Enhanced Interrogation Techniques :slashingtongue

When it comes to national security, nothing is as good as to see the current Vice President taking on the former. Both have taken radical paths and shape our country in their reign of “power”, (they should not be having any power according to our constitution other than to break a tie in the Senate).

I am going to be unabashed and state that I am never in the same boat with VP Cheney when it comes to this. To me, he is an absolute failure when it comes to national security. Whilst, it could be President Bush that should ultimately get most of the blame, it is VP Cheney that still is backing the disastrous policies of the last administration and many would still claim that a lot of those orders would go all the way up to VP Dick Cheney.

The rot of our national Security seems to come from the fact that our Vice President never seems to know what military protocols are. He has got no idea at all and it is he that is having a “tenuous relationship with reality”.

For example, he thinks that the only way we can get intelligence out of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay is by torture, or his excuse of a term, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. It is from this that “intelligence” was gained that led to the Iraq war where thousands of our troops died. So doesn’t that prove that that those techniques do not work?

He often claims that President Obama is taking away methods to interrogate terrorists in a ticking time bomb situation. Well, had he had served the army instead of chickening out, he would have known what the rules of Engagement are. If there is any justified perception of hostility, action can be taken. So he is wrong again on that.

Even if he thinks that perverse logic is true, why need to hold them for so many years. Why not execute them for their crimes already? Why is it that we are paying Al Qaeda personnel to be given food for so many years? Does he not know that by keeping them in for so long risks hostage situations in the future demanding their releases? (E.g. Recently, Israel released hundreds of prisoners in return for mere proof that one of their soldier is alive).

Now coming to VP Bide. Should he have said that another 9/11 would not be likely? He better do! We never want to hear that another 9/11 is inevitable! However, more important is his actions rather than his words. We had a Christmas miracle with the “underwear bomber”. That is the most that we should tolerate.

Lastly, I am very pleased that the current administration is going after Al Qaeda and is having some good results. But at the end of the day, America wants Osama bin Laden’s head. With his head, we can have the symbolic victory that the world is looking for. So until then, we are not there yet…

Ever since the decision by the Attorney General Eric Holder to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and four others in New York, the right wing exploded into a rage of frenzy. It is the craziest thing in the world for me and I want to see Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and company hung.

For one, I am delighted with the move by Eric Holder to finally get this done. I think that we should get back to American justice as fast as possible, rather than the world of enhanced interrogation techniques, aka torture. However, we must have the death sentence for these terrorists. We cannot allow them to have life sentences as that would risk terrorists holding up hostages in return for their release. Ask any Israeli and they would tell you that this is true.

That being said, I stress that it must, it must take place. I think it is absolutely crazy not to let it happen. What are we going to do: keep them in Guantanamo Bay forever? Does the far right really want to make that our concentration camp? Come on!

What are they afraid of : an acquittal? This is from former George W Bush’s Attorney General Mick Mukasey “The question with him (Khalid Sheikh Muhammad) was not about getting a confession, it was about getting intelligence.” They already had a confession! There is ample amount of proof that these terrorist murdered 3000 people. The chances of these guys not kissing the noose or staying in jail is as much as Adolf Hitler’s if he were alive to face the tribunals.

Are they afraid of a media circus? You know what, I want the world to see that America is back! That we can hang this piece of crap. If Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and others want to spew their bull-crap, we can get throw them out of their courts. The Conservatives fear that these people would be able to change their defense and that would increase the length of the trial. My question to them back is : How many murderers do we send to prison even though they have the very same rights? It does not make sense.

There are also many Conservatives who fear that this would mean that the President Bush’s policies would be put on trial. I am a person that clearly thinks that Enhanced Interrogation Techniques are an excuse for torture. However, the legal system would not be so stupid to confuse torture with this. The case is about the evidence, not some external issue.

They know these facts! They are just acting so scared. They are just being crazy and paranoid. There is absolutely nothing to be worried about! Nothing! I think that they know it and they are doing this just to gain attention. Just like how the liberals do to get our troops out of Afghanistan.

