Tag: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
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.

Categories
Featured Osama bin Laden Politics Racism United States

Ding-Bat Fox Employee Calls President Obama A Murderer

Judge Napolitano of Fox News should be fired, but don’t hold your breath for that to happen, Fox openly demands that their employees make the kind of remarks Napolitano made yesterday. The Fox News ding-bat accused the President of “illigally killing” Osama Bin Laden. All this, because the President is not a Republican, and possibly because he’s black.

The Fox News Napolitano went on the propaganda machine better known as Fox Network, and basically called the president a murderer, saying, “this business of the president deciding to kill people is very dangerous and very unlawful.” He continued;

“Where will it stop. Who will President Obama kill next? Can the president now send the seals to kill colonel Qhadaffi? President Assad? Prime minister Putin? Fidel Castro? Hugo Chavez or Kim Jon Il? Can he kill whomever is an obstacle to his purposes?

Can he kill Bradley Manning or Juliane Assange? Or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Could he kill Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or me? Can the president kill anyone who was once a friend but became our enemy?

Although the Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or “me” question may be a valid one in some circles, Napolitano’s rant, is of course, based purely on capturing some political ground for Republicans lost after Obama gains over the last week. And of course theres the racial element thats always present.

According to his own diatribe, Osama Bin Laden was the most wanted man in the world. He wasn’t wanted because of his pleasant ways and wonderful mannerism at the dinner table, he was wanted because he personally went on a mission to kill as many American citizens as he possibly could. And because of his hate and contempt for Americans, Osama Bin Laden was sought after by multiple administrations including that of Bill Clinton, who the Republicans, including Fox News, blamed for the attacks on September 11th. According to the Republican’s theory, if Bill Clinton had killed Bin Laden when “he had the chance to,” then September 11th, 2001 would not have happen.

George Bush tried to find and kill Bin Laden – a search that lasted about an hour. He sent in troops to drop bombs in known caves in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the hope of killing Bin Laden. Drone attacks were often used but most of the time resulted in other terrorists being killed. “We want him dead or alive” was the famous Bush line. Judge Napolitano didn’t see the need to question these drone attacks or the other bodies they provided, but he now has issues with President Obama accomplishing what previous administrations couldn’t.

The Fox News employee suggests the only time a President is “legally” allowed to kill someone is, “in self defense, in war on a battlefield or after a verdict by a jury for the death penalty. ” Well it seems to me that two of the three reasons given, were present in the case of Osama Bin Laden.

  1. Bin Laden began the war on America when he recruited and paid for members of his army to board planes to New York and Washington that would kill over three thousand Americans. Ground Zero was a battlefield and America had no choice but to respond.
  2. Self defense –  Self defense is not only when you have word of an eminent attack, but also after you’ve actually been attacked. America was attacked on September 11th, and our retaliation was, and is, in self defense.

And keeping with the mindset of Fox News, Mr. Napolitano lied to his sheeple, telling them that there are no pictures, just Obama’s word. Of course we know this to be a lie. There are pictures and a video of the mission. But even if there were none, how does Napolitano explain the survivors who were present in the mansion with Bin Laden? According to all the news reports and Pakistan officials, Bin Laden’s wife was shot in her leg, there were other dead bodies from the mission and there were children on the compound. If you are to believe Napolitano’s “all we have is Obama’s word,” then you will have to believe that Bin Laden’s wife volunteered to be shot in the leg, and the dead bodies are not really dead. You will have to believe that all the children found at the compound were paid off, probably with candy, to perpetrate afraud.

The whole point here is that Fox News and their sicko employees can’t accept the fact that a Democratic President – wait a minute, Bill Clinton was a Democratic President and they wanted him to kill Bin Laden – strike that… They can’t accept the fact that a black Democratic President accomplished what other administrations tried, and failed to do.

Exit mobile version