The Torture Memo Witchhunt

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Mike wrote about the release of those torture memo’s earlier today and described the pandora’s box he has now opened. To go along with that post is a great interview of former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson by Hugh Hewitt. A few portions that spell out the s&*tstorm Obama is brewing up, including the danger he is putting this country in are below:

HH: What do you…I think this is an enormous error. I think this is the launching of a witch hunt. What do you think?

MG: I think it’s a terrible error for a couple of reasons. One of them is that I think that the release of these memos, and now the talk of these prosecutions, is creating an atmosphere in which people in our intelligence services, people in our government, are going to be very timid about pursuing absolutely essential elements in the war on terror. This is creating an atmosphere that’s more like the pre-9/11 atmosphere when people were complacent and afraid to confront these problems. And I’m afraid that we’ve returned to that attitude, that we’re going to return to some of those outcomes eventually. And so I think it’s a serious challenge. Now let me make one more point here, which is if there are going to be investigations of people who knew about these things, and who approved of them, then that’s going to have to include Nancy Pelosi and Senator Rockefeller, who were both briefed, along with other members of the Intelligence community in Congress about thirty times on all of these techniques beginning in 2002. The fact of the matter is that this represents what was happening in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. the intelligence community had no idea if there were going to be further attacks, how large the al Qaeda network was in the United States. And they were pursuing by their best lights, according to their best legal interpretation, matters that they thought were essential to American security. You can’t criminalize that.

And he makes a very good point here:

MG: Well, I haven’t been presented with that, and I hope not to. I mean, it’s one of the real concerns here. And this is true of people that were in the Clinton administration, it’s true of people in the Bush administration. I think it’s a real mistake to try to criminalize policy disagreements. You know, we can disagree with some of the things that the Clinton people did. You know, people disagree with things that people in the Bush administration did. But people were involved, for example, at the Justice Department, were making their best legal judgments. It’s very hard under those circumstances to try to impose a mindset, a kind of witch hunt mindset to people that thought they were doing their duty.

Obama opens up this box and it may very well come back to bite him in the ass….Gerson tells us how:

MG: Well, it is stunning certainly in one way, which is every member of the Obama administration could imagine circumstances where they might be forced to use such methods, okay? In fact, Leon Panetta, entering his own hearing, seemed to indicate that that was the case. If you face a circumstance with a nuclear or biological attack on an American city, you know, you may well employ sleep depravation to try to get information.

Meanwhile the CIA isn’t backing down:

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.”

We now know that building was the Liberty Tower and the use of waterboarding saved thousands of lives. Even the AP has to acknowledge that fact:

Intelligence from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, two detainees who were waterboarded, led to the discovery of a terrorist cell, the capture of other suspected terrorists and an understanding of the terrorist network, the documents say.

In my opinion I don’t think this will go very far. There are MANY skeletons in the closets of Democrats and they do not want them out in the open. It’s so obvious, except to the most partisan lefty, that they changed their opinions on the use of waterboarding and the war on terror only in hindsight once the moonbats came out screaming.

We all know that if the waterboarding had not been done and the attacks had been allowed to occur these same people shrieking like little babies would be asking why more wasn’t done.

More here.

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This is the final nail in the coffin of Obama’s phony claim to be a post-partisan President.

Taking an action like this, or even TALKING about taking it, amount to open warfare on the party out of power.

Can Obama really expect any Republicans to rally to his cause after this?

What Obama is talking about is WRONG on so many levels.

I’m with the Veep on this – let them bring it. Declassify ALL the information so that the people can see the tangible results of our intelligence service’s diligence.

But we know they don’t have the cajones to do it. Why? Because that would blow their shrieking torture case right out of the water.

a real mistake to try to criminalize policy disagreements.

Bingo!

You might want to read these storys.
I am so sick of the lefties who want to rewrite history and say there was no wmds and this is just some of what they let you know.
Bingo is right this is a dangerous world we live in. I can’t imagine anyone who will have other than tea with one of these monsters so the America people will suffer because of these democrats that run the American government.

Catherine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3635381.stm
17 April, 2004,
Jordan ‘was chemical bomb target’
Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists planned a chemical attack on Jordan’s spy headquarters that could have killed 20,000 people, officials have said

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/iraqs-yellowcake/81328/
Iraq’s Yellowcake
July 7, 2008
Here’s a story you may have missed over the long holiday weekend: 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium worth tens of millions of dollars were shipped out of Iraq to Canada.

But it took a second American war in Iraq to move the material out of the Middle East. For all the talk about America’s failure to discover Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, this is a big deal.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/19/key-witness-in-passport-fraud-case-fatally-shot/
Key witness in passport fraud case fatally shot
April 19,2009
Lt. Harris told federal authorities he obtained “passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State.”

Might want to read the whole story?

Unfortunately the rewriting is on our side which makes us look both pro-torture and stupid.

For example the torture of KSMm did not prevent the Liberty tower attack because the torture of KSM happened in 2003 annd the liberty tower attack was foiled in 2002. The attack was foiled because one of the plotters got arrested and the others bagged the plot. Torture had nothing to do with it.

We lose credibility when we get our facts wrong.

@Angela:

For example the torture of KSMm did not prevent the Liberty tower attack because the torture of KSM happened in 2003 annd the liberty tower attack was foiled in 2002. The attack was foiled because one of the plotters got arrested and the others bagged the plot.

Hmmm….

KSM disagrees with you.

So does the CIA.

CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles

CNSNews.com) – 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.

The May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that details what happened in this regard was written by then-Principal Deputy Attorney General Steven G. Bradbury to John A. Rizzo, the senior deputy general counsel for the CIA.

“You have informed us that the interrogation of KSM—once enhanced techniques were employed—led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the ‘Second Wave,’ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles,” says the memo.

“You have informed us that information obtained from KSM also led to the capture of Riduan bin Isomuddin, better known as Hambali, and the discover of the Guraba Cell, a 17-member Jemaah Islamiyah cell tasked with executing the ‘Second Wave,’” reads the memo. “More specifically, we understand that KSM admitted that he had [redaction] large sum of money to an al Qaeda associate [redaction] … Khan subsequently identified the associate (Zubair), who was then captured. Zubair, in turn, provided information that led to the arrest of Hambali. The information acquired from these captures allowed CIA interrogators to pose more specific questions to KSM, which led the CIA to Hambali’s brother, al Hadi. Using information obtained from multiple sources, al-Hadi was captured, and he subsequently identified the Garuba cell. With the aid of this additional information, interrogations of Hambali confirmed much of what was learned from KSM.”

A CIA spokesman confirmed to CNSNews.com today that the CIA stands by the factual assertions made here.

In the memo itself, the Justice Department’s Bradbury told the CIA’s Rossi: “Your office has informed us that the CIA believes that ‘the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qa’ida has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001.”

*******************

We lose credibility when we get our facts wrong.

You’re right.

It’s a shame that happened to you on your very first post here.

Thanks for playing though.

But Aye, Angela read it on the Daily Kos so it HAS to be factual!