Comments on: Let’s Talk About Something Else

By: claudio

claudio — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:46:57 +0000

Not good at all. At all. our “allies” are gonna stop giving us gouge, our guys are gonna be too cautious in a business where it’s not necessarily a good thing. All for some political points.

Lex, sometimes in the future, while imbibing in close proximity, just mention Zubaydah to me. Tell you a funny story.

By: Marianne Matthews

Marianne Matthews — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:48:37 +0000

Kris … Thank you, dear heart, for correcting me on current acceptable slang. “Doo-doo” was bad enough, as you point out. “Wee-weed up” is beyond acceptable, especially when it is uttered by the “greatest orator of modern times.”

What on earth was he thinking? Ohh, right. He wasn’t.

Marianne

By: Kris, in New England

Kris, in New England — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:09:40 +0000

They get all warm and fuzzy towards the monster, of course. Which is precisely what this administration wants us to do when they release that kind of inflammatory information without providing the necessary texture of the incident.

Witness the reaction of Obama to the release of the Lockerbie slug. “Highly objectionable”…

I find this entire administration and their antics, tactics and methods to be highly objectionable.

By: Marianne Matthews

Marianne Matthews — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:09:02 +0000

Good point JKB … What the public refuses to know is that a grand total of three [count 'em three] imprisoned terrorists were waterboarded during interrogation — for a period of seven seconds at a time. Their lives were not endangered in any way by this. Just as a matter of curiosity, I wonder how long each waterboarding of our American military [which took place as part of their SERE training] took. And I wonder why our government is being so quiet about the fact that waterboarding resistance training is part of SERE training. Doesn’t fit the liberal meme, I guess. You know the one — depraved Americans are responsible for every evil in the world and we must continually apologize for all of them.

Marianne

By: Kris, in New England

Kris, in New England — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:59:21 +0000

Marianne: with respect, please start using the new vernacular. It’s not “doo-doo” it’s “getting wee wee’d up”.

By: JKB

JKB — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:47:58 +0000

John Hinderaker over at Poweline Blog has a pretty good write up on the content of the recent released report. This really is smoke and mirrors, as he notes most of the press promoted incidents were done by a single debriefer vice an interrogator. The interesting cover up bit:

The report also notes that six years ago, the incidents it describes were referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution, and DOJ determined that there was nothing there that merited prosecution.

So really the Special Prosecutor will need to be investigating the DOJ? I found this bit to be interesting:

Prior to the use of EITs, Abu Zubaydah provided information for [redacted] intelligence reports. Interrogators applied the waterboard to Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times during August 2002. [The report explains that each application of water is counted separately, and most of the 83 applications lasted less than ten seconds.] During the period between the end of the use of the waterboard and 30 April 2003, he provided information for approximately [redacted] intelligence reports. It is not possible to say definitively that the waterboard is the reason for Abu Zubaydah's increased production, or if another factor, such as the length of detention, was the catalyst. Since the use of the waterboard, however, Abu Zubaydah has appeared to be cooperative.

Not exactly what comes to mind when the public think "waterboarding 83 times".