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Making the Hard Measures
Flopping Aces ^ | 04-29-12 | Wordsmith

Posted on 04/29/2012 12:52:35 PM PDT by Starman417

“The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security. We must do whatever it takes to track down and capture or kill terrorists, but torture is not a part of the answer – it is a fundamental part of the problem with this administration’s approach. Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them. Torture is how you get bad information, not good intelligence. Torture is how you set back America’s standing in the world, not how you strengthen it.”
-Senator Obama, 2007

"I believe that waterboarding was torture and, whatever legal rationals were used, it was a mistake."
-President Obama, 2009

"And anybody who has actually read about and understands the practice of waterboarding would say that that is torture. And that's not something we do. Period."
-President Obama, 2011

Until Marc Thiessen's book, Courting Disaster, came out in 2010, the critics of Bush-era enhanced interrogations (waterboarding specifically) of al-Qaeda high-value detainees have had most of the field to themselves in the media. Former VP Dick Cheney could not restrain himself from making public comments in response to the current president's political attacks against the EIT program and those who supported it. Those involved directly within the CIA interrogation program itself were not at liberty to defend themselves against the attacks, distortions, smears, and misconceptions. They basically had to bite their lips and weather the storm of slander.

President Obama's 2009 decision to release the "how-not-to-torture" OLC memos made details of Thiessen's book possible. Courting Disaster challenged the mainstream narrative that the CIA method of waterboarding (just 3 HVDs) rose to the level of definition for torture and that it was ineffective.

In Dick Cheney's memoir, In My Time pg 521-2, the former VP writes:

The president decided to declassify a different set of documents. These were the memos produced by the Bush administration Justice Department that explained the legal rationale supporting enhanced interrogation and also detailed the particular methods involved. At about the same time, President Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, signaled the possibility that the lawyers who prepared these memos and the intellgience officers who conducted enhanced interrogations might face professional sanction or even criminal prosecution.

I was appalled that the new administration would even consider punishing honorable public servants who had carried out the Bush administration's lawful policies and kept the country safe. I was also deeply concerned about the selective fashion in which sensitive information was being declassified and made public. The administration had just revealed to the world, including our enemies, methods used to question detainees thought to have information about future attacks. Yet the information in the memos I had requested- detailing all we had learned, and the attacks we had stopped through the enhanced interrogation program- was being kept secret. A few weeks after President Obama released the legal memos, I heard from CIA Director Leon Panetta, a colleague and friend from my days in the House. He wrote to tell me that my request was being denied.

The memos Cheney wanted to have released eventually were made available. And still the debate over waterboarding and "torture" remain unsettled.

Early this month, we have the indictment of John Kiriakou and the State Department's release of the Zelikow memo.

The former Bush vice president and the former Bush speech writer aren't the only ones appalled by President Obama's branding with the "torture" label libel. And they aren't the only ones coming forth to give the other side of the story.

Next week will bring us the release of Jose Rodriguez's new book, Hard Measures. And it begins with an extensive 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl tomorrow night.

[VIDEO AT SITE]

Rodriguez is the ex-CIA chief of the Counterterrorism Center who ordered the destruction of 92 interrogation tapes. Absolved of criminal wrong-doing, why were they destroyed? Rodriguez explains:

(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; torture; waterboarding

1 posted on 04/29/2012 12:52:48 PM PDT by Starman417
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To: Starman417

—yeah, sure—”waterboarding” is horrible beyond belief but blowing several people up at a time from thousands of miles away ,in a foreign country without a declared war underway, on the basis of rumor or hearsay is perfectly acceptable-—


2 posted on 04/29/2012 1:01:51 PM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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To: Starman417

The despicable actions and policies of this regime will reverberate for generations.


3 posted on 04/29/2012 1:02:58 PM PDT by Da Bilge Troll (Defeatism is not a winning strategy!)
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To: Starman417

... sounds like obama is a hyopcrite ...


4 posted on 04/29/2012 1:07:13 PM PDT by Ken522
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To: Ken522
sorry, hypocrite
5 posted on 04/29/2012 1:19:48 PM PDT by Ken522
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To: Starman417

War; fought by the rules, is called peace.


6 posted on 04/29/2012 1:40:12 PM PDT by davius (You can roll manure in powdered sugar but that don't make it a jelly doughnut.)
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Click the link. The Republic you save may be your own.

7 posted on 04/29/2012 3:45:43 PM PDT by RedMDer (https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/default.aspx?tsid=93)
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