Posted on 12/15/2007 10:45:23 PM PST by NormsRevenge
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican White House hopeful John McCain said he wants "a crash program" in civilian and military schools that emphasizes language and creates a "new specialty in strategic interrogation" so the nation never feels the need for torture.
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war who suffered mistreatment, talked about the new proposal at a Columbia campaign stop Saturday.
McCain said he wanted to create an Army Advisory Corps of 20,000 soldiers to act as military advisers and a new Office of Strategic Services to fight terrorists. He said he wanted them to pursue "a crash program in civilian and military schools" to prepare more experienced speakers in strategically important languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and others, and to "create a new specialty in strategic interrogation — a new, a new group of strategic interrogators so that we never have to feel motivated to torture anyone ever again."
When asked if he knew whether U.S. forces had engaged in torture in the past, the Arizona senator said he didn't.
"I do not know whether they've been involved in torture because I don't have that kind of information," McCain said. "I do know that when tapes are destroyed of interrogations, it contributes enormously to the cynicism, the skepticism, and also is further damaging to the image of the United States of America in the world."
The CIA recently acknowledged that in 2005 it destroyed videotapes made three years earlier of the CIA's interrogations of two terror suspects. The tapes were made to document how CIA officers used new, harsh questioning techniques approved by the White House to force recalcitrant prisoners to talk.
Intelligence officials have said the methods that were shown on the videotapes included waterboarding, an interrogation tactic that causes the sensation of drowning and is banned by the Pentagon.
McCain also said he met with a "high ranking member of al-Qaida in Iraq" who told him that post-invasion lawlessness and images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib helped recruit insurgents. The latter was "a great recruitment tool," McCain said. "He said it and I believe it."
He also said he'd go after terrorists with a new military force. "I'll set up a new agency patterned after the old Office of Strategic Services that will be a small, nimble, can-do organization that will fight" terrorist anywhere in the world and on the Internet, McCain said.
Later, at Newberry College's commencement ceremony about an hour away, McCain talked about the response to torture being a measure of character.
"These tools are not American tools and the easy way is not the American way," McCain told the graduating class.
McCain said the people he spent time with as a POW in Vietnam were tortured and encouraged to make statements to stop their suffering, but didn't even when promised no one would find out. McCain said they would know what they'd said.
"That, my friends, is character," McCain told the graduating class.
McCain wrapped up his two-day spin through South Carolina with a town hall meeting at a Greer family restaurant.
John Grabiel, a Greer minister, pressed McCain about whether he considered Jesus Christ his personal savior, but McCain wouldn't directly respond.
"I have deep religious beliefs and values," McCain said. "I had experiences in my life where I had to rely on God to get me through not another day or another hour, but another minute."
He added that he attends North Phoenix Baptist Church and that his faith was between him and God.
Grabiel said afterward that McCain didn't answer his question.
Sorry, no room for a Barf Alert in the title..
maybe we can just tickle ‘em with a feather or make them watch McCain or Ron Paul stump speeches for hours on end
So, is this supposed to be a cadre of psychologists who will befriend the terrorists for 6 months to find out that a nuclear bomb went off 5 months and 28 days ago?
if that’s what “strategic interrogation” is , I guess so..
This entire debate is something out of a Clint Eastwood “Dirty Harry” film.
When that dirtbag kidnapper was shot, and Insp Callahan asked him where the little girl was, liberals were shocked, Conservatives hoped that someone like that would be looking for their child if they ever were kidnapped.
In this case, it is a 2:00 minute drowning experience.
Snide little bastard, isn't he?
A child molester had gotten off on a technicality, so the kid's father (who was tossed in jail for attacking the scumbag after the judge announced her decision) makes a deal with a guy he meets in prison who's about to get out. The father arranges to give the guy some bonds he has in a safety deposit box in exchange for the killing of his son's attacker.
When the police find out about the deal (after the killer has been released and kidnaps the molester), they bring the father in for questioning. He just smiles at them and tells them that all he has to do is keep his mouth shut for the next day and there is nothing they can do.
There were also false photos on the Net that supposedly portrayed US soldiers raping Iraqi women. Quickly exposed as a porn film and yet the dippy leftists, kooks and conspiracy theorists ate it up.
I finally start giving McCain a second look not more than a few days ago and he goes and does something stupid like this.
McCain, we HAVE INTERRORGATORS!! And the OSS was a million years ago! How about this? We need to relearn how to do propaganda and do it the right way. Create THAT specialty in the military!!! Obviously your statement above concerning meeting with Al-Queerda shows they have a propaganda unit that is head and shoulders above ours.
I finally start giving McCain a second look not more than a few days ago and he goes and does something stupid like this.
McCain, we HAVE INTERRORGATORS!! And the OSS was a million years ago! How about this? We need to relearn how to do propaganda and do it the right way. Create THAT specialty in the military!!! Obviously your statement above concerning meeting with Al-Queerda shows they have a propaganda unit that is head and shoulders above ours.
—
McCain has no one to blame except himself for his failings when he goes off like this.. and Yes, AQ seems to do counterintelligence fairly well, the few of them that are left anyway..
Their propaganda has convinced millions via the Net and disinformation (who da thunk I could use that word twice in one night) meeted out to the MSM that has fed the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and recruited thousands to their cause by just outright lying.
We can’t even convince other western countries to stick with us.
Are they beaten on the battlefield? Yes. And I’m sure they will turn that into a propaganda victory too. Just give them time and Reid and Pelosi a microphone.
I believe J McCain has been mentally damaged and is the real Manchurian Candidate.
McCain: The candidate who just needs to go away.
Apology accepted. :(
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.