DNI Blair Suggests the Bush Interrogation Policies Worked

All of the people who are against torture seem to want to have the past VP and President's heads on pikes.

"Someone tell Parallax that "24" is a fictional TV show."

The funny thing, Ryan, is how close it came to attack on Los Angeles.

You do make us wonder whether you believe 9-11 really happened or whether a man really stepped on the moon.

For Ryan, from the WSJ yesterday:

"The latest Beltway blunder -- and it would be a big one -- is the Obama Administration's weekend news leak that it may insist on converting its preferred shares in some of the nation's largest banks into common equity."

Toldja

This is reality RyanC..No matter how much you wish to bury your head in the sand and avoid this...Tell the family members of every terrorist attack that has taken place on American soil that it really did not happen, they are imagining it and stuck in a TV land that their love ones really didn't die....WOW probably about the stupidest thing I've seen written, by you, yet on this site....

Dewde, you got me wrong-

1) Never believed the run-up story before the Iraq war...wouldn't call it 'lies', though

2) Never believed in Bush's Wilsonian dream of 'spreading democracy'...took us 200+ yrs and a civil war (so far)

3) I'm critical of US policy vs. Israel and Saudi/Gulf states

4) Against the Bush and Obama bailouts, and Bush's go-along spending

5) If ANY US official breaks US law and can be convicted in court, I'm all for it

6) I'm pro-choice,anti-capital punishment

How right fringe is that?

I sometimes wonder if Fox didn't create '24' just for this purpose. They certainly have the motive and the resources, especially if they knew they could make a boatload of money while they were doing it.

"What would you do if you had a known terrorist in custody who had planned and executed mass murder of innocent peoples previously and found substantial evidence that indicated they were planning another attack however you did not know when or where???? Time is of importance and seconds count"

Someone tell Parallax that "24" is a fictional TV show.

Torture prohibited...up for debate...Mass murder prohibited...absolutely...

Paul...Really have no idea what you are trying to convey...I would use water boarding without hesitation to SAVE lives yes, would I enjoy it? No...Do I consider people who kill innocents monsters YES. So let's put this shoe on the other foot...What would you do if you had a known terrorist in custody who had planned and executed mass murder of innocent peoples previously and found substantial evidence that indicated they were planning another attack however you did not know when or where???? Time is of importance and seconds count...

the point that is lost is that torture isn't up for public opinion or a vote. it's prohibited and we know it is prohibited because the president had to have an elaborate legal philosophy constructed to enable its use. no federal judge would grant that torture by the government is legal in any circumstance.

it is well-documented and agreed that water-boarding is torture. that's intolerable in US law and the law of nations.

Sasquatch---i agree that if the Bush administration had wanted to perform torture they should have introduced legislation and let it be decided in the "People's House", not in secret meetings with White House lawyers. the purposeful, defiant destruction of documents, prohibited by a federal judge is not anything america should be proud of.

Maybee---"we have always understood that convicting our former presidents for difficult security decisions was/is a horrible idea."

i agree with you. i do not think President Bush should be prosecuted. i consider Cheney to be much more culpable and responsible and do not think his prosecution would be a bad idea at all. throughout his career he has shown nothing but contempt for the rule of law.

i also believe President Bush was given legal advice which he relied on and shouldn't have, which makes the lawyer culpable.

if Bush & Cheney weren't worried about whether water boarding was torture why did they go to the trouble of getting 'legal opinions' from their 'justice dept'......
and why their 'legal opinion' reflects the concept that nothing that we do is illegal because we have just redefined what legal is to suit our needs... without going to congress or passing a new law.

Parallax View---i know well your opnions and who you would use waterboarding it on. the debate has always been about is waterboarding torture. that you call those you wish to apply it to "monsters" implies clearly that you do belive waterboarding is torture and relish in its application. that you would apply these techniques with relish to people you know might be innocent is abhorrent but not suprising. because you can never know if a person is guilty of not. and torture yields false confessions. and it hurts innocent people. and could not care less. "kill them all, let God sort 'em out." i understand you now.

Let's be honest: this entire uproar, fueled unnecessarily by Obama, ia about Bush hatred and the absolute rage the left has about the fact that he kept the nation miraculously safe in the aftermath of 9/11. It is simply not in the leftist DNA to give credit for that signal achievement.
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the 92 CIA tapes that were destroyed despite a court order is somehow a "leftist" issue?

Abu Ghraib photos were photoshopped?

I always love the argument he kept us "miraculously safe in the aftermath of 9/11." You do know he was the President on 9/11 too?

If Obama didn't release the memos - you would be complaining about his lack of transparency, as he promised.

Most people I know who are against torture believe in the rule of law. There is no "leftist" or political agenda to being against your country breaking the law in your name.

Hey I want President Bush et.al. to be put on trial by his peers and the full story released! I would like Pelosi,Harman,Rockefeller to also be defendents as they were:
In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.
"The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange".
ASKED if the METHODS were tough enough!
Yes lets put all of us on trail because right after 9/11 I was looking over my shoulder for any potential attack! People also seem to forget the anthrax attacks close after. No one seems to remember that paranoia event. So let the truth be known. These thug/terrorists were not covered under POW/Geneva Convention ...at that time!
so please let the truth come out and all of you Bush haters will wither in the light of the truth!

Well, Ryan C, you'll be happy to know those things are well covered in the schools these days.

The point was...they weren't convicted. Their choices were complex, and we know they made them to save their country, and we have always understood that convicting our former presidents for difficult security decisions was/is a horrible idea.

fascist Hyena:
re: 'If Obama allows prosecutions to go forward, I can give you my solemn promise that he will regret it'

'my solemn promise'...?
dude you've seen 'V' way too many times,
put the remote down and walk away from the TV

"Let's be honest: this entire uproar, fueled unnecessarily by Obama, ia about Bush hatred and the absolute rage the left has about the fact that he kept the nation miraculously safe in the aftermath of 9/11."

Nice blanket accusation. I think Bush was one of the worst presidents in history but my position on this torture stuff has nothing to do with that opinion. I'd feel the same outrage and embarrassment if the torture were ordered, implemented, and justified under Clinton, Obama, or any other president. Many of us simply feel that torturing other human beings is wrong. And it certainly isn't in our nation's DNA...at least it shouldn't be.

"What proper US history course would teach that Lincoln and Roosevelt were convicted ex-presidents?"

None, since neither were convicted.

But the discussion of Lincoln beyond Gettysburg and the Emancipation Proclamation would be nice before college.

As would a look at FDR's various policies including internment.

And that doesn't even touch on the last 50 years or so which is not taught with any depth whatsoever.