and wants him released? .......Dumb never gets dumber than this!
Posted on 11/07/2021 3:09:07 PM PST by Ennis85
A Navy captain who as head of a jury in a war-crimes court wrote a damning letter calling the C.I.A.’s torture of a terrorist “a stain on the moral fiber of America” said his views are typical of senior members of the U.S. military.
Capt. Scott B. Curtis, the jury foreman, said it is just that he had the opportunity to express his thoughts in a letter proposing clemency for the prisoner Majid Khan, a Qaeda recruit who pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder charges for delivering $50,000 from his native Pakistan to finance a deadly bombing in Indonesia.
But before he started writing, the eight-officer jury sentenced Mr. Khan to 26 years in prison.
“There was no sympathy for him or what he had done,” said Captain Curtis, who agreed to reveal his identity in an hourlong interview last week. “The crime itself, everyone thought that was an evil act and he should be accountable for that. It was the torture that was a mitigating factor.”
On the eve of his sentencing on Oct. 29, Mr. Khan, 41, offered a graphic account of his physical, sexual and psychological abuse by C.I.A. agents and operatives inflicted on him in dungeonlike conditions in black-site prisons in Pakistan, Afghanistan and a third country. He described how he went from graduating from a suburban Baltimore high school in 1999 to becoming a courier and would-be suicide bomber for Al Qaeda to, since 2012, a repentant cooperator with the U.S. government.
The two-hour presentation was so vivid it “kind of riveted us,” Captain Curtis said.
Mr. Khan pulled up a shirtsleeve to show the panel scars from shackles on his wrists. He offered to lift his pant leg to show similar scars on his ankle from the times he was hung in chains from
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Always McCain thats trotted out for why enhanced interrogation is bad. He isn't the only veteran who has something to say on the issue.
From Courting Disaster:
"Colonel Bud Day; received the Medal of Honor for his heroic escape from a North Vietnamese prison camp, where his right arm was broken in three places, his left knee badly sprained, and he had bomb shrapnel throughout his body. who escaped only to be recaptured and returned to the prison from which he had escaped, but he continued to resist interrogation and provide false information—suffering such excruciating torture that he became totally physically debilitated and unable to perform even the simplest task for himself.
When asked if he believed that waterboarding is torture. He replied: “I am a supporter of waterboarding. It is not torture. Torture is really hurting someone. Waterboarding is just scaring someone, with no long term injurious effects. It is a scare tactic that works.”
When asked what he would say to the CIA officer who waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, if he had the chance to speak with him. Day replied: “YOU DID THE RIGHT THING.”
Leo Thorsness; awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. In his book, Surviving Hell, Thorsness describes torment that followed his capture: "I would say that my 18 days and nights of interrogations were unendurable if I hadn’t endured. For much of that time I lived in a knot of pain I can only compare to that produced by a dentist’s drill. . . . My back was broken and refrozen during these torture sessions. My knees were further damaged. My body was wrenched apart. There was nothing particularly imaginative about the North Vietnamese techniques. They hadn’t improved much on the devices of the Spanish Inquisition. They bent things that didn’t bend; they separated things meant to stay together."
...“When we finally came home, some journalists, perhaps annoyed by the brief support for the war our stories of our captivity had generated, skeptically implied that when we said torture we actually meant intimidation, coercion, and degradation. But the reality of the torture we experienced was engraved on our bodies.”
In a Memorial Day essay posted on the Power Line blog in 2009, Thorsness wrote: “I would not hesitate a second to use ‘enhanced interrogation,’ including waterboarding, if it would save the lives of innocent people.”
"To proclaim we will never use any form of enhanced interrogations causes our friends to think we are naïve. . . . Our naïveté does not impress radical terrorists like those who slit the throat of Daniel Pearl in 2002 simply because he was Jewish, and broadcast the sight and sound of his dying gurgling. Publicizing our enhanced interrogation techniques only emboldens those who will hurt us."
In an interview Thorsness said, “To me, waterboarding is intensive interrogation. It is not torture. Torture involves extreme, brutal pain—breaking bones, passing out from pain, beatings so that blood spatters the walls . . . when you pop shoulders out of joints . . . to me, that’s torture.” He added, “In my mind, there’s a difference, and in most POWs’ minds there’s a difference.”
The late Admiral Jeremiah Denton;who received the Navy Cross and also endured excruciating torments at the hands of the North Vietnamese. Who blinked the word "TORTURE" in a forced interview with a Japanese television reporter. When asked if he thought waterboarding was torture. His response: “No, I think it’s persuasive.” He added, “The big, monstrous difference here is that the gentlemen we are waterboarding are people who swore to kill Americans. They will wreak any kind of torture just for the hell of it on anybody. When they are captured by the U.S., and we know have reason to believe that they know of a subsequent event after 9/11, if you don’t interrogate them, more misery will take place.”
"waterboarding is “the lesser of two evils, except in our case waterboarding is not an evil. Some of the things they did to us [in Vietnam] were torture. I passed out a dozen times from torture. We’re not exerting that kind of excruciation.” John McCain served our nation with courage and honor, and he certainly has the moral authority to speak his mind on this topic. But he does not speak for many of his fellow POWs, including many who suffered horrifying torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese. These men believe that waterboarding is not torture; they believe the CIA officers who interrogated our enemies are honorable and patriotic Americans who deserve our thanks, not the calumnies that are hurled against them. And they are the first to step forward and express their gratitude."
