If We’re Reduced to Judging the Wisdom of Torture by Asking Whether It ‘Worked’ …

If you are going to consider whether a facial slap is torture, then you should also consider other forms of torture. Life in prison should be considered along with solitary confinement, the death penalty, any form of detainment before a trial, poor selection of food, no smoking, no television, no telephone and numerous other punishments.

If the list of 10 techniques were listed in 1990 and people were asked whether they were torture, my bet is that most people would have said they were not torture. They are only turture today, because people who don't like George W. Bush have declared it to be torture. Does anyone think Al Gore would not have approved the same techniques in 2002? Had he done so, would we today be having the tortuous torture debate?

The pursuit of torture issues in the United States is political revenge. Waterboarding was first described as a technique 7 years ago. Dems and Repubs were briefed on its use. If Al Gore were the exiting
president would we be having this discussion?

Despite what the Supremes declared, the United States went on the theory that the non uniformed non-country aligned murderers that are the Islamic terrorists have no standing before the Geneva
Conventions. The issue went before the Supremes also because of hate — hate from the political left; hate because they lost the 2000 election; hate that they cannot seem to get over. They will continue seeking revenge for years to come. Hate like that is poisonous to American society.

The solution is to convene a new Geneva Convention and focus on these non-aligned murderers and declare internationally what should be done with them. The Geneva Convention did not anticipate international murderers shielded by governments.

Any other “solution” is just political revenge which begets is own mischief in the next administration.

Interviews with KSM — a known murderer looking for notoriety. Now why would his responses be considered? Mohammed “…told outside interviewers”. That's like listening to Ted Bundy's point of view isn't it? Perhaps our President should unredact the parts of the memo's where the actual results of the persuasions were documented. That might make people happier that the techniques were used and defeat the purpose of the political revenge program on the previous administration.

[...]  We no longer hold the moral high ground.  We borrowed against it in an effort to get a few false confessions from Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Zubaydah, and others.  And the next time we face an organized [...]

[...]  We no longer hold the moral high ground.  We borrowed against it in an effort to get a few false confessions from Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Zubaydah, and others.  And the next time we face an organized [...]

You don't need to take KSM's word for it. Remember, several false red alerts.

You don't need to take KSM's word for it. Remember, several false red alerts.