Category: Waterboarding

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Donald Trump Politics Waterboarding

Ex CIA Director – If Trump Wants Waterboarding, He should “bring his own bucket”

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 18: Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden listens to questioning during a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee January 18, 2007 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The topic of the hearing was the "Current Assessment of Threats to U.S. National Security." (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Please don’t put ideas in the man’s head. Trump has already proven that he has zero morals!

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden’s pithy line, which he first uttered in a Showtime documentary and repeated to NBC News, underscores a serious issue: The GOP front-runner has vowed to bring back torture if he becomes president, but current and former CIA officials say the agency feels so burned by what happened when its post 9/11 interrogation program was exposed that it would refuse any such orders.

“Multiple investigations, grand juries, presidential condemnations and congressional star chambers have a way of doing that to you,” Hayden, who was CIA director at the end of the George W. Bush administration, told NBC News.

He then offered an even stronger version of his Showtime quote. “Like the man said, if you want somebody waterboarded, bring your own damn bucket.”

Trump said Wednesday he is convinced that “torture works,” so he would bring back waterboarding and “much stronger” methods.

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Featured Sarah Palin Waterboarding

Sarah Palin Insists – Baptism and Waterboarding Are Equally The Same

Ever wondered why they say “arguing with a conservative is like playing chess with a pigeon? Here’s a perfect example.

Everyone, from liberals to conservatives, are up in arms over Sarah Palin’s recent NRA speech where she compared religion with Waterboarding. But instead of Palin realizing the folly of her ways and apologizing for her dumb remarks, she went on Facebook and double down on her nonsense.

Heres the rambling from her Facebook Page.

Actions to stop terrorists who’d utterly annihilate America and delight in massacring our innocent children? Darn right I’d do whatever it takes to foil their murderous jihadist plots – including waterboarding. Whatever one thinks of my one-liner at the NRA rally about treating evil terrorists the way they deserve to be treated to prevent the death of innocent people, it’s utterly absurd for MSNBC to suggest that I could put our beloved troops in harm’s way, but we’ve come to expect the absurd from that failing network.

Again Sarah Palin, this is not about keeping America safe. This is about your decision to politicize a religious activity, with something as the immoral as waterboarding.

But then, explaining this to you would be like playing chess with a pigeon.

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Christian Politics Sarah Palin Waterboarding

Christian Conservatives Blasting Sarah Palin for Insane Waterboarding Speech

Finally, The veil has been lifted and the conservative media is beginning to see what the liberals have seen from day one – that Sarah Palin, the quitter from Alaska, is a selfish loser who will do or say anything to further her name with a particular group.

What brought this realization to these people was Palin’s recent NRA soeech, where she foolishly compared waterboarding and baptism.

In the highly pitch shriek – or speech if that’s what you wanna call it – Palin said;

“Oh, but you can’t offend them, can’t make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”

And understandably, Christians should be outraged! Baptism is not a political ploy. It is not something you invoke to further your politics in front of a certain group. It is a sacred belief based deep in the Christian foundation, and Palin’s Ill-advised association with waterboarding was truly sacrilegious.

But don’t just take my word on it,  I’m just a liberal. Here’s an example of what the conservatives are saying.

From The American Conservative.

Man, the 12 minute speech Sarah Palin gave to the NRA convention is awful. It’s just witless, red-meat blathering, delivered in that nasal whine of hers that makes it sound like she’s chewing wads of tinfoil. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.

Fast-forward in the video to the 6:30 mark, though, and listen to what she says about terrorists. It’s part of a long harangue about lily-livered liberals, delivered in such a way that makes Archie Bunker sound like Cicero. Money quote:

“Oh, but you can’t offend them, can’t make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”

OK, stop. Not only is this woman, putatively a Christian, praising torture, but she is comparing it to a holy sacrament of the Christian faith. It’s disgusting — but even more disgusting, those NRA members, many of whom are no doubt Christians, cheered wildly for her.

