President Obama, Harsh Interrogations, and Terrorism

  I have been silent on this issue for too long but now is the time to write about what this president has done to the country’s safety by releasing the papers on the harsh interrogations authorized by the Bush administration,  his refusal to release the papers that show how effective the interrogations were, his willingness to drop the interrogation procedures, and his unwillingness to do whatever it takes to protect the American people.

  We know three things  about this president, harsh interrogations, and terrorism:

1) The president has vowed to end the Bush administration’s policy on harsh interrogations, he released papers that described the techniques that he will ban but not the papers that showed the results

2) The Bush administration’s policies on harsh interrogations thwarted a second wave 9/11 type of  attack

3) The president has left the door open to prosecute the CIA operatives that performed the harsh interrogations.

  Let us examine these three issues one at a time. The president cherry picked the harsh interrogation papers that he would release. He released the papers that told us, and the enemy, what methods we used to harvest information from terrorists about future terrorist attacks but he chose not to release any papers that told us what type of information was gained by using those methods.

  He has vowed to end the practices that were outlined in the papers that he released. These methods include pushing detainees against a padded wall, making them crouch in an uncomfortable position, sleep deprivation, putting them in a box with a caterpillar, splashing them with cold water, and water-boarding.

  With the possible exception of water-boarding none of the above is torture. And I am not willing to concede that water-boarding is torture.

  The president has vowed to end all of the practices listed above, but he hasn’t released the papers that show us how effective the above methods were. There is a reason for that, these methods were effective. So effective that they lead right into point number two.

  The CIA has confirmed that water-boarding was only used three times and one of those times it was used on the unwilling to talk mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed , who promptly surrendered the details of a second wave September 11th style attack in which Los Angeles was the target.

  Contrary to reports that harsh interrogations don’t work we have learned that they do in fact work and saved many, many American lives.

  Taking into account that the Bush administration’s harsh interrogation policies worked and it is confirmed that these policies saved American lives, and taking into account that this president is going to end these policies it brings us to the conclusion that this president made the decision that it is more important to him to appear to do the right thing by our enemies than it is to actually protect the American people.

  This president knows that the methods used by the Bush administration were effective and he knows that the methods used saved lives and yet he is unwilling to use them when need be. That is why he only released certain papers, that is why he did not release  the results of the harsh interrogations, because he also knows that they saved lives and in order to appease the far left and the enemy he couldn’t make the results public for fear of the backlash.

  But not only is he going to put a stop to the effective measures that foiled an attack on Los Angeles, and who knows how many other attacks, he has left the door open to prosecute those people who actually saved the lives of countless Americans in Los Angeles. There need be no further elaboration on this horrific turn of events. After claiming that he would not seek the prosecution of those who were involved in the saving of American lives he has left the decision up to the Attorney General thereby washing his hands of the situation just as Pontius Pilot once did, absolving himself from any blame.

    This president had a decision to make and he decided that public relations and his image around the world were more important than doing whatever it takes to protect the American people. In the 2004 election John Kerry talked about passing a global test, well this president thinks passing a global test is more important than doing the most important job that he was hired to do. I find this unforgivable.