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Bush’s Assistant Attorney General Bybee: “You have orally informed us that you would not deprive Zubaydah of sleep for more than eleven days at a time…”
More information was released than should have been.
Still, if the Democrats had thought of it, they would have published the names of the interrogators along with their home addresses, phone numbers, names and ages of family members, and pets.
Today, liberals must be sitting around Starbucks tables verbally attacking CIA employees (other than Valerie Plame) and saying, “First, we hang him, then we kill him!”
This overly damaging report is par for the course from a U.S. President who insists on criticizing our nation when he speaks in other lands, whose adminstration refuses to admit that there is a “war on terror,” and whose head of HLS criticizes our veterans as becoming dangerous, right-wing extremists.
It’s a bad precedence for an adminstration to continually attack and conduct a witch hunt of the prior adminstration. “Move on” must not be in their phrase book any more.
With such a zeal to look back, you would have thought that Obama would have been more forthcoming about his past during the election. (At least produce his college thesis and his birth certificate.)
From the article: …despite a fierce battle within the highest ranks of the Obama White House about the benefits of releasing the information. Intelligence experts said the documents could ignite calls in Congress and among international courts for a fresh, independent investigation of detainee treatment.
Presumably the battle was over the possibility of such investigations, which seems like a nearly automatic reason in favor of releasing the memos. I have a hard time imagining the person who could honestly argue for suppression on this basis.
>i>”It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department,” Holder said in a statement.
Randy: I think a good spot would be right in the middle of Woody’s and Bob Williams’ foreheads.
Unlike Islamic terrorists, at least we don’t behead prisoners and journalists.
What if we had the standard that we treat Islamic terrorist prisoners like they treat their prisoners from the west? I’m not saying that we should, but our standards being criticized are probably the tamest of most of the world’s countries.
This thing of having Woody as the most persistent adversarial voice here reminds me of what it’s like to play Scrabble with a little kid – you always win, but it’s not very interesting or challenging. My problem is that the annoyance factor dominates – because there’s so little of substance beneath the mountain of glib insult and mindless drivel. I always succumb to the temptation to dismiss him as a moron or react to the most deliberately offensive shit. Of course he is a moron, but how often does it make sense to keep repeating the obvious ? Tiresome – and I’m sure my responses to him are just as tired as his trash. Apologies to all.
Your analogy is accurate reg, except the kid is constantly making up new words and insisting that they are real. When that doesn’t work he then urinates and spits on the tiles and dares you to pick them up.
Sort of like when you guys bring up Pres. Reagan as doing something similar to what Democrats do in excess?
My experience is that the best way to beat a snot-nosed smart-ass 10 year old nephew at Scrabble is to first deprive him of sleep for a week, then lock him up in a coffiin-sized box of insects, and then rinse him off with a nice little waterboarding. Yes, yes, you get some protests from the ACLU and other panty-waist defenders of the Constitution, but it sure feels great when you lay down that 87 point word and whip that exhausted little bugger.
In keeping with the Pee Wee Herman theme:
Shorter reg: “I know you are, but what am I?”
It’s a good thing for reg that Scrabble doesn’t deduct points for bad grammar.
- – -
Marc, does it really take all of that to beat your nephew?
Hey, do you want to know what would really upset the ACLU and liberals more than the reported torture on the terrorists? Sharing the gospel with them and telling them that Jesus loves them and can forgive their sins.
I would start with Benny Hinn, move to Ernest Angley, then Joel Osteen, and then force them to watch the 700 Club. If the terrorists weren’t good church goers after that, then I would show mercy only if they promised to go away forever.
Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni national held since 2001, said in a letter to his lawyer dated to April that “oppression has increased, torture has increased and insults have increased”.
“I have seen death so many times,” he wrote. “Everything is over, life is going to hell in my situation. America, what has happened to you?”
The letter emerged on Thursday, two days after another inmate, Mohammad al-Qurani, told Al Jazeera in a phone call that he had been mistreated since Barack Obama, the US president, was elected last November.
Bob Williams, I don’t really get your point with that last comment. This was sort of the tack we heard from Republicans over the past few years – reports of torture are from bad guys and bad guys can’t be trusted ergo there is no real torture. Well, now we actually know what kind of shit was going on and we know who authorized it. You guys were wrong. The US government was torturing. You just don’t care because, well, either torture doesn’t bother you or you can’t stop defending your boys. I’m not sure which is less impressive.
My point is that Obama is torturing terrorists in Gitmo, which does not bother me. He’s also blowing them away in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which I think is REALLY cool. Don’t you?
Woody says: “Unlike Islamic terrorists, at least we don’t behead prisoners and journalists.”
No, Woody, the US government just opens academies of torture in places like Georgia and teaches other people how to do it to the citizens of countries whose interests we want a hand in.
We are taking up a collection Woody to send you on a sort of If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Chile, Abu Graib, Baghdad– torture tour.
And then we are going to send you for a little truth and reconciliation therapy to Baghdad. You can console the families of the children who were dismembered much like you perhaps consoled the father of the little girls who were blown to bits in Birmingham.
