Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

CIA: We stand behind our actions — and the results
Hot Air ^ | 2:45 pm on April 21, 2009 | Ed Morrissey

Posted on 04/22/2009 5:59:47 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

With Barack Obama releasing the OLC memos and branding them as all but criminal and leaving the door open to prosecutions connected to the interrogation of Al-Qaeda terrorists, one might expect the CIA to retreat from its earlier defense of its actions.  So far, though, the agency remains tenacious in insisting that waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, and Abu Zubaydah saved American lives.  CNS News reports that the CIA stands by its 2005 memo describing how those interrogations stopped another 9/11-scale attack:

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

According to the previously classified May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that was released by President Barack Obama last week, the thwarted attack — which KSM called the “Second Wave”– planned “ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”

KSM initially resisted all other interrogation procedures, right up to the waterboard.  He insisted that Americans did not have the necessary resolve to get information out of him, and that we would only know about the next plot when it killed hundreds, if not thousands again.  Only after the waterboard did KSM cough up the information on the “second wave” attacks, and the CIA and other national-security agencies stopped it.

Does this answer whether waterboarding is torture?  Not really.  Does it negate the canard that “torture never works”?  Yes.  Torture works in getting people to talk, and sometimes they tell the truth.  The CIA got what it wanted — the information it needed to save lives — but it doesn’t prove or disprove whether a mock-execution procedure like waterboarding is torture or not.

It does, however, pose a difficult question for Americans, especially since the CIA even under Leon Panetta seems determined to get an answer to it.  What price do we want to pay for a pristine conscience in combating terrorism?  Do you mind if it costs thousands of American lives in plots we can’t discover because a terrorist suspect captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or somewhere else has lawyered up?  Are there times when we can appropriately use a non-lethal technique without letting the target know that it’s non-lethal, in order to save American lives?

Both sides need to quit pretending on this issue.  Mock executions fit the definition of torture, and they also saved a lot of American lives.  If we can admit to reality, then we can have an honest debate about how far we should go to protect ourselves, and what price might be too high for our public image internationally.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bhocia; cia; ciainterrogation; ciainterrogationmemo; interrogation; obama
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-51 next last

1 posted on 04/22/2009 5:59:47 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

It must suck to be in the CIA. You either are serving a president you hate and try to tar with a scandal or a president you love who suddenly turns on you. Oh well, under the bus.


2 posted on 04/22/2009 6:02:04 PM PDT by saganite (What would Sully do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge; pissant; Perdogg; Grampa Dave; SierraWasp; blam; SunkenCiv; Marine_Uncle; ...
For those that can still catch the Foxnews O'Reilly show today...watch the First 30 minutes for some great stuff on this interrogation issue and the show trials...and the selective release of the memo with important parts blanked out.

Very heated debate with an A**Hat Newsday columnist that refused to accept that it was a good thing to avert the possible tragedies by using harsh interrogation...very heated discussion...followed by Dick Morris describing how the plot on the Brooklyn Bridge was broken using wiretaps and interrogation...

3 posted on 04/22/2009 6:05:59 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
They want to get Gonzales so they can compel testimony against Bush and Cheney -- Privilaged communications? Not if they establish a conspiracy to knowingly break the law.

What Bush did was the right thing and hopefully the American people will see it that way but we elected Obama.

4 posted on 04/22/2009 6:06:14 PM PDT by JimSEA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: saganite; joygrace; TigerLikesRooster; rabscuttle385; abb; yankeedame; jpsb; dennisw; dfwgator; ...

See #3....trying to get the word out ...worth watching.


5 posted on 04/22/2009 6:07:13 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JimSEA; SandRat; NormsRevenge; Grampa Dave; SierraWasp; SunkenCiv; blam; Marine_Uncle; ...

See #3.....trying to get the word out.


6 posted on 04/22/2009 6:08:18 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Waterboarding is torture.

However.

“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” - George Orwell


7 posted on 04/22/2009 6:08:24 PM PDT by angkor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: angkor
At VMI ( I think ) it is considered hazing...mentioned on the Foxnews O’Reilly segment...see above.
8 posted on 04/22/2009 6:10:40 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I disagree with initiating torture as a policy. But after the enemy captures and tortures our military personnel, that practice sometimes tends to be answered in kind anyway.


9 posted on 04/22/2009 6:12:34 PM PDT by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

10 posted on 04/22/2009 6:13:03 PM PDT by Dallas59 ("You know the one with the big ears? He might be yours, but he ain't my president.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: familyop

I think in special cases it is very productive.....


11 posted on 04/22/2009 6:13:47 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

And BTW, Obama has not proven any competence in warfighting knowledge or experience with which to criticize others.


12 posted on 04/22/2009 6:14:13 PM PDT by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Thanks E for the heads up.


13 posted on 04/22/2009 6:15:25 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle (I still believe Duncan Hunter would have been the best solution... during this interim in time....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: familyop

I think we should build something like the TOWER of London...but not get as harsh as events there were....just do stuff that works....


14 posted on 04/22/2009 6:15:27 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

I saw most of that, but thankfully missed that royal puke ellis pemmican. Can’t stand him.


15 posted on 04/22/2009 6:16:03 PM PDT by BOBTHENAILER (the obamination will ruin this nation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"I think in special cases it is very productive....."

I do agree with mock executions and telling PWs that a polygraph cuff will blow their arm off (when it won't). Only scaring them is not really torture.


16 posted on 04/22/2009 6:16:32 PM PDT by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Marine_Uncle
Can you still catch it...?

He had someone on before the Newsday clown...that talked about the selective release of the memo...I missed most of that.

17 posted on 04/22/2009 6:17:35 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

yo spooks! Release the info on wikkileaks.


18 posted on 04/22/2009 6:17:39 PM PDT by Darwin Fish
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BOBTHENAILER

Watch the replay if you can....it was HEATED.


19 posted on 04/22/2009 6:18:38 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: All
Related thread:

Eric Holder Says "No One Is Above The Law" As MoveOn Releases Ad Calling For Prosecutor (Video)

20 posted on 04/22/2009 6:22:32 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-51 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson