Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Pssst: "Waterboarding" worked
The Campaign for Working Families PAC tells all we need to know about Obama and his CIA document dump:
My friends, when the next terrorist attack occurs, remember this report. I say "when," and not "if," because Al Qaeda has a pattern of testing new American leaders. There is no reason to believe that President Obama, as charming as he may be, will get a pass from Osama bin Laden. But forty-eight hours ago, the president went to CIA headquarters to defend the public release of the interrogation memos. There he declared, "I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] memos …" That may turn out to be the biggest mistake of his presidency.
The New York Times reports today that President Obama’s own Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, wrote in a private memo last week that, "the harsh interrogation techniques now banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation." Blair also wrote, "Those methods, read on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009, appear graphic and disturbing." I believe it is a tribute to the Bush Administration that we can have the luxury of this debate on a "bright, sunny and safe' April day. Sadly, Washington today seems more interested in "appearances," rather than effectiveness.
The CIA also reaffirmed Admiral Blair’s admission that the now banned techniques worked. Terry Jeffrey of CNSNews wrote yesterday, "The Central Intelligence Agency … 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 memo also states," … the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees … without these enhanced techniques."
Waterboarding helped save thousands of American lives in Los Angeles. We know that. And we also know that President Barack Obama has now banned it.
Indeed.
My friends, when the next terrorist attack occurs, remember this report. I say "when," and not "if," because Al Qaeda has a pattern of testing new American leaders. There is no reason to believe that President Obama, as charming as he may be, will get a pass from Osama bin Laden. But forty-eight hours ago, the president went to CIA headquarters to defend the public release of the interrogation memos. There he declared, "I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] memos …" That may turn out to be the biggest mistake of his presidency.
The New York Times reports today that President Obama’s own Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, wrote in a private memo last week that, "the harsh interrogation techniques now banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation." Blair also wrote, "Those methods, read on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009, appear graphic and disturbing." I believe it is a tribute to the Bush Administration that we can have the luxury of this debate on a "bright, sunny and safe' April day. Sadly, Washington today seems more interested in "appearances," rather than effectiveness.
The CIA also reaffirmed Admiral Blair’s admission that the now banned techniques worked. Terry Jeffrey of CNSNews wrote yesterday, "The Central Intelligence Agency … 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 memo also states," … the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees … without these enhanced techniques."
Waterboarding helped save thousands of American lives in Los Angeles. We know that. And we also know that President Barack Obama has now banned it.
Indeed.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Wednesday, April 22, 2009 
