Apr 28 2009
As Predicted, America Has No Stomach For Witch Hunt Against Our Defenders
The Democrats are really in a pickle. Their base is adamant that there be public witch hunts against the Bush administration for being aggressive in the war on terror, and for inflicting a faked drowning reaction in established mass murderers tied to 9-11. I predicted more than once America would balk at attacking thosewho were charged with protecting us from another 9-11, first here on April 22nd:
This could really blow up in Obama’s face. He is supposed to be chasing down terrorists and stopping their efforts to hit us. He is not supposed to be going after those trying to find and stop the terrorists, who are doing the job of protecting this nation.
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The Dems better back off this quickly, or else those defending us will have to defend themselves, and they would be within their rights to expose the entire picture. Including those parts that indicate what threats were headed our way (many listed above already tied to KSM) and how many people could have died.
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But more than that, the American people will be rightfully wondering why our distracted government is treating the mad man behind 9-11 like a victim ,while attacking the defenders of this nation as if they committed a crime. If you want to look totally clueless, that’s one great way to do it.
And then here again on April 23rd:
“Worth More Than The FBI, CIA And NSA Put Together†– this being the program of enhanced interrogation used for only 2 years right after 9-11. So says the then head of the CIA George Tenet, who was selected for his position by Bill Clinton.
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That’s a broadside warning shot to the Dems, open this up and we open it all up. It is time to have this debate, bring it on. Let’s get this over with.
Since the Obama started caving to the liberal fanatics and started exposing what happened and what was stopped, we learned some amazing things:
Exhibit A in the case for torture: Defenders of the practice say the waterboarding of Al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced information that allowed the U.S government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles in 2002.
According to a previously classified May 30, 2005, Justice Department memo that the Obama administration released last week, 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.â€
After the “enhanced techniques,” which the agency used on him 183 times, KSM — the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks — told investigators about a “second wave” of terrorists from East Asia who planned to crash a hijacked airliner into a building in Los Angeles.
Following the link we find this:
This was because the CIA imposed very tight restrictions on the use of waterboarding. “The ‘waterboard,’ which is the most intense of the CIA interrogation techniques, is subject to additional limits,†explained the May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo. “It may be used on a High Value Detainee only if the CIA has ‘credible intelligence that a terrorist attack is imminent’; ‘substantial and credible indicators that the subject has actionable intelligence that can prevent, disrupt or deny this attack’; and ‘[o]ther interrogation methods have failed to elicit this information within the perceived time limit for preventing the attack.’â€Â
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“In particular, the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including KSM and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques,†says the Justice Department memo. “Both KSM and Zubaydah had ‘expressed their belief that the general US population was ‘weak,’ lacked resilience, and would be unable to ‘do what was necessary’ to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals.’  Indeed, before the CIA used enhanced techniques in its interrogation of KSM, KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, ‘Soon you will know.’â€
Â
After he was subjected to the “waterboard†technique, KSM became cooperative, providing intelligence that led to the capture of key al Qaeda allies and, eventually, the closing down of an East Asian terrorist cell that had been tasked with carrying out the 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.
If not for the use of waterboarding (which tricks the body into THINKING it is drowning) downtown LA might now host a hole where some of its tallest buildings now stand, another grave for thousands of Americans and others. The reporting clearly shows that this measure is only used in extreme cases where attack is imminent. And since we rounded up the attackers (and have of course collected information and statements as to their plans) we know it was a success.
Is it any surprise, then, that America is in no mood to attack those who saved thousands of innocent lives?
According to the poll, sixty-two percent of Americans do not think Congress should hold hearings to investigate the administration’s treatment of detainees. Only a third of Americans thinks Congress should investigate.Â
Personally, that angry third of the nation wanting payback against our defenders are not only in a minority, the risk an enormous backlash. It may be the one step too far for the liberals. Part of me hopes they take it. I think we as a nation deserve to learn more about what our brave, unsung heros on the front lines have done over the years, and the liberals need a good public drubbing for being so absurd.
If it does sink to ‘public hearings’ the full file on the briefings that Pelosi received should be made public. If they’ll start with that, it will probably shorten the hearing considerably. By her being in a leadership role and not raising objections, she’s complicit.
It’ll never see the light of day.
I’m with you AJ……..let’s have a fair hearing and get this off the table. It won’t happen because everybody who knows, knows it is a big lie, and that Bush and his government are really heros.