Lets be the bloodhounds that smell blood. Lets be equally interested in justice. Lets make sure that more than 3000 people not die in vain. Lets hang those basta**s.

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Fresh new revelations have surfaced of the means of “enhanced interrogation technique” (EIT). First, I would go through it one by one and I would give my own opinion of it.

Death gestures:

The interrogators would put a gun to their head and threaten to shoot them. In some cases they use a drill and then it would threaten to drill a hole in their head till they die. There are also mock executions staged to scare inmates. This is reported and is common knowledge so in South Asian countries like India and Pakistan, though their leaders do not take it as official policy.

Torture rating 5/10 : I am 50/50 on this. While I do think that this would do any physical harm, hence not so controversial, like say water-boarding or banging heads on mattressed walls. So on that ground I do not think that it is torture. But on the other hand, it is illegal by law and it is by law considered as torture.

Effectiveness ratings 3/10 : Let me put it this way, if you were held at gunpoint by a robber, you would give the robber your valuables if you have them. For that to work, the robber needs to know that you have goods to give. If the robber does not know that you have goods to give, the robber has to threaten you. For the threat to work, reality has to set in. That is why the mock executions come in.

However, terrorists are not be that stupid. If you do not get much out of this the first time, you would get it out the second and third time that this is done. When inmates realize that no one is missing amongst their numbers, they would know that it was just mock executions and that it does not work. So hence my rating of 3/10; it could only work for a while and once the secret is out, even amongst terror suspects, the method would not work at all.

Rape threat :

Interrogators would go about threatening to rape inmates mothers, daughters, wives or girlfriends.

Torture rating : 1/10. I do not classify this as torture at all. Deceit is always part of police procedure. That being said how sad is it that we are resorting to threatening other people with rape. Come on, that is rubbish and wrong.

Effectiveness rating: 1/10. This is pathetic. Only wimps would break under such allegations.

Shoving baseballs down the throat :

Interrogators would first threaten to shove a baseball down inmates throat and could, and did, do it if necessary.

Torture rating : 9/10. Shoving anything down the throat is torture. That is pure and simple. I do not think that it can be debatable at all whether it is like how it was done with water-boarding. It does cause harm and it is by far illegal to do so by any means.

Effectiveness rating : 2/10. This is a 100% form of torture. And as torture has shown in the past, it does not work. Torture would produces everything under duress. Hence, you would not know what is said is right or wrong. It was wrong assumptions made by torture that led the world to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That led to a loss of more than 4000 American lives and many Iraqi ones.

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A war or words has erupted yet again between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Democrats. 6 House Democrats signed a letter asking CIA Director, Leon Panetta to retract his statement that the CIA never misled the Congress.

Trust a politician to jump on verbiage! The CIA may be the agency of intelligence gathering in America, but they got outfoxed by the politicians this time! The frustrating thing on the case for the CIA is this, there is no way that the CIA can claim that the Democrats were wrong, without claiming that they were liars.

6 House Democrats jumped on an opportunity to cross swords with the CIA when they had the chance. Apparently, there was a program that the CIA had for eight years that the House of Representatives did not know about. Leon Panetta then briefed the House when he made the decision to close it. That now made the Democrats this letter saying that the CIA cannot say that it does not mislead the Congress based on this evidence.

These 6 Democrats claimed that this incident had nothing to do with Leader Pelosi. We all know, as Governor Palin put it, is bull crap. It is so obvious that they were doing this to vindicate Leader Nancy Pelosi. I believe that Leader Pelosi knew about all the interrogation techniques and allowed it to happen. This incident is putting up a smoke screen to protect her.

Right now, the Liberals have gone from distancing themselves from her to protecting her. Here are some of the quotes form liberal video channel in You Tube. “3 simple words.? Nancy is vindicated.”; “So? republicons … Nancy Pelosi was telling the truth all along. Let’s hear you apologize to her.”; “CIA is? the high school of Lying..” Wow!

