, if he could,
To Dirty Harry's Hollywood.
Protect us? Yes, please, someone should--
From those who think that torture's good.

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About Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation's "deadline poet." He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has written the syndicated weekly column "Uncivil Liberties" since 1986. He has authored many, many books, including Tepper's Not Going Out and Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist. more...
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