One way to stop is to blow away the “terrorists” with Predator drones. No prisoners, no problems. Thanks, Mr President!
Like Mavis, I’m not sure what you’re getting at with this analogy. You can’t equate actions taken in guerilla war with methodical torture of prisoners outside a war zone. It’s not at all the same thing.
If you do believe the situations are comparable, you might as well throw out the Geneva convention and Army field manual prohibitions of torture. Lots of people have commented that we stand to gain more by these “rules of war” (with all their limitations) than by tossing them out.
By following your reasoning above, you would also say that authorizing police officers to use deadly force means the same as authorizing torture as a police interrogation technique.
I suppose it’s good to have it out there publicly that Bob Williams supports torture.
My understanding is that the Obama administration has prohibited all abuse of prisoners. What they have not done is allow all detainees the right of habeas corpus. And I think the administration is totally and 100% wrong.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:07 am
I lay awake all night brooding about caterpillar torture. The horror; the horror.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:40 am
“I lay awake all night brooding about caterpillar torture….”
But apparently not this:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/saul-becomes-paul.html
Could we cue a couple of more jokes here…perhaps from the “Christian nation” crowd ???
April 17th, 2009 at 4:47 am
“I lay awake all night…”
Bush’s Assistant Attorney General Bybee: “You have orally informed us that you would not deprive Zubaydah of sleep for more than eleven days at a time…”
Okay…I’ll stop.
April 17th, 2009 at 5:00 am
One way to stop is to blow away the “terrorists” with Predator drones. No prisoners, no problems. Thanks, Mr President!
April 17th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Bush: unapologetic torture
Obama: apologetic torture
ah.
Change I can believe in while being tortured.
April 17th, 2009 at 5:51 am
More information was released than should have been.
Still, if the Democrats had thought of it, they would have published the names of the interrogators along with their home addresses, phone numbers, names and ages of family members, and pets.
Today, liberals must be sitting around Starbucks tables verbally attacking CIA employees (other than Valerie Plame) and saying, “First, we hang him, then we kill him!”
This overly damaging report is par for the course from a U.S. President who insists on criticizing our nation when he speaks in other lands, whose adminstration refuses to admit that there is a “war on terror,” and whose head of HLS criticizes our veterans as becoming dangerous, right-wing extremists.
It’s a bad precedence for an adminstration to continually attack and conduct a witch hunt of the prior adminstration. “Move on” must not be in their phrase book any more.
With such a zeal to look back, you would have thought that Obama would have been more forthcoming about his past during the election. (At least produce his college thesis and his birth certificate.)
April 17th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Bob Williams representing the “empathy” wing of the Republican party. Welcome to my imagination.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:07 am
From the article: …despite a fierce battle within the highest ranks of the Obama White House about the benefits of releasing the information. Intelligence experts said the documents could ignite calls in Congress and among international courts for a fresh, independent investigation of detainee treatment.
Presumably the battle was over the possibility of such investigations, which seems like a nearly automatic reason in favor of releasing the memos. I have a hard time imagining the person who could honestly argue for suppression on this basis.
>i>”It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department,” Holder said in a statement.
Hmmm…where have I heard that before?
April 17th, 2009 at 6:07 am
tag fail
April 17th, 2009 at 6:15 am
The sole standard here – in addition to the law – should be how do you want US prisoners to be treated?
If you oppose torture against your side while allowing it to be committed by your side shouldn’t you be branded a hypocrite?
I think a good spot would be right in the middle of Woody’s and Bob Williams’ foreheads.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:34 am
Randy: I think a good spot would be right in the middle of Woody’s and Bob Williams’ foreheads.
Unlike Islamic terrorists, at least we don’t behead prisoners and journalists.
What if we had the standard that we treat Islamic terrorist prisoners like they treat their prisoners from the west? I’m not saying that we should, but our standards being criticized are probably the tamest of most of the world’s countries.
- – -
Uh, oh, Marc. This global warming thing could put a damper on you getting out of L.A. for the weekend. Five inches of snow fell Tuesday night on Mount Charleston, and trace amounts of rain were recorded at McCarran International Airport
April 17th, 2009 at 6:36 am
Unlike Islamic terrorists, at least we don’t behead prisoners and journalists.
Strawman, the argument of those who have none.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Strawman? Sort of like when you guys bring up Pres. Reagan as doing something similar to what Democrats do in excess?
April 17th, 2009 at 7:23 am
This adds support to my comment above connecting liberals to “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” – Obama the Pee Wee!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:26 am
This thing of having Woody as the most persistent adversarial voice here reminds me of what it’s like to play Scrabble with a little kid – you always win, but it’s not very interesting or challenging. My problem is that the annoyance factor dominates – because there’s so little of substance beneath the mountain of glib insult and mindless drivel. I always succumb to the temptation to dismiss him as a moron or react to the most deliberately offensive shit. Of course he is a moron, but how often does it make sense to keep repeating the obvious ? Tiresome – and I’m sure my responses to him are just as tired as his trash. Apologies to all.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Your analogy is accurate reg, except the kid is constantly making up new words and insisting that they are real. When that doesn’t work he then urinates and spits on the tiles and dares you to pick them up.
