Posted on 05/02/2011 3:57:18 PM PDT by Kaslin
The, ahem, "man-caused death" of the world's most infamous terrorist is marvelous news for our country. It is a testament to the skill and dedication of our men and women in uniform, and to the tireless work of our intelligence agencies. It completes the hard and sometimes frustrating efforts of two successive presidential administrations. That justice has been visited upon bin Laden is an unmitigated, non-partisan good. But as the media pieces together the puzzle of how yesterday's surgical mission came to be, a politically controversial fact has arisen -- the investigation into locating and neutralizing bin Laden gained early momentum after we obtained crucial intelligence by subjecting several high-level detainees to rather unpleasant interrogations:
Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden's most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed's successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.
The news is sure to reignite debate over whether the now-closed interrogation and detention program was successful. Former president George W. Bush authorized the CIA to use the harshest interrogation tactics in U.S. history. President Barack Obama closed the prison system.
Some on the political Left have -- in certain cases shamefully and opportunistically -- exploited and lied about the issue of enhanced interrogation techniques for fleeting political gain. The mainstream media has at times publicized some of our most sensitive secrets on this front. The current administration, which deserves some credit for the timing and effectiveness of the bin Laden raid, chose to air what it considered to be America's dirty laundry in a wrong-headed act of misplaced international penance.
The Bush administration established secret CIA prisons in Europe and elsewhere to detain and question high value terrorists. 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was one of three men the CIA waterboarded to glean information. We now know that some of that intel led to Osama bin Laden's death (in addition to other documented useful information KSM coughed up under duress).
Former Vice President Cheney has been a forceful defender of the previous administration's counter-terrorism policies. His arguments have proven quite persuasive, even in these politically correct times. This new detail will surely buttress the case that far from being inhumane or unconscionable, the Bush administration's decision to treat terrorists as terrorists not only helped save lives, but directly contributed to an event that had Americans literally dancing in the streets last night. President Obama will receive kudos for ordering this strike -- and rightfully so. He eschewed an easier, less risky plan that may have left some doubt as to bin Laden's status. Today, there is no doubt. But Obama's much-maligned presidential predecessor also deserves the gratitude of all Americans today. After 9/11, his team worked 'round the clock to successfully prevent another attack on our soil, and implemented some hard-nosed policies that bore fruit years later in the early morning hours of May 2nd in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The national debate over enhanced interrogation techniques won't vanish with this revelation. People of good faith on both sides can disagree on the efficacy and morality of harsh tactics. I do hope, however, that we can dispense with one nonsensical anti-EIT talking point: That they don't work. They do. Just ask Osama bin Laden.
I would add that there was a good measure of Divine Providence.
yes I was wondering about this as soon as I read that the name of Osama’s “trusted courier” was obtained in interrogations....... so all the vile libs who are preening about the Obama admin. today would have preferred that we never have the name that led us to this raid..... and if they’d had their way Osama would still be alive and hiding in plain sight in Pakistan.
Yes i was considering about 0.25 amps , and you’re right it’s not the voltage, it’s the amps that do you in, thanks I posted and figured a smarty was going to nail me for that one.
I absolutely agree. I had a heated discussion last night with a long-time, very close friend who, unfortunately, is an Obama worshipper. He hated, and still hates Bush, and hates Palin more.
He rarely misses an opportunity to talk about how Bush is stupid, and Palin is both lazy and stupid, but totally buys into the media creation of Obama as genius. He also has talked about how the military attracts people who ‘like to go around shooting guns’, basically putting them into a not too complimentary light. Last night he told me that Obama deserves the credit and that Obama was ‘at the apex’ of this operation that got bin Laden. When I told him that the people who ‘got’ bin Laden were the same ‘military types’ that he denigrated as people who just like to shoot guns, he started raising his voice and talking over me. There is clearly an element of hatred of the right that permeates the left, and it can be very ugly.
If Obama had invented waterboarding, there would be plenty on the left who would hail the technique as a ‘humane’ form of effective interrogation. To them, one of the biggest determinants of right and wrong is whether an action or thought is attributable to a Democrat or a Republican.
On the one hand it shows that waterboarding probably worked, since that info on Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan came from 2 sources: Abu Faraj al-Libi and KSM, 2 of the three people known to have been waterboarded, both at "black sites" before being transferred to Gitmo.
Also it strongly suggests that last week's wikileaks data dump may have triggered an earlier decision by the White House to go ahead with the raid, since the info that the US knew the name of the courier (whom bin Laden was apparently living with) was there for anyone with the patience to read through the dump (of course bin Laden himself was without direct internet access).
Also interesting that they knew al-Libi had been hiding out in Abbottabad for the 2 years before his capture.
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