AJ,
The same polls you cite provide other interesting insights about the EITs that you did not mention:
1. A majority of Americans do not support the EIT and think that some techniques are torture – “These numbers do not mean the public agrees with the tactics used under the Bush administration to interrogate detainees, however. While 37 percent think waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques are sometimes justified, 46 percent think these techniques are never justified. And even more Americans – 71 percent – think the use of waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques constitutes torture.”
2. A majority of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling terrorism regardless of the release of the memos – “The poll also finds that there is no indication that the release of the memos has hurt perceptions of the Obama administration’s dealings concerning terrorism. Most Americans approve of the way Mr. Obama is handling the threat of terrorism: 55 percent approve, while only 28 percent disapprove. Most Democrats and independents approve of the way he is handling the issue, while most Republicans disapprove.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/27/opinion/polls/main4972844.shtml
AJ,
The claim in the May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that waterboarding of KSM thwarted the the Second Wave or West Coast plot against the Liberty building in Los Angeles has already been debunked based on timelines of the Bush administration’s own public statements regarding the timing of KSMs capture and when we foiled this plot. http://www.slate.com/id/2216601/
Here is the key part:
“What clinches the falsity of Thiessen’s claim, however (and that of the memo he cites, and that of an unnamed Central Intelligence Agency spokesman who today seconded Thessen’s argument), is chronology. In a White House press briefing, Bush’s counterterrorism chief, Frances Fragos Townsend, told reporters that the cell leader was arrested in February 2002, and “at that point, the other members of the cell†(later arrested) “believed that the West Coast plot has been canceled, was not going forward†[italics mine]. A subsequent fact sheet released by the Bush White House states, “In 2002, we broke up [italics mine] a plot by KSM to hijack an airplane and fly it into the tallest building on the West Coast.†These two statements make clear that however far the plot to attack the Library Tower ever got—an unnamed senior FBI official would later tell the Los Angeles Times that Bush’s characterization of it as a “disrupted plot†was “ludicrousâ€â€”that plot was foiled in 2002. But Sheikh Mohammed wasn’t captured until March 2003.â€
Doesn’t it strike you as odd that the Justice Department would wait until May of 2005 to do a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of the EIT program – more than 3 years after this program was authorized. Why wouldn’t they have done a comprehensive review shortly after the program was implemented or KSM was interrogated so they knew if it was producing useful intelligence? That is the same reason I’m skeptical of Cheney’s claims about the two memos he wants publically released – they are both 2005 documents. I’m guessing these are CYA memos by the CIA and Bush administration officials given that they were facing increased scrutiny over reporting on these programs in 2004 and 2005 and wanted to protect themselves.
That’s why I agree we need a comprehensive review of the EIT to determine what they really did and if it really was as successful as claimed by Bush officials. Not for purposes of prosecuting Bush and others, but for purposes of determining what intelligence policies we should adopt moving forward.
The backlash against attempts to persecute former officials of the Bush administration or members of the armed services or the intelligence agencies is likely to be quite severe; to the point of not being confined to courtrooms, the ballot box, or forums of public discussion. Consider that the release of memos implicating Pelosi came from the intelligence side after Obama forfeited whatever confidence he might have won from speaking warmly to CIA staff. Consider how badly similar leaks undermined the Bush administration.
Blogger Joe Katzman at “Winds of Change” had a very cogent comment about where politically motivated prosecutions and investigatory commissions can lead: http://tinyurl.com/cuqvj5
“Ultimately, if the judiciary is used to enact a form of civil war by other means, the political consequence is that the civil war soon comes back to them; indeed, they become both targets in any shooting war, and an incitement to continuing shooting civil wars once they start. Once compromise and settlement are seen as just a tactical phase on the way to judicial with-hunts, any negotiated settlement short of one side’s surrender becomes impermanent – and hence impossible.”
Katzman was writing about the Fujimori trial in Peru, but what he said applies to any society which wishes to maintain the rule of law, as opposed to the rule of politicized judges.
CONMAN……at “Flopping Aces” you can read, April 27th this.
“About that Library Tower Plot…”
I personally think this is the truth, I’m quite sure you would not, however you should know that there is other information out there then just what you quote.
GOOD NEWS FROM “GATEWAY PUNDIT”
The Iraqi Government released a photo of Al-Qaeda Abu Omar al-Baghdadi “the head of evil” for the first time since his capture last week.