I’m with my Lutheran pal Mollie Hemingway on this. Excerpt:

I’ve long defended Palin against the offensive treatment she’s received at the hands of a blatantly biased media, a media that collectively lost its mind the moment she entered the national stage. But that hardly means she must be defended at all times. … This is a perfect example not just of civil religion but also how civil religion harms the church. Civil religion is that folk religion that serves to further advance the cause of the state.

Palin and all those who cheered her sacrilegious jibe ought to be ashamed of themselves. For us Christians, baptism is the entry into new life. Palin invoked it to celebrate torture.

Here’s the video.

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Politics Waterboarding

John McCain Agrees With President Obama – “Waterboarding Is Torture”

If there is anyone who qualifies to speak on whether or not waterboarding is torture, it’s John McCain. The 2008 Republican presidential nominee was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from 1967 to 1973, and was subjected to many methods of torture by his captors.

One can only imagine his horror as his fellow Republicans – Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain – answered a question about waterboarding and torture. Asked whether waterboarding was torture, both Bachmann and Cain said it wasn’t, and  that in fact torture would be part of their administration if they were to be  elected as president.

Mr. McCain had this to say about his comrades and their preference for waterboarding, which is the act of making the victim feel as if they are being drowned.

The Arizona lawmaker—who was tortured himself while a prisoner of war in Vietnam — said the controversial practice was both illegal and ineffective on Monday evening.

“Very disappointed by statements at SC GOP debate supporting waterboarding,” he tweeted. “Waterboarding is torture.”

McCain, who ran for President in 2008, elaborated on CNN later, arguing, “If you put enough physical pain on somebody, they will tell you whatever they think that you want to hear in order for the pain to stop.”

But don’t take McCain’s word on this, he’s only had to suffer 6 years of torture. Listen to Michele Looney Toons Bachmann and Herman Pizza Man Cain. Yeah, they know what constitutes torture.

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Politics Republican Waterboarding

President Obama Disagrees With Republicans – “Waterboarding Is Torture”

Two of the Republicans who claim they’ve gotten a message from God to run for President, said in the last debate that they believed that waterboarding is not torture. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain then went on to say that they would reinstate the practice if they won the presidency in 2012.

God cannot be happy with these two!…

Asked how he felt about what Bachmann and Cain said, President Obama responded that the two were “wrong,” about waterboarding. The President reiterated that the  practice was indeed “torture,” and stated that the use of it diminished the moral stance of the United States.

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Osama bin Laden Politics Rick Santorum Waterboarding

Rick Santorum Questions John McCain’s Torture Claims

Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has one for John McCain, telling a radio show host on Tuesday that Mr. McCain, a man who was a documented, tortured, prisoner of war for 5 years, “doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works.”

Mr. Santorum was referring to an op-ed written by John McCain, in which Mr. McCain stated that the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden had nothing to do with enhanced interrogation or water-boarding. In the op-ed, Senator McCain states that after talking to CIA Director Leon Pinetta, he was under the impression that “none of the three detainees who were water­boarded pro­vided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his where­abouts or an accu­rate descrip­tion of his role in al-Qaeda.”

Santorum said on the show;

“Everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been for information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation, and so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being water-boarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative.”

Personally, I think it’s a rather strange coincidence that Santorum used the word “broken” in describing the point where enhance interrogation or torture begins producing information. And even stranger is the fact that he used the word in trying to dispute Senator McCain’s op-ed.

It is common knowledge that John McCain suffered many broken bones in his arms and legs from the events in 1968 that lead to his capture as a prisoner of war and his bout with torture.  And even today, the effects of those events can still be seen in the limited movements of Mr. McCain.

If Santorum is correct with his “broken” claim, then we must wonder exactly what information did John McCain give while he was being broken. Maybe Mr. Santorum knows something we don’t.

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Osama bin Laden Politics United States Waterboarding

John McCain – Torture Did Not Lead To Osama Bin Laden’s Capture

John McCain is often called many things for many reasons (we will not get into them now). But one thing you must respect Mr. McCain for is the many years he spent in captivity while flying bombing missions in the Vietnam war. John McCain was a prisoner of war and faced bouts of torture from his captors.

