[RummyChick]

Rush is on this right now about Panetta admitting waterboarding a key part of getting the info on Osama.

Then a lesser member of the regime said Panetta did not say that.

But yes, he did say that.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

Joy blowhard from the view this morning said waterboarding is AWFUL we should just give them money to talk.

Someone please tell her to stfu already.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Panetta is one of the better Democrats you can expect to get in a Democratic Administration.

[curiosity]

Then a lesser member of the regime said Panetta did not say that.But yes, he did say that.

That would be awesome if he did say it. Is there any documentation, or a video somewhere?

[curiosity]

So I found this interview with Panetta. He seems to imply that information from waterboarding helped, but he says it in an indirect, weasle-worded way, that gives him plausible deniability:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/05/03/panetta_open_question_if_waterboarding_helped_find_bin_laden.html

Still, with that, and the testimony from the ex-CIA official in Time, I think it is pretty safe to assume that waterboarding and other low-level forms of torture helped get OBL.

BTW, I hate euphamisms. I believe in calling a spade a spade. Anyone who denies that "enhanced interogation" is low-level torture is fooling himself. But that's fine. I don't believe we need to be apologetic about torturing someone like KSM.

If it is morally permissible to kill the guilty in order to save the lives of the innocent, why is it not permissible to inflict on the guilty temporary, non-lethal, non-injury-causing pain to acheive the same end?