[...] is the ex-CIA chief of the Counterterrorism Center who ordered the destruction of 93 interrogation tapes. Absolved of criminal wrong-doing, why were they destroyed? Rodriguez explains: The tapes, filmed [...]

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Sorry I meant Gomez not Curt!! I was just gettin ready to hit the sack and screwed up the names. Too sleepy!! Anyway…my bad.

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TL, I’m hoping you were directing that comment towards someone else because the post you commented on is mine and all my comments have said exactly the same thing you did.

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Curt seems to be an example of the type of mentality prevalent in the U.S. during the current war.
This is the ONLY time in our history that we stand a chance of being destroyed through ignorance.
Curt’s so sympathetic to those who would slaughter our families and friends with smiles on their faces than he is with the thousands of dead and wounded American soldiers and their families.

This is a typical liberal attitude. “Help the poor misunderstood terrorists, and for God’s sake help preserve their rights”.
Even though the terrorists are trying to empede or altogether dismantle our basic rights to peace happiness and prosperity.

This is a war not a friggin video game. If you don’t adapt the tactics of the winning side you are doomed to lose.
The farmers during the American revolution would have surely lost against the British redcoats if they had not adapted to the tactics of the native American peoples and waged a guerilla war.

If we’re going to win this thing we need to get serious and keep politics out of it. But then that begs the question, “Do the (far left) liberals REALLY want to win? Or are they forsaking the lives of our families & friends to take a stab at an unpopular commander and chief? Where do their loyalties lie?
It’s simple to figure out.
They’re “supportive” of Muslim extremists for the most part, whether they realize it or not, and stand against America, it’s traditional values, and the people who live here. “Whether they realize this or not”. Sorry Curt, but when someone tries to play “Russian roulette” with the futures of my family and myself, I get concerned.
Screw the terrorists, screw their rights. They have earned the right to an early grave and that’s all they’ve earned.
We have to win regardless of the tactics used. If a tiger were mauling your child would you merely poke at it with a twig for fear of harming or irritating it? No, if you were any kind of father you’d try to destroy it because your child is more important to you than the beast. Or at least it should be.
Let the CIA do it’s job. Take my word for it, it’s important.

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The only one who is off base is you. The Commission had the transcripts of the interrogations for the use of determining what happened during 9/11. Democrat and Republican leaders in Congress knew of the tapes and the fact they were going to be destroyed.

AND

Waterboarding is not torture, Congress has had plenty of opportunities to deem it as such and have not. So, not torture.

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The article is completely off base. The AG investigation is whether the CIA obstructed justice in destroying the tapes. Obstruction of Justice is a criminal act. Remember, torture with or without political(AG opinion)cover is still torture and what goes aroung comes around.

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Waterboarding is not torture, and even if it was these two should have had it done to them twofold to get the information we needed.

To think people like you could be in power someday scares the crap outta me. People who would treat those who want to destroy this country with kid gloves and instead of doing what is needed to get the information that would save thousands of American lives you would walk out of the room.

You people are insane.

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Torture is a crime. People who torture others are criminals. Torture is legally defined as deliberately causing severe mental or physical pain in order to extract information. Waterboarding, and a lot of other current American practices fit this criteria and were once labeled by the US gov’t as torture. If you do these things, you are a criminal and subject to prosecution.

Following orders is no excuse, according the US at Nuremberg. Getting a note from the Justice Department is also no excuse. Finally, torture is a losing strategy, in spite of occasional tactical advantages gained. According to the US Army and Marine Corp Counterinsurgency Field Manual, practicing torture played a major role in the French losing in Algeria in spite of military success. This is in a sidebar labeled “Lose the High Ground, Lose the War”.

Criminals need to be brought to justice, not just have a rough congressional hearing. Those who torture are criminals.

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I go with Curt. To wit I want to add that the methods used to extract information from enemies of our nation falls under the purview of protecting both sources and methods and as such is protected under the National Security Act of 1947, As Amended and under the War Powers Act. There is no constitutional requirement that methods and sources employed to protect the national security interest of our nation be preserved. The intelligence committees were briefed on the existence of the videotapes. Their recommendation, suggestion, even urging that the videotapes be preserved does not alter the constitutional prerogative granted to the executive under the War Powers Act to either preserve and to destroy the videotapes.

We need but to ask why the 9/11 Commission feels so slighted because they were not given the opportunity to view the videotapes of the interrogations. After all they were given the transcripts. Where they not enough? Or was their need to view the videotapes representative of a darker, more perverse, need to witness the cruelty that is within all of us as Thomas Cahill postulates in his seminal treaties on the bleaker side our human nature. Flashbacks to the barbarism of the Roman Colosseum when the masses gather to satiate their sadistic wont to witness the torturous death and dismemberment of Christians and gladiators or to the mob lynching of not so long ago in our very own West when families turned out for a festive day, carrying a picnic lunch, to cheer the hanging of the latest victim. Another Thomas Cahill insight into our darker side! Not to imply that I condone the use of torture but rather to point out that with the absence of laws that temper our darker side we will continue to foster a culture hell bent on employing barbaric methods that throughout history have never been successful as either a means of extracting truth or as a deterrent.

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The problem with y’all is that you’re stuck in an us-versus-them, democrat-vs-republican rut that keeps you from seeing clearly. The fact of the matter is that both parties are corrupt and would do absolutely anything to defeat the other party and keep it from running the country when it is in power. This is business as usual for this country (check out some of the history from the 1800s) but don’t you think it’s time we moved beyond it? This isn’t about the left or the right anymore, it’s about having government that is by the people and for the people… remember that phrase? The Repubs and the Dems are basically the same at this point – more focused on power and personal greed than on our welfare. It’s time we took back our government and placed our loyalty with our nation, not our political party and it’s various self-serving agendas. The fastest cure would be strict term limits and dissolution of party-based politics by removing any and all soft money and party contributions. What do you think politicians would be doing if they couldn’t use their offices to enrich and empower themselves? And what kind of pols would we end up with?

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