Here is a link to the released memos, so the left has something they read tonight. So far the worst things found in their are the ability to slam people against a wall and waterboarding, hardly the nightmare scenario the left believes it to be. IN addition it appears insects could be used to scare people. Basically put Al Qaeda in a box then the bugs would creep them out, this would place the actions at gitmo on the level of a reality TV show such as fear factor.
WASHINGTON – Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said Thursday that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted.
The government released four memos in which Bush-era lawyers approved in often graphic detail tough interrogation methods used against 28 terror suspects. The rough tactics range from waterboarding — simulated drowning — to keeping suspects naked and withholding solid food.
Even as they exposed new details of the interrogation program, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, offered the first definitive assurance that those CIA officials are in the clear, as long as their actions were in line with the legal advice at the time.
Obama said the nation must protect the identity of CIA contractors and employees "as vigilantly as they protect our security."
"We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history," the president said. "But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."
Holder told the CIA that the government would provide free legal representation to CIA employees in any legal proceeding or congressional investigation related to the program and would repay any financial judgment.
Via HA
Earlier this week, news that Spain intended to prosecute Bush administration officials for torture at Gitmo had the Left all atwitter, in the same way that they buzzed about frog-marching Karl Rove out of the White House during the Plame investigation. It turns out that Spain was a lot less enthusiastic than they were. Spain’s Attorney General threw a large bucket of cold water on Spainmas, recommending that the country drop the whole matter:
Spanish prosecutors will recommend against opening an investigation into whether six Bush administration officials sanctioned torture against terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, the country’s attorney-general said Thursday.
Candido Conde-Pumpido said the case against the high-ranking U.S. officials — including former U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales — was without merit because the men were not present when the alleged torture took place.
“If one is dealing with a crime of mistreatment of prisoners of war, the complaint should go against those who physically carried it out,” Conde-Pumpido said in a breakfast meeting with journalists. He said a trial of the men would have turned Spain’s National Court “into a plaything” to be used for political ends.
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Prosecutors will recommend that a Spanish court drop its investigation of six former officials in the administration of U.S. George W. Bush for alleged torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Spain's attorney general said Thursday.
Oh well they have this:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration will release four Bush-era memos on terror interrogations Thursday, according to a senior administration official.The administration also informed CIA officials they will not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, the official also confirms.
The memos, written by a top Justice Department lawyer, provided legal guidance to the entire executive branch, including the intelligence agencies, on permissible "enhanced interrogation techniques" that could be used against suspected terrorists taken into custody.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture when there was no intent to cause severe pain, according to a Bush-era memo on the tactics released Thursday.
Did the 9/11 victims have any choice? How soon we forget. Oh and to all of you that voted for change. Your going to get it. In spades.
ReplyDeleteAs one who lived in the mid-east for 21 years I can tell you that if the time comes people will be begging for the use of any means necessary to get knowledge from the Islamic terrorist. I am no expert on Islamic or mid-eastern culture....but no one else is either. I know more than any adviser to Bush...or Obama...or any other adminstration....and many of my friends know much more than the so called mid-east experts. Washington does not get it. I quit telling my family about their culture a long time ago...they would not believe that people were really like that in the 21st century. I could go on and on but it will serve no purpose. The do gooders think one can have dialog with Islam....not going to happen. Read the Quran...completely....the approved Saudi version....which they say is the only correct translation...and then get back to me and maybe we can talk.
ReplyDeleteTea parties and running with the bulls "to be labeled stupid" holds no candle to or should be put in the same sentence as 9/11. Did we, including the author of this article, already forget that dreadful day? Guess what, if I had my say, these tactics were way too humane for these pieces of crap. In any other country, an American wouldn't even be alive right now. Why do we really care what these terrorists go through? They didn't care what our innocent, hard-working civilians were doing that day as they simply went to work. Guess what Obama and to whom ever wrote this article - these pieces of scum deserve no humane treatment, now or ever, including coming from the U.S.A. Why are we always the ones to set the examples for being the "nice country"?
ReplyDeleteAll of you cowards can say what you want until you are the man in the box. There is a reason John McCain is against torture. It is easy to be in favor of something evil that you can't see and you can't hear and you can't feel. Maybe the United States should torture her enemies and maybe she should be the beacon of justice and integrity she once was. Who knows, I'm just one man's opinion.
ReplyDeleteRemember Nick Berg when you complain about how we treat these savages.
ReplyDeletePirates have rights, Terrorists have rights, murderers have rights, child molesters have rights, rapists have rights. VICTIMS HAVE NO RIGHTS when being violated or killed.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate those who protect and serve our country. Thank you guys.
The only reason we will never win the war on terror or any other war we may be involved in in the future is because this country has become to touchy feely I guess what we are supposed to do with terrorists is to give them a time out. We need to get back to the old way of kickin butt when were attacked as we were if pearl harbor were to happen today tommorrow we would all be japanese.