So when McCain talks about torture, it would be a wise idea to listen to someone with first hand knowledge. In a Washington Post op-ed written on Thursday, McCain responded to the claims of many in his own Republican party that intelligence gathered under torture led to Osama Bin Laden’s capture. Mr. McCain spoke about some of the acts employed by United States personnel, namely water-boarding;

Much of this debate is a definitional one: whether any or all of these methods constitute torture. I believe some of them do, especially waterboarding, which is a mock execution and thus an exquisite form of torture. As such, they are prohibited by American laws and values, and I oppose them.

After stating his personal feelings on water-boarding, Mr. McCain – the Republican 2008 Presidential nominee and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee – dove into the debate head-on, saying that any claims by former Bush officials that torture led to Bin Laden’s capture were “false.”

But this must be an informed debate. Former attorney general Michael Mukaseyrecently claimed that “the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information — including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.” That is false.

I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.

This must be shocking news for those on Fox News and most of the Republican leaders, who, on the Sunday talk shows had a field day promoting the lie that torturing Khalid Sheik Mohammed revealed the name of the courier to Osama Bin Laden. Instead of accepting the fact that Bin Laden was captured on President’s Obama’s watch, these partisan Republican leaders got their talking points from Fox News, and ran with it.

Mr. McCain continued;

In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator — none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee — information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden — was obtained through standard, noncoercive means.

One of the claims John McCain made in the 2008 presidential election was that he was still a maverick. Well you can’t get more mavericky than this.

At a time when Republicans are looking for any kind of victory, even trying to take one away from a Democratic President, one Republican is standing up and speaking the truth – a rare act. And for that, John McCain has regained his maverick status.

Hopefully, it’ll stick around for a while.

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Barack Obama Condoleezza Rice Dick Cheney Osama bin Laden Osama BinLaden Politics United States Waterboarding

Torture Had Nothing To Do With Finding Osama Bin Laden

We have all heard their claims, that former President George Bush is equally responsible for bringing down Osama Bin Laden as our current President, Barack Obama. And these Bush lovers credit the torturing and water-boarding of prisoners as the only pathway that led to Bin Laden.

Are they right? Is the Obama administration wrong for ending torture and abiding by the rules in the Geneva Convention – a treaty that America is a signatory to? A treaty that clearly states in Article 27;

Protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and customs. They shall, at all times, be humanely treated, and shall be protected, especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public curiosity.

If we listen to the likes of Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, we would be led to think that torture is the best thing since slice bread. But branch out a little and listen to others in the business of getting intelligence, and you’ll understand why torture or “enhanced interrogation,” loses its effect after a while.

Forbes today released an interview with a top United States interrogator in Afghanistan, who claimed that “torture played no role in locating Osama bin Laden.” According to the report, this interrogator refers to the support for torture made by former Bush administration officials as “propaganda [that] degrades our intelligence operations more than any other factor I can think of.”

He continues;

“Listen, water-boarding and/or other coercive techniques did nothing to contribute to our attempts to track down UBL (Usama bin Laden). What did succeed was weeks, months and years of diligent, laborious, and dedicated work – all within the bounds of legal and ethical boundaries…No torture, no waterboarding, no coercion – nothing inhumane – is considered a useful tool in our work.

I cannot even count the amount of times that I personally have come face to face with detainees, who told me they were primarily motivated to do what they did, because of hearing that we committed torture. Even the rumor of torture is enough to convince an army of uneducated and illiterate, yet religiously motivated young boys to strap bombs to their chests and blow themselves up while killing whoever happens to be around – police, soldiers, civilians, women, or children. Torture committed by Americans in the past continues to kill Americans today.”

But why would Cheney and Rice listen to anything an interrogator says? Torture was their policy. It had nothing to do with American exceptionalism, finding terrorists or saving the lives of American troops deployed abroad. It was their interrogation practice of choice.

Torture violates the very  moral fabric of who we are as Americans and admitting it was wrong means their policies were wrong as well. And that is what it all boils down to… politics 101.

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