Release of Interrogation Memos Undermines U.S. Security
A congressman on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence defends the programs that have kept us safe for eight years.
In releasing the Justice Department memos from 2002 and 2005 on the enhanced interrogation techniques, the director of national intelligence noted that we look back on these events from a “bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009.” This perspective could have been much different. The successful defense of the homeland over the last 8 1/2 years was not an accident or simply good fortune. It was the result of major organizational change (Department of Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence), a variety of government programs (NSA’s terrorist surveillance program, CIA’s detention and interrogation program, among others), and a host of military and civilian professionals doing an outstanding job every day. Weakening the programs and failing to support those professionals is wrong and undermines the safety of our country.
Liberals, in their zeal to smear the Bush Administration, paint with a broad brush and essentially argue that Americans mistreated everyone we came in contact with in our efforts to fight terrorists. They try to link the misdeeds of 20-year-old MPs at Abu Ghraib with “torture” sanctioned at the highest levels of government. It is a bridge too far as anyone who has read the countless reports stemming from investigations of Abu Ghraib can attest.
The CIA’s detention and interrogation program was run by professionals under carefully controlled conditions. If the released memos reveal anything, it is the strict guidelines and supervision involved in the interrogations. The memos also make a reasonable case that, under these carefully prescribed circumstances, the 13 specific techniques were not torture. Even liberals have a hard time arguing that a liquid diet or a facial hold is torture. Thus, they must group all of the techniques under the category of waterboarding. Reasonable minds can differ about the appropriateness of that technique, but under the controlled circumstances and doctor supervision, it bears no resemblance to anything done in North Korea in the 1950s.
It cannot be contested that the techniques were effective at eliciting information. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed refused to talk until the techniques were applied. He then divulged information about a second wave of attacks. Hundreds, if not thousands, of lives may have been spared as a result. But lost in the muddle of name-calling is the simple fact that only three detainees were ever subject to waterboarding. A tremendous amount of essential information was obtained through the less controversial techniques utilized by professionals.
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Mac Thornberry represents the 13th Congressional District of Texas. He sits on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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16 Comments
1. BPT (Australia):God forbid, if America gets hit again, Obama’s “yoof” voters will look fondly upon the Bush years.
Apr 30, 2009 - 2:58 am 2. Terry Gain:Waterboarding as carried out on the top 3 al Qaeda leaders – supervised by a doctor – was safe and effective. It is not torture. Torture is listening to liberals run their country down by either ignorantly or disnonestly comparing this safe and effective waterboarding – which caused no bodily harm to the dousees – with Japanese water torture on uniformed soldiers, and then complaining that the standing of their country has been diminished by this safe, effective humane technique rather than by their odious and foolish lies.
And extreme torture is listening to the extreme, know-nothing pro abortionist Obama moralize about this issue.
Apr 30, 2009 - 3:13 am 3. sheesh:2. No, THIS is torture . . . the fair and balanced version
http://www.buzzfeed.com/endswell/100-days-for-obama-100-days-of-fox-news-hatin-3f2
Apr 30, 2009 - 6:07 am 4. BC:Yeah, right:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/mac-thornberry-admits-systemic-failures
Confession of a good FBI agent:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23soufan.html?_r=3&ref=global
And about that there Abu Zubaydah fellow:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901211_pf.html
Shmuck.
Apr 30, 2009 - 6:08 am 5. sheesh:“The CIA’s detention and interrogation program was run by professionals under carefully controlled conditions.”
Funny, that’s exactly what Joseph Mengele said.
Apr 30, 2009 - 6:58 am 6. sheesh:This is great. Mac Thornberry gets bitch slapped by Chris Matthews and the damage is so dire he’s trotted out the very next night on O’Reilly for damage control spin. it’s the same thing O’Reilly does for himself every time Letterman makes him look like an idiot . . . go out the next night with a sycophant or two who say, “You actually took it easy on him, Bill.” It’s the same thing Hannity is doing with Robert Gibbs . . . the Leprechaun was so completely humiliated by Gibbs calling him out on his anti-Semitic guests that Hannity now devotes daily (and futile) segments to try and recover his own dignity. (Good luck with that one, Sean. By the way, when can we expect to see that waterboarding for charity thing go down? I’d hate to think that promise was just another example of a right wing chickenhawk spewing patriotic crap. And now to trot out Elizabeth Hasselbeck to float that “he already gives a lot to charity” balloon . . . very sad . . . hiding behind the skirt of a celebutard. The children of our troops deserve better than that.)
