By the way, are you aware that waterboarding is what the Spanish Inquisitors used next if the rack didn’t make you confess? It was never meant to elicit the truth, just a confession. And that seems to be all we got out of it, besides the hatred of the Islamic world and another generation of dedicated terrorists.

You keep citing the “3 extreme terrorists” who were waterboarded as being the extent of the case. What makes you believe it was only 3? What about the couple dozen people known to have been in US custody who disappeared from the records, and apparently from the planet? What about the people known to have been beaten to death during interrogations at Abu Graib? Have you read any of those death certificates? Are you equally content to sleep at night knowing they were murdered in your name? If you support the government’s ability to ignore the law whenever the President is sufficiently afraid, will it still be okay when they mistake you (or your child) for a terrorist? You really might want to think this all the way through at some point.

It does indeed come down to whether we as a nation respect the Law. Since you consider it “shit,” let’s have a straight up anser to a very simple question- Do you respect the law?

If so, why are you so bothered by an investigation that is required under the applicable laws to determine the facts? There are several appropriate and adequate ways to do it without it becoming a distracting circus or an exercise in revenge. Even W’s DOJ managed to do a credible job with the investigation of Valerie Plame’s outing to the press.

If not, why be proud to call yourself an American?

The hypocrisy I referred to was on the part of the Republican members of Congress who are saying that it would be somehow inappropriate to notice the law now, who were calling for investigations of every unsubstantiated rumor that could buy its way into print during the 90s. It’s only personal to the extent you support and defend their hypocrisy.

I find it interesting that you blame lack of enforcement of immigration laws on the “left” considering that Republicans completely controlled Congress for 12 of the last 14 years, and had a Republican President for six of those. Surely they could have fixed it in there somewhere? Democrats even pushed bills in the House to address it in the 90s, but were shut down by the Republican leadership, whose campaign contributors were all perfectly happy having cheap brown people to staff their factories, cut their lawns, and nanny their children. It must be tough on you, knowing the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy even controls the Republican leadership.

Oh, and according to the latest polling, if this is all about “lefty revenge” then the radical left wing now constitutes 65% of the country.

Again, get back to us when you have a defensible legal argument to justify allowing the US Government to torture your children the next time the President gets scared. Because if we let it be done to THEM, it WILL eventually be done to us.

That’s because you care much more about revenge than you do about actually getting the kind of intelligence that can keep us safe. Even if the price is false leads and skyrocketing sign-up numbers for Al Qaeda recruiters, it’s worth it to you to know that a few high-value detainees are being tortured (even though we got nothing of value from them).

Enforcing the law is not revenge. Supporting the least reliable interrogation methods because of the emotional satisfaction it gives you to see suspected terrorists tortured is.

I’ll consider your argument but don’t give me this shit about “respecting the law” and getting on your high horse as if you guys somehow obey the law more then other people … hardly have a monopoly on it. Much finer legal minds than yours gave justification for this. I’m willing to consider their take on things given the grave circumstances after 9/11. Oftentimes “interpretation” of the law just depends upon who’s in power … heck, our Homeland Security Director doesn’t think crossing the border from Mexico is a crime. Local Police Departments don’t enforce Illegal Immigration, are prohibited from doing so in most cases, thanks to people on the left. Obama is continuing the same NSA Eavesdropping program you guys were all in tears about under Bush. What’s up with that?? Overall there are much more important issues to me than 3 extreme Terrorists getting waterboarded. Again, this seems to be more about Leftie revenge, not some attempt at morality for murderers.

If that’s insufficient for you, there’s also the UN Convention Against Torture, also signed and ratified by the US, and thus also, per the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the land. It requires any credible allegations of torture to be investigated and if found true, prosecuted by the legal authorities in any signatory nation. There is an excellent argument to be made that Obama could and probably SHOULD be impeached if he fails to do so.

I, for one, have had all I can take of listening to the same people who spent the 1990s howling at me about “respect for the law” (and how important it was to investigate every tiny wobble in the career trajectory of Bill Clinton’s penis) apologizing for and justifying inhuman felonies just because Bush and the Big Dick didn’t have the balls to respect it the first time they got scared. Either you respect the Law, or you don’t.

We do. And what’s more, it seems most of those commenting here have even read some of it.

When you have a valid legal argument you didn’t get from a 24 rerun, get back with us. In the meantime, you’re just wasting bandwidth.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/04/connecting_the_dots_in_feinste.html

This whole “Torture” thing has helped recruit more terrorists in part because of how the US Media has promoted it !! I agree Abu Graib was embarrassing, but blown WAY out of proportion for Political purposes in the USA. The punishments met out in Arab/Muslim culture itself are far worse then waterboarding or wearing womens underwear (which half of us do). Flogging, chopping off hands, stoning .. these are the punishments set forth by Islamic Law, punishments which leave one maimed and with permanent damage if not death. I’m amazed at how the Left seeks its morality by defending the worst Terrorists in the World; Terrorists who set off suicide bombs in crowded places, fly jumbo jets into buildings full of people, and slice the heads off Journalists, soldiers, and aid workers. Yet somehow clipping the spinal column or inserting a needle into the head of the unborn is ok. I’m also amazed at the flock of Lawyers lining up to defend these guys and apply to them the rights of US Citizens, treat them like shoplifters .. well no, I guess I’m not.

Again, to say these methods solely produced false information is naive and untrue, defies common sense. Of course people give out false information under ANY kind of interrogation. It’s up to the skill of the Interrogator to get towards the truth. If Matthew Alexander was able to get info out of people, well fine, I’m sure he did, good for him, did he offer them candy? But he did not have to deal with the most hardened, fanatical murderers like KSM.

The Law Kathy is referring to is the Geneva Convention right? Did Al Qaeda sign on to it yet?? No uniform, no flag, no state, no coverage under the GC Agreement. If the main contention here is “Waterboarding” and “Waterboarding” 3 guys that hardly constitutes a slippery slope.

Anyway we’ll see what the other memo’s say if they are released. Meanwhile while all this is going on, Senator Di Fi interjected herself into the Banking Committee to help guide some 50 billion dollars to the FDIC … which granted her husband’s firm some 30+billion dollar contract AFTER she intervened … and this isn’t the first time Di Fi directed Government money towards her husband …. all these leftwingnut blogs are silent on the issue …

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/04/21/20090421feinstein-fdic0421-ON.html

“Enhanced interrogation techniques” is a euphemism for torture. Torture is illegal. It violates our own laws and it violates several international agreements to which the U.S. is a party and thus is obligated to observe.

You’ll just have to accept that a large portion of people have a different torture definition than you, as I accept that folks of your opinion would probably do little if anything to get information out of Terrorists.

Actually, you have no idea how a “large portion” of people would define torture, but it’s irrelevant anyway because there is a definition of torture in law, and that’s the only definition that matters.

If you like, you can write to Matthew Alexander — whose interrogation team in Iraq got information out of terrorists, with no physical or mental coercion, that led directly to the discovery of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s location and enabled U.S. bombers to drop two 500-pound bombs on his house and kill him — and tell him that he did very little or nothing to get information out of terrorists.

Nobody has contradicted the assertion that a threat on LA was thwarted and valuable information was gained [through the use of torture] which saved lives.

That is 100 percent false. You really are uninformed, Boogie. Do some basic research before you make statements like that. All it does is make you look like an ignorant fool.