Did the CIA lie on that situation? I think so. Democrats would not do this if it were not true as that would be political suicide. Did the CIA lie before? Yes, I believe so. They do it to cover their flaws like every business would do for an audit. But they also do it sometimes because they fear that Congress may not be able to keep their mouths shut for that long. They could lie for the sake of national security.

But I do not think that they would play politics when they tell things. Everybody knew that torture or water-boarding is illegal. There is no way that they would tell this to one branch of government and not tell the other branch. That would be insane! Playing politics in this kind of matter does not benefit the CIA in any way or form. In my opinion, they did tell Leader Pelosi the forms of enhanced interrogation techniques.

I think that this should warrant an investigation. Should the CIA be innocent and that Leader Pelosi lied, lets charge her for perjury. Should Leader Pelosi be honest, which I do not think is likely, lets go after CIA Director then, George Tarnat. I think that is the most fair manner to deal with this issue.

For their own sake, I think that the Democrats should back off criticizing the CIA too much. Not only are they dangerous enough to deal with the Democrats physically, they should not want to pist off another government group. The Republicans already have a 2:1 advantage in the military and their families, you do not want to lose constituents from the CIA either.

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Just give Bill O Reilly one night off and his show comes up with something that is so bad and so below the belt that it warrants something to be written on ST. For God’s sake FOX, when Bill O goes off the factor, go off the air!

It started well with the talk of the CIA having low morale. That I can agree and can understand. I also think that CIA personnel should not be prosecuted and President Obama has also echoed this. He said that it would be the decision of the Attorney General whether people that wrote the memos would be prosecuted but would leave the CIA operatives alone.

The first guest was Donovan Campbell. He was saying that people can serve the CIA in the private sector as much as the public one. Laws are there to ensure that CIA agents are not outed out. That however does not apply to the 2 interrogators who are actually consultants roped in by the CIA. They are not bound by non-contractual laws of the CIA. They are not CIA agents. To say that these people are members of the CIA is like saying that Blackwater are elite Military Policemen in the army.

It is already ridiculous for me that the CIA is having these people in the first place. Why pay so much for something that your men are supposed to be able to do. Even if torture was part of the agenda then, they could have easily asked their Israeli allies on how it is done and train their troops to do so. Many countries around the world base their military training on Israeli advice, why can’t the US? Why pay so much for something that the CIA was supposed to do? Were they afraid that they would break the law in that way? Why is the US having mercenaries at all in the army? That is the main point I felt that Mr Campbell was wrong on.

Then comes the other guest. Before that, the stand in host, Luara Ingraham said that “They are treating these guys like criminals!”Of course they are! They are being accused of torture. We did not treat Bernard Madoff with less scorn did we? Neither did we treat Michael Jackson with less scorn even though he has yet to be proven guilty of anything!

The disturbing part comes from Bo Dietl, the other guest. It is okay to call the new practices Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, but it is another thing to say that it is interrogation. The difference is that this is not allowed in standard interrogation procedure and sort of implying that this should be the standard interrogation techniques used by cops. He even gave an example where he said that police would just let cars go by because they fear complaints! Now you know why the minorities hate the police so much? It is because there are a minority of police officers like you who spoil the name!

The thing that he said that I am sure many elements in the media would catch on is the fact that he asked the President a question he really should not have : If the President’s children were kidnapped by Al Qaeda, would he want to “interrogate”?

You really want to get wife and kids involved in this? When are people going to learn that one should never bring out sentiments when you are making a decision? You think Roxana Saberi’s mum would not want a nuclear strike on Iran to free her or the parents of the 2 journalists kidnapped in North Korea would not support an invasion into that country to get their kids out. Would that mean that the US should attack Iran and North Korea as well? Obviously not!

This was terrible behavior by the guest and the host. She did not do anything to stop it at all. Bill O Reilly would never have allowed this to happen. He would would have cut the guest off might have even apologize for something like this being said..

This is the worst yet this year. I hope Bill O never bring Laura Ingraham, and Bo Dietl on on air again. They are terrible! Though FOX News is the right wing version of MSNBC, this is something that is low even for their standards!

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