Apr 30, 2009 - 7:08 am 7. Pastor of Muppets:Terry Gain: “Waterboarding as carried out on the top 3 al Qaeda leaders – supervised by a doctor – was safe and effective. It is not torture. Torture is listening to liberals run their country down by either ignorantly or disnonestly comparing this safe and effective waterboarding – which caused no bodily harm to the dousees – with Japanese water torture on uniformed soldiers, and then complaining that the standing of their country has been diminished by this safe, effective humane technique rather than by their odious and foolish lies. “
The doctors you mentioned who were there to supervise the safety of the “interrogation” had to perform tracheotomies in cases where the tortured individual got too much water into their lungs. So obviously you’re full of crap when you claim that waterboarding caused no bodily harm to the dousees.
But yeah, I could totally see how “listening to liberals run their country down” is far worse than being drowned, stabbed in the throat and having a breathing tube forcefully inserted into your brand new neckhole.
Apr 30, 2009 - 8:18 am 8. JED:Doesn’t violating the state’s secrets act constitute a high crime? Is it possible for any government is any country in any era to survive with full disclosure of all of its secrets? Will American spies be forced to wear name tags under the pseudo-morality of transparency?
Apr 30, 2009 - 8:33 am 9. ChipD:I think I will keep a record of Congressman Mac Thornberry’s article, and then we can all compare it to his comments when the Obama Adminstration begins such “carefully supervised” and “professional” interrogations of right wing extremists.
Apr 30, 2009 - 9:07 am 10. Terry Gain:@ 7 POM
The doctors you mentioned who were there to supervise the safety of the “interrogation” had to perform tracheotomies in cases where the tortured individual got too much water into their lungs. So obviously you’re full of crap when you claim that waterboarding caused no bodily harm to the dousees.
If you have proof that any of the troika had tracheotomies post it.
Apr 30, 2009 - 9:35 am 11. Steve:#10 Terry Gain
His proof probably comes from KosKooks
Apr 30, 2009 - 11:48 am 12. AThinkingPerson:Proof of anything from Pastor of Muppets? Don’t hold your breath. I’ve requested it many times on other articles to no avail. He’s a serial drive-by commenter. If he does come up with anything remotely looking like evidence, I’m going to have to agree with #11 Steve, it’s probably something spoonfed to him from the Daily KO’s or the HuffPo.
Apr 30, 2009 - 2:42 pm 13. ChipD:“It cannot be contested that the techniques were effective at eliciting information. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed refused to talk until the techniques were applied. He then divulged information about a second wave of attacks.”
Here is a link to Slate, where Timothy Noah demolishes that argument:
http://www.slate.com/
It can and is contested.
Apr 30, 2009 - 6:05 pm 14. sheesh:I think we should all just calm down and wait until we get our marching orders from Elizabeth Hasselback.
May 1, 2009 - 8:17 am 15. Ms. Attitude:No worries, we have a democrate president. Aren’t they the ones who use the deadliest weapons? (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) No torture of people there, righ, Sheesh? And the democrats are the ones that issue campaigns and contingencies instead of wars that require following the Geneva Convention. Remember Clinton and all of these: Operation Desert Fox, Operation Allied Force, The Battle of Mogadishu, and a few others?
Geez Sheesh…with Obama in office we can now continue the Bush years but call it a different name.
May 1, 2009 - 5:07 pm 16. ILikeIke:No, Mac, the release of the memos undermines the case for torturing terrorist suspects.
But since you’re so far up Bush’s colon, I can see how you’d think it would undermine US security.
May 2, 2009 - 11:48 am