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Santorum Backtracks On McCain Comments: I Respect His Service But Torture Still Works
TalkingPointsMemo ^ | 05/18/2011 | Jillian Rayfield

Posted on 05/18/2011 11:19:55 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan

Rick Santorum backtracked on his comments that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) may not "understand how enhanced interrogation works" if he doesn't believe it led to the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden.

Santorum said in a statement Wednesday that he disagrees with McCain's view that torture doesn't work, but "for anyone to infer my disagreement with Senator McCain's policy position lessens my respect for his service to our country and all he had to endure is outrageous and unfortunate."

McCain last week gave a speech on the Senate floor, which he underlined in a number of other media appearances, decrying torture and "enhanced interrogation" and asserting that those methods don't work and did not lead to the death of Osama bin Laden. McCain was tortured when he was a POW during the Vietnam War, and has said that he would make up information to tell his captors.

(Excerpt) Read more at tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: eit; interrogation; mccain; santorum; tpm; wot
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1 posted on 05/18/2011 11:20:01 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Has no one asked McCain if and why he equates the North Vietnamese torturers to USA CIA interrogators?

Was Ho Chi Minh just another Donald Rumsfeld?

Does he equate tactics used by the NVA to those used by the US in the same war? How many times did we strap bombs onto children and send them into theaters?


2 posted on 05/18/2011 11:23:47 AM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Unfortunately, the political establishment has long used Juan McCain on these touchy issues where no one is allowed to criticized him.

That’s why they made him chair of the investigative committee on POW/MIAs after the Vietnam War. Basically, they used him to cover up, because he wouldn’t betray his fellow POWs, would he? And then they used him to open up relations with the Communist North Vietnamese.

Well, all I’ll say here is that waterboarding and other techniques used by CIA interrogators are not really torture by most definitions of the word, and they don’t do permanent damage to anyone’s health.

McCain is being used here, not just because he was a POW but because he’s always happy to reach out to the left and help out, even if it involves betraying his country.


3 posted on 05/18/2011 11:25:47 AM PDT by Cicero
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To: BuckeyeTexan

What should Santorum have said about McLame? This seems like a fair comment. I don’t see where Rick is backing away from water boarding, just not slamming McLame personally.


4 posted on 05/18/2011 11:26:00 AM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: silverleaf
Has no one asked McCain if and why he equates the North Vietnamese torturers to USA CIA interrogators?

There was speculation that he actually caved during a torture experience..

5 posted on 05/18/2011 11:27:21 AM PDT by RnMomof7
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Why do pols continue to accept the categorization of waterboarding as “torture”???

Get over it!

We do it to our own troops as a standard part of training.
There is no lasting physical damage.

The same liberal wimps making these claims have outlawed the withholding of M&M’s!!
Really!!
You can NOT offer or withhold any favor in exchange for information!!!!


6 posted on 05/18/2011 11:28:10 AM PDT by G Larry (I dream of a day when a man is judged by the content of his character)
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To: Lazlo in PA

The article doesn’t suggest that Santorum is backtracking on EIT.


7 posted on 05/18/2011 11:32:19 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. *4192*)
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To: RnMomof7

He was photographed in a nice clean Vietnamese hospital bed having a smoke and a chat session with Le Monde (French News) days after the Viets fished him out of the lake that now bears his monument.

He was nutty even back then. I know other POWs who disliked him but would not speak of him.

Hey John, how many GITMO terrorists are walking around starved, lice riddne, toothless and crippled from US torture? How many have had appendectomies without anesthesia? How many have the CIA beaten to death?


8 posted on 05/18/2011 11:33:18 AM PDT by silverleaf (All that is necessary for evil to succeed, is that good men do nothing)
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To: G Larry

Army reiterates ban on waterboarding

By Pamela Hess - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 17:48:22 EST

WASHINGTON — With Congress’ approval of a new attorney general who refused to describe waterboarding as torture, the Army has sent out a message to its leaders repeating that the interrogation technique is prohibited in the military.

The service issued the Nov. 6 message “to eliminate any confusion that may have arisen as a result of recent public discourse on the subject.”

The U.S. military formally banned waterboarding as an interrogation technique in September 2006.


9 posted on 05/18/2011 11:34:31 AM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory")
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To: BuckeyeTexan
They got "Torture still works" out of ""I disagree with Senator McCain's view that the enhanced interrogation techniques used on a select few high-value terrorist detainees were unsuccessful nor do I believe they amounted to torture,"

Reality becomes fainter and fainter each day for liberals, it seems.

10 posted on 05/18/2011 11:35:29 AM PDT by End Times Sentinel (In Memory of my Dear Friend Henry Lee II)
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To: silverleaf

Any technique that we use to train our own military can and should be used on high-value captures to obtain intelligence.

I am assuming (risky, I know) that McCain was trained and therefore was subjected to at least some these EIT techniques himself. He should know the difference between what he experienced in his military training and as a POW.


11 posted on 05/18/2011 11:36:42 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. *4192*)
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To: All

I’m sick and tired of back-tracking, apologizing, reaching-out, clarifying, putting statements into proper context, getting along, bipartisan, we’re all friends BULLSHIT...
Does ANYONE in Washington love their country more than they fear offending one of their own or one of the billions of special interest groups that pop up daily?!?!?!?!?!?!?


12 posted on 05/18/2011 11:40:22 AM PDT by Maverick68
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Republicans need to watch themselves and need a little self-editing.

The liberal media will go out of its way to destroy any viable GOP candidate.

I hate the notion that Republicans have to sanitize and edit every word they make, but the liberal media isn’t going to allow any mistakes.

Even at Fox, after Newt’s comments on Paul Ryan, they attacked him on the hour every hour.

The only person who will be allowed to make an utter fool out of himself and get the media’s full-throated backing and support is Barack Obama.


13 posted on 05/18/2011 11:49:57 AM PDT by radpolis (Liberals: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy)
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To: BuckeyeTexan
Santorum Backtracks On McCain Comments: I Respect His Service But Torture Still Works

The headline is a lie from the far left TPM website. TPM enjoys pitting Republicans against each other.

Santorum never claimed "torture still works". In fact he claimed enhanced interrogation worked. There's a big difference.

"I disagree with Senator McCain's view that the enhanced interrogation techniques used on a select few high-value terrorist detainees were unsuccessful nor do I believe they amounted to torture," Santorum said in a statement Wednesday.

14 posted on 05/18/2011 11:53:46 AM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: BuckeyeTexan
Santorum is stupid and he is out of the running.

You just can't un-say some things.

I am aghast that he is sucking up air in the GOP primary.

15 posted on 05/18/2011 12:04:49 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: smoothsailing

“I disagree with Senator McCain’s view that the enhanced interrogation techniques used on a select few high-value terrorist detainees were unsuccessful nor do I believe they amounted to torture,” Santorum said in a statement Wednesday.


C’mon Senator you should know that
‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ is to torture as
‘choice’ is to abortion.


16 posted on 05/18/2011 12:09:44 PM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory")
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To: RnMomof7
There was speculation that he actually caved during a torture experience.

John McCain has said during his campaign that "they broke me". It's part of his story. He has lasting physical ailments as a result of the TORTURE that the NVA gave him. Had they just waterboarded him he'd be in a LOT better physical shape.

17 posted on 05/18/2011 12:10:01 PM PDT by jdsteel (I like the way the words "Palin for President" make progressives apoplectic.)
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To: smoothsailing

Yep. Notice they didn’t put it in quotes.


18 posted on 05/18/2011 12:10:01 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. *4192*)
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To: BuckeyeTexan
Yep. Notice they didn’t put it in quotes.

They didn't need to, the deception worked without them. What a slimey website. Did you read the comments below the article?

19 posted on 05/18/2011 12:33:27 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: BuckeyeTexan

McCain’s own book reports that when the VN refused medical treatment when he was dragged out of the drink he gave up the info they were demanding.


20 posted on 05/18/2011 12:34:18 PM PDT by Carley (We will not tire. We will not falter. We will not fail. W, 9/20/01)
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