Posted on 06/28/2004 10:02:06 AM PDT by kattracks
If terrorists are able to carry out another spectacular attack on U.S. soil anytime soon, the least they could do afterwards would be to send the New York Times a thank-you note for helping them keep their plans secret.In its Monday edition the Times reports: "Doubts about whether interrogators can employ coercive methods, officials said, could create problems at the start of a critical summer period when counterterrorism officials fear that Al Qaida might attack the United States."
Why are interrogators suddenly beset with doubts?
Though the paper doesn't expressly say so, the reason is clear enough. Thanks to the obsessive coverage by the Times and the rest of the press of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, U.S. intelligence gathering efforts have been thrown into chaos.
As the paper explains, U.S. interrogation methods are currently undergoing a top-to-bottom review, leaving intelligence officials "uncertain what rules are in effect."
While the terrorists have less to fear from U.S. interrogators, the Times admits that the interrogators themselves are now "worried that the legal safeguards that they had believed were in place to protect them from internal sanctions or criminal liability may no longer exist."
So if and when the U.S. experiences "problems" this summer - say, a dirty nuke exploding in the heart of Times Square in the middle of the GOP convention - here's hoping that al Qaida kingpin Abu Musab al Zarqawi remembers his manners, and doesn't forget to thank the folks who made it all possible.
Well, duh! Wasn't this the purpose of the incessant media attention on Abu Graib, to intimidate our interrogators?
How Hanoi-Janish of the NY Times.
Obviously, the threat of beheading is the terrorist-approved method of interrogation.
Who da thunk?
When I was in the military, a lot of language specialists who completed the year-long language program at Presidio of Monterey or Washington DC were then sent to Interrogation training to be slotted into Interrogators as their MOS. Wonder what the old-timers of thirty years ago think of the Abu Ghraib scandal?
With facing possible court martial on the one side and ICC trial on the other side, who can blame them.
This is what we have to expect when the WoT turns PC. The PC libs are more against American troops than foreign terrorists.
The PC mindset has our collection efforts hamstrung. Worries about negative publicity and unfavorable perceptions trump concerns for accomplishing the mission. Our HUMINT collection efforts are still in bad shape, and that's mostly due to external pressures like this.
Ha(noi)NY Times?
What we spin is what we print.
Still prefer NY Slimes, a more desriptive nick-name.
We knew it would come to this. So we may as well kill them on the battlefield if we aren't going to get information from them.
Oh man, that's just great. The media is tying our hands more and more everyday, and then criticizing the lack of results.
I saw a retired interrogator on the Abrahms Report(?) a while ago. Basicly, he said if knew that he had to save millions of lives (nuclear terror), to hell with the law, he's going to get the information.
The actual NYT article:
Uncertainty About Interrogation Rules Seen as Slowing the Hunt for Information on Terrorists
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1161429/posts
My suggestion is better security. In particular, let's not let the troops take snapshots of the proceedings to send to their family and friends. It shouldn't be impossible to keep idiots from bringing their cameras into a maximum security prison and then selling the pictures to the media.
Interrogators will ignore the Times and keep doing what they are doing. Bush will stand behind them. It's our preservation as a society that counts and the Slimes and mainstream media have already proven they are anti American.
What prison in the US allows someone to walk-in and snap photos?
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