NY POST.com: "'TORTURE' REGRETS CHEER OUR ENEMIES" by Adam Brodsky (SNIPPET: "Our new enemies require us to adopt new standards. But never for a moment should anyone think such changes compromise our moral standing. Self-flagellation and restraint won't make us more noble. But they might just make us more ... dead.") (Updated May 1, 2009, 4:33 am)
FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com: "THE BUSH 'TORTURE' LAWYERS: NO BETTER THAN TERRORISTS?" by Joseph Klein (SNIPPET: "Congress adopted this definition in a 1994 law criminalizing torture committed abroad. If Congress had wished to declare waterboarding or the other specific techniques used by the CIA to be included within the law criminalizing torture, they could have done so for the past seven years but did not. This is telling, considering Nancy Pelosi was briefed upon these techniques in detail. Like the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture, she is simply another in the long litany of government officials who seem to revel in their own tortuous reasoning, which invariably ends up protecting terrorists. They deserve to be ignored.") (May 5, 2009)
Experts.FOREIGN POLICY.com: "IRREPARABLE DAMAGE" by Thomas Hegghammer (SNIPPET: "Switch to the jihadi Internet forums, where thousands of radical Islamists log on every day to debate religion, politics, and the latest news from the war on terror. Last week there were debates on all kinds of topics, from swine flu to the financial crisis to the alleged capture of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. But there was virtually nothing about the torture memos.") (May 4, 2009, 5:10 pm)
WEEKLY STANDARD.com: "PREENING & POSTURING Throwing those who guard us while we sleep to the wolves." by William Kristol (SNIPPET: "The dark and painful chapter we have to fear is rather the one President Obama may be ushering in. This would be a chapter in which politicians preen moralistically as they throw patriotic officials, who helped keep this country safe, to the wolves, and in which national leaders posture politically while endangering the nation's security. The preening is ridiculous, even by the standards of contemporary American politics and American liberalism. Obama fatuously asserts there are no real choices in the real world, just "false choices" that he can magically resolve. He foolishly suggests that even in war we would never have to do anything disagreeable for the sake of our security. He talks baby talk to intelligence officers: "Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes. That’s how we learn."") (May 4, 2009 Issue)
WEEKLY STANDARD.com - blog: "GOSS: OBAMA DECISION "CROSSED A RED LINE"" -Posted by Stephen F. Hayes (SNIPPET: "Porter Goss, former CIA Director and past chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the Obama administration for releasing Justice Department memos on harsh interrogation techniques. "For the first time in my experience we've crossed the red line of properly protecting our national security in order to gain partisan political advantage," Goss said in an interview.") (April 23, 2009, 1:53 pm)
CNN.com: Washington - "EX-CIA CHIEF: OBAMA RISKS NATIONAL SECURITY" (SNIPPET: "A former head of the CIA slammed President Obama on Sunday for releasing four Bush-era memos, saying the new president has compromised national security.") (Updated April 19, 2009, 7:44 p.m. EDT)
Online.WSJ.com: "THE PRESIDENT TIES HIS OWN HANDS ON TERROR The point of interrogation is intelligence, not confession." by Michael Hayden and Michael B. Mukasey (April 17, 2009)
CIA.gov: "MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR: RELEASE OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OPINIONS Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on the Release of Department of Justice Opinions" (April 16, 2009)
FOX NEWS.com: "EX-CIA CHIEF CRITICIZES RELEASE OF INTERROGATION MEMOS Former CIA Director Michael Hayden says release of the memos will give terrorists a precise guide for what to expect in a CIA interrogation if those methods are ever approved for use again" (April 16, 2009)
FOX NEWS.com: "OBAMA MAY RELEASE DETAILS OF CIA's INTERROGATION METHODS USED ON TERROR SUSPECTS" by Brit Hume (SNIPPET: "The president's decision will tell us much about him.") (April 15, 2009)
piong
Ask these question: 1- What measurable result has torture produced? 2- What does one become when one denigrates the person, identity or physical body another human being? 3- At one point in the heart does the honorable restraining of the enemy become the wicked intent to mayhem, butchery and malice, i.e. bloodlust? And, finally, 4- what effect does this have on the innocent? The strongest people in history; Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and their followers, have already proven to the world, that standing faithfully, righteously, openhanded and courageous in one’s higher individual integrity is much greater than submitting to the lower instincts of fear.
I turned on Fox News at 9:50 this morning just in time to hear about “guyliner,” the latest innovation where men will wear eyeliner along with their tats, earrings, and bling.
Ten minutes later came the Saturday business block which was why I had really turned the TV on. I turned it back off after another ten minutes. Amidst the usual shouting I heard the loudest voice, belonging to a Dim who was arguing that 60 of the Gitmo thugs were completely innocent and should be released with reparations.
Sometimes I can’t take it anymore. I’m now listening to Frank Cordell and his orchestra on the “Easy Listening” channel.