ReplyDeleteHow can you possibly all the "tea party protests" a success. They were, at best, lackluster and more accurately a PR disaster.
ReplyDeleteThe equivelant of tens of millions of dollars in promotion was spent --between Fox News, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly. That is a massive mobiliazaion effort that, if it was purchased as advertising, would have cost a forture.
For all that, they got an estimated 250,000 people to show up across the nation (O'Reilly was saying 300,000 but he is the king of hyperbole). I spent a decade as a journalist and I can tell you, crowd numbers are ALWAYS inflated.
But pretending the quarter million number is correct, that wuould be about 575 people per congressional district. Nearly all of them were already right wingers by all accounts --the people who would vote for only Republicans.
How many districts change hands in under 600 votes? Hardly any, that's how many.
For the tea parties to be a success, they would have had to draw millions of people nationally, but more importantly, they would have had to draw independents, moderates and Democrats.
You can't judge something like that by numbers only -although in this case the numbers are not impressive. You have to also look at who was there. I saw a lot of kids, and they were counted but they can't vote and frankly were dragged there by parents.
The tea parties were a dismal failure and have the effect of showing the hipocracy of the conservatives because there was nothing like this when GWB was doubling the national debt.
Finally, the tea parties were protesting the tax and spend policies of a Republican administration --which is where hipocracy slides into farce.
I'm going to go make a cup of tea, now.
anonymous 8
ReplyDelete300 to 500 thousand people who never protest showed up, and they did it on their own with very little help, you can convince yourself they failed but your delusion is our opportunity.
One of the problems that America faces with the rest of the global community is that we display, to all, that we are so much superior than they are and that any other country is inferior in relations to America. If only we Americans could be more humble in regards to our status within the global world.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed that we justify wrong treatment of individuals because we faced a horrific day on 9/11. The laws of America would find us guilty and confine us to prison if any of us were to retaliate via assault or murder if a family member were injured or killed by someone. It is our national law that we cannot retaliate amongst one another and not letting justice take its course.
We have become so bitter and thoughtless of our treatment to other countries. It hurts me as a American to read some of the comments of revenge. Revenge is not for us to partake in but, rather for our individual higher power. When you beset revenge in within you it will harden your heart.
I am not defending those who committed or were involved in the heinous act on 9/11. They deserve to be judge accordingly for that act. But, what I realize is that we, America, went on a revenge rage, that still exists in quite a few Americans, that has cost us more lives than those lost on 9/11. We have lost more young healthy men and women from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than we did on 9/11. We have over ten times more young men and women with severe life permanent injuries than we lost on 9/11. Our national debt has baloon because of the war wage to bring justice for the 9/11 act. Yet, still to this day we do not know if the targeted leader of the 9/11 actors, Osama bin Laden, is alive or dead. The main culprit that the we were supposedly after, Osama bin Laden may still be alive and plotting another attack.
See we have lost the focus on what the real issue is because all we have been thinking of since 9/11 is revenge. With all of the money spent on the wars we could have built at least ten new world trade centers. Then we could have sent a memo to terrorists all over the world: you can knock us down but, you cannot keep us down.
Heck, we just had three snipers make three perfect shots simultaneously on a moving platform. Wow, what a really good resource to have. So, now I am really convinced that the two conventional warfare that were wage may not have been necessary to begin with.
anonymous 10,
ReplyDeletethe wars are not about revenge, they were about preventing further attacks.
Wow. People are so ignorant. Do you really believe that this is about "revenge"? Apparantly we should just let terrorist cells continue to develop so that we can have a war here on American turf. Maybe when you finally see with your own eyes how people are raped, tortured, beheaded and murdered in person you will see that you live a spoiled little life as an ignorant American.
ReplyDeleteI suggest that you liberals take a trip outside this great nation to see what most of the world is really like...in fact, why don't you go live in the Middle East or maybe Pakistan since you think these terrorists are so harmless.
Or better yet, maybe Obama should release the "top secret" videos of your beloved terrorists torturing our young captured Marines with power tools, drilling into their heads or maybe the ones showing them beheading our Marines who gave their lives to protect YOU - so you could complain.
My brother is currently in Iraq, my two brother in laws in Afganistan, and my husband is currently training to go. I've spent quite a bit of time in 3rd World countries and I've seen how most of the world lives. American's are clueless! Things are much more complicated than you understand because you only see in part. I'd like to think that if American citizens had all the real facts in front of them, that they would realize this has nothing to do with revenge but everything to do with taking out an evil enemy that exists only to destroy the US. Do your homework, send your husband and brothers off to war and hear first-hand accounts of what's really happening untainted by a liberal media that lies, and then come back and make an educated comment.
God Bless our troops...there are still Americans who pray for you and support you and your mission! You are our heros and you have not been forgotten by all!