Category Archives: Guantanamo
While segments of the mainstream media have adopted President Obama’s excuses yesterday that he’s tried hard to close Guantanamo’s detention facilities since day two, but for Congress standing in the way, Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare Blog cuts right to it:
I respect Greenwald’s right to dissent from Obama administration policies. I do not respect Obama’s right to dissent from his own administration’s policies.
~~~ he described himself as fighting against a policy he has, in fact, adopted.
Drones over sovereign countries killing innocents Going to war without Congressional approval. Assassinating American citizens. And now Gitmo to remain open for business. The State Department on Monday reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo … Continue reading
How accurate and realistic is the portrayal of CIA interrogation in the film? The movie, after all, opens with a statement saying “based on firsthand accounts of actual events”; then goes on to show the fictionalized brutal abuse and torture of a fictional high value terrorist, including waterboarding.
Well, one “firsthand account” not utilized as an expert consultant to the movie is Jose Rodriguez, former head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, author of Hard Measures, and unapologetic defender of the CIA’s “torture” program….
An OWS activist and his pregnant girl friend were arrested on bomb paraphernalia charges. The arrests have brought forth images of Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, the friends and former neighbors of the Obamas. Both couples are from … Continue reading
“A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.”
John Burroughs
- Former CTC chief, Cofer Black, 60 Minutes last Sunday
Lawfare Blog has a roundup of some of the latest news regarding the “GWoT”:
- Air Force Captain Michael Schwartz, military counsel for the defence of Walid bin Attash
During the arraignment hearings, this comment was drowned out by white noise when the court security officer thought classified information might be mentioned. However, upon review, The Pentagon office in charge of the military commission tribunals decided nothing compromising was revealed and released a transcript on Wednesday.
Schwartz’ “big boy pants” was a snide reference to Jose Rodriguez (who proudly linked it onto his book’s Facebook wall) and his 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl in which Rodriguez said,
As I wrote about in a earlier post, the hypocrisy of the left in regards to Obama’s policy of allowing assassinations of United States citizens is quite telling.
Take for example this speech given by our Attorney General in 2004:
As we get into the 10th anniversary of OEF, “Afghan detainees tortured in prison, U.N. says”, reads the WaPo headline.
By U.S. forces?
Um…no:
Agents searching Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s compound discovered what one official later called a “mother lode” of valuable intelligence. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was obviously planning more attacks. It didn’t sound like he was willing to give us any information about them. “I’ll talk to you,” he said, “after I get to New York and see my lawyer.”
George Tenet asked if he had permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I thought about my meeting with Danny Pearl’s widow, who was pregnant with his son when he was murdered. I thought about the 2,973 people stolen from their families by al Qaeda on 9/11. And I thought about my duty to protect the country from another act of terror.
“Damn right,” I said.
- Decision Points, pg 170, by George W. Bush
“The history of the United States military is clear: Torture doesn’t work”- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
“We don’t torture. That’s not what we’re involved in.”- Vice President Dick Cheney
“This country doesn’t torture, we’re not going to torture.”-President Bush