Sort of like when you guys bring up Pres. Reagan as doing something similar to what Democrats do in excess?
No, what you just did here is a non-sequitur.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:53 am
My experience is that the best way to beat a snot-nosed smart-ass 10 year old nephew at Scrabble is to first deprive him of sleep for a week, then lock him up in a coffiin-sized box of insects, and then rinse him off with a nice little waterboarding. Yes, yes, you get some protests from the ACLU and other panty-waist defenders of the Constitution, but it sure feels great when you lay down that 87 point word and whip that exhausted little bugger.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I say we waterboard Woody and bob williams until they admit that torture is wrong.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I really need to come here more often. I mean, I finally know how to win at Scrabble!
Now I remember why Marc is one of my favorite pundits.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:49 am
In keeping with the Pee Wee Herman theme:
Shorter reg: “I know you are, but what am I?”
It’s a good thing for reg that Scrabble doesn’t deduct points for bad grammar.
- – -
Marc, does it really take all of that to beat your nephew?
Hey, do you want to know what would really upset the ACLU and liberals more than the reported torture on the terrorists? Sharing the gospel with them and telling them that Jesus loves them and can forgive their sins.
I would start with Benny Hinn, move to Ernest Angley, then Joel Osteen, and then force them to watch the 700 Club. If the terrorists weren’t good church goers after that, then I would show mercy only if they promised to go away forever.
- – -
Do you think that Obama confused the words “transparency” with his preferred “invisibility? Firm run by Obama’s auto industry adviser is linked to NY pension fund pay-to-play probe
April 17th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni national held since 2001, said in a letter to his lawyer dated to April that “oppression has increased, torture has increased and insults have increased”.
“I have seen death so many times,” he wrote. “Everything is over, life is going to hell in my situation. America, what has happened to you?”
The letter emerged on Thursday, two days after another inmate, Mohammad al-Qurani, told Al Jazeera in a phone call that he had been mistreated since Barack Obama, the US president, was elected last November.
Al-Jazeera
It’s the Gospel Truth, I’m sure.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
It take time to undone the damage your side did.
April 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Bob Williams, I don’t really get your point with that last comment. This was sort of the tack we heard from Republicans over the past few years – reports of torture are from bad guys and bad guys can’t be trusted ergo there is no real torture. Well, now we actually know what kind of shit was going on and we know who authorized it. You guys were wrong. The US government was torturing. You just don’t care because, well, either torture doesn’t bother you or you can’t stop defending your boys. I’m not sure which is less impressive.
April 17th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
My point is that Obama is torturing terrorists in Gitmo, which does not bother me. He’s also blowing them away in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which I think is REALLY cool. Don’t you?
April 17th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Woody says: “Unlike Islamic terrorists, at least we don’t behead prisoners and journalists.”
No, Woody, the US government just opens academies of torture in places like Georgia and teaches other people how to do it to the citizens of countries whose interests we want a hand in.
We are taking up a collection Woody to send you on a sort of If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Chile, Abu Graib, Baghdad– torture tour.
And then we are going to send you for a little truth and reconciliation therapy to Baghdad. You can console the families of the children who were dismembered much like you perhaps consoled the father of the little girls who were blown to bits in Birmingham.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Williams:
Like Mavis, I’m not sure what you’re getting at with this analogy. You can’t equate actions taken in guerilla war with methodical torture of prisoners outside a war zone. It’s not at all the same thing.
If you do believe the situations are comparable, you might as well throw out the Geneva convention and Army field manual prohibitions of torture. Lots of people have commented that we stand to gain more by these “rules of war” (with all their limitations) than by tossing them out.
By following your reasoning above, you would also say that authorizing police officers to use deadly force means the same as authorizing torture as a police interrogation technique.
Right?
April 17th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I suppose it’s good to have it out there publicly that Bob Williams supports torture.
My understanding is that the Obama administration has prohibited all abuse of prisoners. What they have not done is allow all detainees the right of habeas corpus. And I think the administration is totally and 100% wrong.
April 17th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
should read, “…100% wrong on that score.”
April 17th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
My point is that Obama is torturing terrorists in Gitmo, which does not bother me.
The you forfeit the right to protest the next time an American soldier is tortured.
April 17th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I bet Bob has all the Rambo videos and keeps a 4 day stubble growth like Chuck Norris.
April 17th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
# Bob Williams Says:
April 17th, 2009 at 5:00 am
One way to stop is to blow away the “terrorists” with Predator drones. No prisoners, no problems. Thanks, Mr President!
Actually I think ol Bob is taking the piss with his comments.
April 17th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Either that or Bob is about 8.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:07 am
We are taking up a collection Woody to send you on a sort of If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Chile, Abu Graib, Baghdad– torture tour.
Woody would probably get a woody on that tour.