What should we believe? How do we form our own opinion? On the one side we have our current president who released some redacted memos from the CIA (against the wishes of the intelligence community) which he believes (I guess) show that waterboarding is wrong and doesn't work. On the other side we have the former vice president who says these memos and others show that waterboarding is effective and has saved the country from terrorist attacks.
The CIA says these things work.
Moveon.org says they don't.
Some people believe this is torture and don't support it. (Obama)
Some people believe it's not torture and do support it (The Aurora)
Some people believe it's torture but are ok with torturing people if it's effective (Gary)
I do believe the President of The United States of America has been called out by the former vice president. He came right out and said it. It works, I know it works, I've seen the memos, lets release them. The ball is in Obama's court. Obama's answer is that he's thinking about prosecuting the lawyers who said waterboarding is NOT torture........... WHAT???? No cries from the left of a "chilling effect" by the way.
I'm thinking we should listen to what the "insiders" have to say. (and release the memos)
In the most recent instance, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a memo to the intelligence community that Bush-era interrogation practices yielded had "high-value information,” then omitted that admission from a public version of his assessment. That leaves a top Obama administration official appearing to validate claims by former Vice President Dick Cheney that waterboarding and other techniques the White House regards as torture were effective in preventing terrorist attacks. And the press release created the impression the administration was trying to suppress this conclusion.
POLITICO
5 comments:
I recently read an excellent book, Alfred McCoy's "A Question of Torture" which I would recommend to you. He acknowledges that torture does sometimes produce information. However,it produces more bad information than good. Also Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have been the most effective recruiting tools al Qaeda has. Torture, as well as "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment (also illegal) sullies the honor of our country, damages support for our policies both at home and abroad. Torture degrades a nation.
Yesterday I skimmed through the Armed Services Committee report (its online) and one thing struck me. Although Bush's civilian political appointees came up with ludicrous memos attempting to legally justify torture,the MILITARY LAWYERS WERE ALMOST ALL ON THE OTHER SIDE. Most of the resistance to the Bush interrogation practices came from the military itself, from the JAGS, from the Navy General Counsel Mora, etc. They warned the Bush administration buy they didn't listen.
1. I'm not a fan of torture
2. I don't think waterboarding or bugs or sleep deprivation is torture.
3. How do you know gitmo or abu ghraib have been great recruiting tools??? Have you polled bin laden or something? That's just bullshit.
4. The people in this world who hate us will haste us no matter what. I'd rather torture the fuck out of our enemies and save as many lives as I can than worry about whether or not some camel humper hates me.
but that's just me. I happen to love my country and my fellow citizens. I would rather waterboard a terrorist to save your daughters life than NOT do it and watch her die or jump out of a window on the 108th floor of the world trade center because she'd rather jump than be burned alive.
But like i said, that's just me.
You're "not a fan of torture" but you want to "torture the fuck out of our enemies"?
Saying that Gitmo and AG are the "most" effective recruiting tools of alqaeda is like saying the mini-skirt industry is the biggest advocate of date rape. In other words... its a crock of shit.
The Koran is their number one recruiter. Just like it was 50 years ago, as it was 200+ years ago when Islam first declared war on the newly United States of America.
The coverage of Gitmo and AG from the sympathetic media is just good press.
learn how to read gary.
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