When asked what he would say to the officer who interrogated KSM: “I thoroughly endorse your attitude, your character, and what you have done.”
Apparently this person isn't familiar with Mr. McQueeg.
” It was the torture that was a mitigating factor.”
Mitigate this.
Video purports to show beheading of US journalist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_0wZsoFrVs
Daniel Pearl Murder: Pak SC Orders Release of Prime Accused in American Journalist’s Beheading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ4S7EYxo7o
As soon as they are finished with interrogation, they are to be executed.
We don’t need ANY pajama boys in our military.
“There was no sympathy for him or what he had done,” said Captain Curtis, who agreed to reveal his identity in an hourlong interview last week. “The crime itself, everyone thought that was an evil act and he should be accountable for that. It was the torture that was a mitigating factor.”
It is not Captain Curtis’s position to determine the outcome of the case in this manner. He was there to determine if the defendant, Majid Khan, was guilty of murder and crimes which he admitted to get a deal. Curtis’s letter has no bearing on the case he was there for and never should have been sent. And the evidence within the trial would have been sufficient to recognize the use of waterboarding during his interrogations and Curtis opinion of the practice that has already been deemed legal since the early 2000’s so he’s out of line and is displaying conduct unbecoming an Officer. He should be slapped on the wrist and told to cease his questionable activity towards our legal system and the Constitution it is being aimed at.
Furthemore. all officers of the eight uniformed services of the United States swear or affirm an oath of office upon commissioning. It differs from that of the oath of enlistment that enlisted members recite when they enter the service. It is required by statute, the oath being prescribed by Section 3331, Title 5, United States Code. It is traditional for officers to recite the oath upon promotion but as long as the officer’s service is continuous this is not required.
“I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
He, and the others that determined the case and made any reference to their opinion of torture violated their oath and could have caused the case to be tossed so a murderer could have walked.
wy69
......well, I for one TOTALLY agree with Col DAy and his fellow MOH recipient Leo Thorsness.
These two men deserve the full attention and respect of ALL Americans.
It’s a ROUGH world out there where feminism and gayness get you exactly nowhere.
The other side of this was though, supposedly they weren’t interrogating this guy. He was a lowly fish swept up and sent to a black site, and he wasn’t getting anally raped by the interrogators, but rather by some homo CIA guys who were just living the homosexual rapists’ dream.
I know the media blows stuff out of proportion, but I’ve seen the domestic surveillance/intelligence thing that runs this nation and rigged our elections, which based on teh use of kids appears to be CIA, running a hostile takeover op on the US under the guise of a training operation. I’m a quiet guy who leaves people alone. If I can’t run under the radar and live peacefully, all of you are one misstep from having your lives majorly screwed up.
There really is no good side in this argument.
Carol Rosenberg, the author of this nonsense and the New York Times who published this ignorant piece should be ridiculed and sent to be night security at inactive coal mines.
According to the Manual for Courts Martial (version 2019) and the UCMJ, both available at a quick query on Google, would inform the author and the NYT that Courts Martial do not have either a jury nor do they have a Foreman. Instead they consist of a Military Judge and Courts Martial members. The senior member of the Court is the President. This Navy Captain is clearly the President of the Court.
How can Carol and her beloved New York Times be so stupid and ignorant. The answer: no one cares and accuracy and truth are useless in the fight for the destruction of our country.
As for the substance of the article, I have served as both Courts Martial member and President many times. I would never have ignored or endorsed torture. Torture is what the Japanese, the Chinese, the Nazis, the Vietnamese, and the Iraqis have done. We shouldn’t join in the fun. But, I would also demand the solid evidence, not just the assertions by the likes of Carol Rosenberg. We don’t need to behave like our our enemies, but unfortunately, our own current Government may not believe that the Rule of Law applies to them.
If you’re fighting against our guys I frankly don’t care what they do to you.....Islamists and others like them from the ME want special treatment and no group deserves less than they do.
If they don’t have the stomach for it call me. I’m old enough, cynical enough, and have seen enough pain and suffering inflicted in so many ways... I’ve got no sympathy, no empathy for the savages running loose today. I’ll do what needs to get done. You don’t have to like it.
and wants him released? .......Dumb never gets dumber than this!
Warring parties are not and shouldn't be part of the UCMJ, those are covered by the Law of War.
I’m sorry, but the prisoner jumped out of the chopper.
We were flying over the bayous at that moment.
This will have the chicom navy quaking in their sandals over the though of facing our navyettes in battle...
With the commies it’s the ‘narrative’ that counts. Facts just get in the way of the narrative.
I don’t know why the foremen was so upset - I mean it’s not like they misused KLM’s pronouns.
So Capt. Scott B. Curtis was disgusted by the torture this terrorist received before his trial.
Now that the good captain has duly sentenced him to prison where he will continue years of rape, torture and abuse; will Scott now sleep peacefully at night?
Major Khad is an associate of gas station plotter Uzair Paracha.
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