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Rand Paul launched a typically obnoxious attack on Gina Haspel today. Here is one account: “To really appoint the head cheerleader for waterboarding to be head of the CIA? How can you trust somebody who did that to be in charge of the CIA,” Paul wondered, adding, “To read of her glee during the waterboarding is just absolutely appalling.” Paul was referring to an account of a waterboarding session with suspected al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, who was subjected to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques now widely considered to be torture. ., . The problem is that this conduct appears to...

War in the White House: attorney general Eric Holder and top Obama adviser David Axelrod 'had to be separated' Eric Holder, Barack Obama's attorney general and David Axelrod, his top political adviser had to be separated after squaring up during a furious row over attempts to impose White House operatives in the justice department. By Jon Swaine, Washington 6:22PM BST 03 Jun 2012 Eric Holder, who heads Mr Obama's justice department, is said to have become "incensed" after being accused by David Axelrod of complaining publicly about political interference in his office. "That's bull****," Mr Holder said in a confrontation...

Bad morning for Pelosi @ 9:53 am by Eric Zimmermann Two new developments in the "what did Pelosi know about waterboarding" series spell trouble for the Speaker. First, CNN reports that an aide told Pelosi in February 2003 that waterboarding had been used on Abu Zubaydah. This contradicts Pelosi's assertion that she only knew about the legal rationale for waterboarding, not that it had been used. Sheehy attended a briefing in which waterboarding was discussed in February 2003, with Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, who took over Pelosi's spot as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. This source says...

Megyn Kelly has compelling interview

Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, psychologist and U.S. Air Force veteran Dr. James Mitchell was called back to national service. Along with a partner, Bruce Jessen, he was tasked with developing the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques, or EITs. Designed to elicit time-sensitive intelligence from hardened al Qaeda leaders, the EITs later became immersed in controversy. In 2014, Senate Democrats released a report accusing Mitchell of torturing suspects with EITs and producing no results. In his new book, Enhanced Interrogation, Mitchell offers his own testimony on the EITs. He argues that the techniques were critical in saving the lives...

We've been deluged by requests to post favorite episodes of The Mark Steyn Show here at SteynOnline. So here's a first one - Mark's recent interview with the man who waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: James E Mitchell. In an extended conversation about his new book Enhanced Interrogation, Dr Mitchell talks about getting to know some of the world's most high-value terrorists

Hope all is well! In the spirit of Christmas, last night I was good to my word. Amidst a successful telethon, I was waterboarded live on-air by special forces Army Ranger, Tim Kennedy. The goal was to increase awareness as to what waterboarding is, and whether we should allow our troops to use it. After watching this, make up your own mind. And guess how long I last...

Dennis Prager interviews psychologist James E. Mitchell, who was intimately involved in the enhanced interrogations of many key Al Qaeda terrorists, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM). The reason for the interview is Dr. Mitchell’s and his co-author, Bill Harlow’s, new book: “Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying To Destroy America” (http://tinyurl.com/hgzlfvh) I have INCLUDED (at the 3:33 -to- 6:47 mark) an older video I have saved over the years of Steve Harrigan from Fox News being waterboarded, via the Greta Van Susteren Show. This is a really good discussion, and you get glimpses of...

The jailed architect of 9/11 revealed that al Qaeda's plan to kill the United States was not through military attacks but immigration and "outbreeding nonmuslims" who would use the legal system to install Sharia law, according to a blockbuster new book. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed also predicted that intelligence officials using so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques such the waterboarding he experienced would eventually come under attack from weak-kneed U.S. politicians and media. In Enhanced Interrogation, CIA contractor James Mitchell tells for the first time about his role interrogating al Qaeda principles, many like KSM still jailed at Guantanamo Bay. He details accounts...

