I take terrorism seriously, and want us to fight it properly. But pieces like this do not help us to fight it -- all they do is create more fear.

One person above said that the undetonated bombs in London weren't failed attempts! Maybe you can explain how a car bomb that is towed for illegal parking and winds up in the impound yard and never explodes is not a failure? Or how one left near a nightclub and is found by a bouncer and never explodes is not a failure? Or how one that is supposed to go into a crowded airport but can't and doesn't hurt anyone but the terrorists is not a failure?

These are FAILED terror plots except for one thing -- media reports like this cause people to react in failure.

Another person repeated exactly why this report is so bad. They said, "Brian Ross is respected in his field. Why are you apologizing to the terrorists? Ain't you got any huevos, hombre?"

First of all, being a respected journalist these days doesn't mean much. Judy Miller was respected, and it turned out none of her reporting was accurate. All of her reporting was garbage from anonymous sources who wanted to mislead the public into going to war in Iraq, a war that distracted us from the real enemies of our country.

As for huevos and apologizing for the enemy, who did that? Noting that a reporter is doing a lousy job is not being cowardly or on the side of the terrorists.

There are ways to fight terrorists by kicking the butts of existing terrorists and fixing the situations that help them recruit. But running around in fear based on anonymous sources that are not fact checked or backed up by other sources is not the way to win.

Instead it is the way to cause the public to cower under their beds and let the Scooter Libbys and Dick Cheneys of the world screw up our country.

I think with all this "Who is Who & what is what really boils down to one thing....If the politicians & Media would let the soldiers fight this war & stay the hell out of it in the first place it would have all been over with a long time ago... shame on all

Yes us Brit's may talk with a fancy accent but at end of the day we have good security and police force that know how to handle this. Anyway 9/11 was handled well but suppose to be an inside job and well end of the day i just ahve to say we would go stabbing our own citizens in the back not like most of your US leaders would. I think American people some how think they have a good hold over the war and terrorism but at end of the day no one does but it was funny that we got asked to go to war with you American's because at end of the day we have a good hold and well we wont be backing down to terrorism and we will fight as a country.

Here's the thing about the so-called "ticking bomb" scenario that Jon and some others who want Jack Bauer to be real never do explain... How would it be that we know where to find the terrorist, all of his friends and family, where he works, plays, prays and drinks. Every detail of his travel for the past decade is known, his phone calls are listened to, and yet that one all-important fact - the location of the supposed "ticking bomb" needs to be tortured from the terrorist?

One needn't go through all these logical gymnastics to manufacture a "reason" to torture people. One need only admit that everything that is supposedly superior about being a thinking person doesn't apply to them.

Anyone who's ever worked in counterintelligence will tell you that torture is useless as an interrogation method. Just ask the Germans to look over their records to see what useful information was gained by doing it 1939-1945.

"Anyone who's ever worked in counterintelligence will tell you that torture is useless as an interrogation method."--Greg

I doubt it.

Then why does the US Army have a course for their Special Forces called SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape), which teaches soldiers how to resist torture. Weak minded people sucumb to torture. Not all terrorists can resist. I don't expect to turn on the television and hear that all of our techniques for human intelligence, especially controversial techniques, work. High Minded people are willing to do anything for their cause. Including inventing research to show that torture does not work. This is a "Fabulous Load of Balls."

Why does the US Navy and US Air Force train pilots to resist torture? Torture works on some people, especially those who haven't been taught to resist it. Truth is that torture works (sometimes). The Vietnamese were especially good at torturing people and the hunt for good information should include all of the tools at our disposal. Listen to the parade of fools (all those kooky counter-intelligence people you mention) who failed to use the tools at their disposal properly if you must, but I will not listen to them. I have heard anecdotes from Vietnam Veterans that torture works. Intellectuals in Washington and elsewhere have time to debate the effectiveness of torture. The ticking bomb I spoke of is a metaphor for any critical shred of intelligence that means life and death for some of our people. One of the chief criticisms of the 9/11 failure was that we used too much technical intelligence and not enough human intelligence. There is a mix of valuable information out there. Some of it is in computers and some of it only resides within people's minds.

It stands to reason that human intelligence will include a number of techniques that are obviously controversial. Among them torture. Picking peoples pockets is not an easy task.

I would broaden the use of torture and I would not just restrict torture based on the high minded "Logical Gymnastics" of people who watch too much This Week and haven't heard any shots fired in anger themselves. Not sure if this applies to you Greg, but it probably applies to many among us. There are people who use the torture tradecraft effectively and don't want to reveal the nature of their craft because it tips off the terrorists to our techniques. I am not one who thinks this matters much and I feel that if the technique is harsh enough then it will work even if the enemy is prepared to endure it. Prolonged torture is something even the best are not trained to endure.

Jon

Hi Greg,

I just wanted to add that the biggest problem with torture is not that it is not effective, but that it is illegal in some places. Go figure you can shoot a terrorist and he can blow up a building full of stock brockers and analysts, but you can't legally pluck his eye out with an awl or cut his finger off with a pair of pruning shears, not to mention the more tender areas of the our anatomy (gonads etc..).

As I previously alluded to, I would revise the statutes and give commanders and intelligence officers more latitude in exercising good judgement on these matters. It is controversial and illegal that is why people are hesitent to speak out about the success of torture. I wouldn't listen to anyone who says it doesn't work.

Jon

I can only say this... judging from some comments... Liberals sure hate their OWN news reporters.

There are a lot of deluded misled people posting on this board.

I wonder what would happen to US and UK economies if the Middle East and Africa could successfully kick them away from their oil,like we read is happening in the Niger Delta ? What would happen ?

Hi Mabrie,

It is not so easy to "kick them away from their oil." They need a market for their product which is in America and without oil revenue they have squat to feed themselves with. America is developing alternative energy resources and I suspect that we would accelerate development and deployment of alternative energy (hydrogen, nuclear, ethanol, etc...) to react to such a foolish move.

I suspect that energy independence would be a boon to US Economic Growth. Not to mention we would wouldn't have to trade with people who hate us so much. It would also be good for the environment. We could easily convert to Hydrogen in a matter of a few years by building a great many pebble bed nuclear reactors and converting salt water to hyrdogen with the electric capacity from nuclear. A form of alloy hydrogen would be a great source of energy for fuel cell vehicles.

By all means if you want the Arabs and Persians to choke on their sand then please help us limit the supply of oil. I would be buying oil futures if there was any hint that this might happen. A fundamental shift in the supply of oil during a period where we were converting to alternative fuel sources would make me a rich futures trader.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Jon :)