Torture Talk

You know what’s sad about this cartoon?  I don’t think it’s even out of the realm of possibility.  That’s what’s sad.  All this talk about going after people who engaged in harsh interrogation techniques, which at the time didn’t meet with ANY OPPOSITION from Congress, is just absurd.  If, God forbid, there is a terrorist attack during Obama’s watch, you have to wonder if he’s considered the possibility that the NEXT administration might want to investigate and then prosecute him and his staff for weakening our defenses and failing to keep us safe.  

Cliff May was interviewed on the Daily Show by Jon Stewart recently, and since Jon Stewart never lets anyone get a word in edgewise, he was unable to actually clearly state his position.  But he did a great job stating it in this article.  A few of my favorite points:

1.  Is waterboarding torture?  “Defining torture is not easy. A simple legal definition is that it “shocks the conscience.” Cutting off Daniel Pearl’s head on videotape – that shocks my conscience. Sending a child out as a suicide bomber – that shocks my conscience. People jumping off the World Trade Towers because they’d rather die that way than by burning – that shocks my conscience. Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, mastermind of the 9/11 atrocities, gagging for a few minutes and, as a result, providing information that saves lives, then going back to his cell for dinner and a movie – no, my conscience is not shocked by that.“

2.  Are we in danger if we stop using these practices?  “I am. The current administration appears to have ruled out any coercive techniques: No sleep deprivation – not even for a night. No loud music – it drives the terrorists crazy! So it’s torture! Better to let the attack proceed. The victims and their families surely will understand. We basically have three weapons against terrorists: capture them, interrogate them, kill them. But there’s no point in capturing if you can’t effectively interrogate, so that leaves just killing. How do you justify that? How do you say, yes you can hit that terrorist with a Predator missile but you can’t make him listen to Shady Slim?”

3.  Should those who partipicated in these techniques be prosecuted?  “What we’re talking about is astonishing: Government lawyers in the current administration prosecuting government lawyers from the previous administration because they disagree with their legal opinions. Never before in American history has policy been so politicized. It’s as though Eisenhower prosecuted Truman for dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  The one indisputable achievement of the Bush administration was keeping Americans safe from terrorism for seven years. It’s one thing to minimize that; it’s quite another to try to spin it as a war crime.”

May goes on to present data from 5 different people who could certainly vouch for the efficacy of those techniques, including 2 former CIA directors, a former National Intelligence Office Director, and Obama’s top intelligence official.  They indicate that those interrogation programs alone yielded more information than everything they’d gotten from the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency put together.

I am absolutely bewildered by the fact that Obama is outlawing these techniques, but has no problem with partial birth abortions.  I just don’t get how your heart can bleed for a freaking terrorist who would just as soon behead you, and yet a late term abortion is simply referred to as “women’s reproductive health.”

Do. Not. Get.