A leading Republican voice on national security matters said Saturday he doesn't care what President-elect Donald Trump says, the United States will not reinstate waterboarding. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said at the Halifax International Security Forum that any attempt to bring back harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, would quickly be challenged in court. "I don't give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do or anybody else wants to do. We will not waterboard. We will not do it," McCain said to applause during a...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — A leading Republican voice on national security matters said Saturday he doesn’t care what President-elect Donald Trump says, the United States will not reinstate waterboarding. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said at the Halifax International Security Forum that any attempt to bring back harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, would quickly be challenged in court. “I don’t give a damn what the president of the United States wants to do or anybody else wants to do. We will not waterboard. We will not do it,” McCain...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – CIA Director John Brennan said on Wednesday he would resign if the next president ordered his agency to resume waterboarding suspected militants, an apparent reference to comments by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump embracing the banned interrogation method.”I can say that as long as I’m director of CIA, irrespective of what the president says, I’m not going to be the director of CIA that gives that order. They’ll have to find another director,” said Brennan, who did not mention Trump by name. Brennan, who has been director since 2013, tacked his comment to the end of his...

Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about. Kiriakou, a 15-year veteran of the agency's intelligence analysis and operations directorates, electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture in December 2007 when he told ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito in a much ballyhooed, exclusive interview that senior al Qaeda commando Abu Zubaydah cracked after only one application of the face cloth and water.... Now comes John Kiriakou, again, with a wholly different story. On the next-to-last page...

Waterboarding is finally back in the news thanks to CIA Director John Brennan's recent comments and I, for one, am glad. I've missed talking about waterboarding much like I've missed discussing who played a better Darrin Stephens in Bewitched. I've always maintained that Dick York kicked Dick Sargent's backside in that role but no one seems to A). Know what I'm talking about; or B). Care what I'm talking about when it came to the near transcendent subtleties showcased in York's acting chops especially when he interfaced with Endora. Oh, well. What can you do? Most geniuses are usually left...

The director of the CIA says his spy agency will not engage in waterboarding or other so-called enhanced interrogation techniques even if ordered to by a future president. CIA chief John Brennan tells NBC News that he will not agree to carry out such techniques because “this institution needs to endure.” President Barack Obama banned waterboarding shortly after taking office in 2009. Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have suggested they would not continue Obama’s ban. Trump has gone as far as to say that he would bring back waterboarding and “worse” tactics to get information.

Trump 'fine' with waterboarding In an another interview, Trump also said he would be "fine" with waterboarding Salah Abdeslam, one of the leaders of the Paris attacks several months ago who was just captured in Brussels, in order to get more information on potential future attacks. "Well I'm not looking to break any news on your show, but frankly the waterboarding, if it was up to me, and if we changed the laws or have the laws, waterboarding would be fine," the Republican front-runner said on NBC's "Today" show. "I would say they should be able to do whatever they...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump renewed a call for tougher U.S. border security following Tuesday's deadly attacks in Brussels, and suggested torture could be an effective technique to gain information to thwart future attacks. "As president ... I would be very, very tough on the borders, and I would be not allowing certain people to come into this country without absolute perfect documentation," Trump said. The billionaire businessman said waterboarding would be a "fine" way to gather information in an effort to prevent such attacks if it was legalized. "If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot...

I'm a Muslim & I love you: Egypt-born man to Trump Reuters | Feb 22, 2016, 10.27 AM IST Elhamy Ibrahim, 62, is a Muslim who does not like very many other Muslims these days, but loves Donald Trump. The Egyptian-born businessman who came to the United States in 1981 and became a citizen two decades later said in an interview on Friday that he was alarmed by changes in Egypt, where, in his view, high unemployment and poverty have driven many young Egyptians to religious extremism. He strongly backs Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US until...

Republican presidential contender Donald Trump doubled down Monday night on his support for waterboarding terrorist suspects, saying the interrogation method worked – and even “if it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway for what they’re doing to us.” Speaking at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, Trump returned to a topic that caused a stir when he said on ABC “This Week” on Sunday that as president he would bring back waterboarding. “Would I approve waterboarding? And I said, well, let me ask you a question. On the other side, they chop off our young people’s heads, and they put them...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Sunday he would bring back waterboarding as a strategy in interrogations of suspected terrorists. "I would bring it back, yes. I would bring it back. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they'd do to us," Trump told "This Week" on ABC. "We have to be strong. You know, they don't use waterboarding over there; they use chopping off people's heads."