Last week President Obama seized another opportunity to undermine the Bush administration while throwing a bone to his legions of liberal supporters dissatisfied by floundering health care reform. Obama launched an attack, not against the terrorists threatening our nation, but on the CIA’s treatment of these detainees. While it’s admirable that liberal hearts bleed for the welfare of terrorists, what are their suggestions on how we are supposed to get extremists to talk when they are happily awaiting their 72 virgins?
Left-wingers have denounced interrogation methods including waterboarding, forced nudity, and mock executions. In their defense, some of these measures are pretty harsh, if not exactly torture. The Democrats have suggested that we instead start conducting high value detainee interrogations strictly by the Army Field Manual. In light of their suggestion, let’s see what what the book’s 19 approved techniques permit:
The manual generously allows interrogators to ask suspects questions in “rapid fire” sequence. They are also allowed to repeatedly ask the same question over and over. If that isn’t grueling enough, they can focus on verbally exploiting the prisoner’s anxieties or fears.
By this point the prisoner should be reduced to a trembling mess, but for the tough cases interrogators are authorized to question them individually or not speak to them for days on end. Your little sister is familiar with that last one, otherwise known as the “silent treatment.” And if all else has failed, lying is sometimes authorized, but intentional deceit, such as bluffing, may only be employed under specific circumstances.
I believe they train middle school guidance counselors under the same code.
Leading by example is certainly admirable, but I’d rather not see more headless Americans showing up in Al-Qaeda videos because we no longer can get the information we need. Additionally, now that news of our national security’s passive aggressiveness is breaking headlines, we’re admitting to terrorists that we are legally restricted from causing them physical endangerment. Where’s your poker face, America?
Former Justice Department official, David Rivkin, fears the government is being naïve in treating alleged terrorists with the same precautionary measures as common criminals. He says, “This is a full return to Sept. 10 mentality.” Dick Cheney has also come forward to speak out against conducting CIA investigations. He believes this will set a dangerous precedent for a President to challenge the legality of the work of a previous administration. The ramifications will be felt more immediately as the CIA experiences low morale, loses veterans, and has trouble recruiting.
Let’s take a look at the facts….harsh interrogations work. The following is a list of information disclosed by prisoners only after methods used in the Army Field Manual failed and waterboarding was employed. The record speaks for itself:
• Plans to attack the US consulate in Karchi, Pakistan
• Plots to hijack and fly aircraft into Heathrow Airport
• Derail a train in the US
• Blow up US gas stations
• Fly a hijacked plane into tallest building in California
• Collapse bridges in New York
• Reveal the names of 70 al-Qaeda members previously unknown by the US
Still think the CIA deserves to be punished for preventing the next 9/11?
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