Congress Has Known About the Harsh Interrogation Procedures Used by the Bush Administration Since 2002
Former CIA Director Porter Goss has come out against the administration for releasing the papers about the harsh interrogations used by the CIA under the Bush administration, claiming that the president has put partisan politics above national security.
He is not the first to make that claim but he said something else that I found very interesting, especially in light of the fact that members of congress are calling for a truth commission to investigate the Bush administration.
he told a Washington Post reporter that members of Congress had been fully briefed on the CIA’s special interrogation program. “Among those being briefed, there was a pretty full understanding of what the CIA was doing,” Goss told the Post
Congress was fully briefed on what techniques the CIA was using to interrogate prisoners. Congress KNEW what was going on all the time. Surely they must have opposed those techniques back then if they are so against them now right?
And the reaction in the room was not just approval, but encouragement
Wrong! Congress encouraged the CIA, they approved of the methods being used that they now claim to be indignant about. But it doesn’t end there as the CIA repeatedly reported their activities to congress to make sure that they still had approval to use the interrogation procedures.
From 2002 through 2006 when the use of these techniques ended, the leadership of the CIA repeatedly reported their activities both to Executive Branch policymakers and to members of Congress, and received permission to continue to use the techniques
Nancy Pelosi is now denying these claims and says that while she was briefed by the CIA on water-boarding she didn’t realize the procedure was actually being used. Yeah right!
Some of those who were briefed on the procedures that the CIA were using asked if the procedures went far enough.
The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough
So now that it is to a political advantage there is talk by Democrats of a truth commission to investigate the Bush administration and the procedures used to protect Americans. I have decided that I am for this idea, let us get all of the dirty laundry out in the open. I want to get to the bottom of this.
I want to know how many and for how long these Democrats in congress knew about the harsh interrogations and why they did not have a problem with them until now. This is a can of worms that I really don’t think the Democrats want to open up. They were willing accomplices to the Bush administration’s interrogation procedures and it wasn’t until the winds of changed blew across the nation that they had a problem with the procedures.
I say put them all on trial and let us once and for all see who had the nation’s best interests at heart.
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.
John Kerry Wants to Rescue the Newspaper Industry
Will the next taxpayer bailout be for the newspaper industry? John Kerry wants to begin senate hearings to address the problems in the newspaper industry.
Here is part of a statement that Senator Kerry made to the Boston Globe:
I am committed to your fight, committed to your industry and committed to ensuring that the vital public service newspapers provide does not disappear,
What does that statement mean and how will he ensure that newspapers don’t disappear? There is only one way for the government to save the newspapers. By throwing cash at them, by bailing them out.
We have already seen the president stick his nose into the once free market and begin the hiring and firing of once private sector jobs. We have also seen the president stick his nose in a once private company and demand that company merge with a foreign company.
If we assume that John Kerry is talking about the next bailout, the bailout of the newspapers and we use the president’s history of becoming involved with the daily business of private companies than we can assume the same will be true if the newspapers get bailed out.
Will the president then be able to dictate to the newspapers their content? Is that too much of a stretch based on his meddling in the automakers industry? I don’t think so. In essence we will have government controlled and run newspapers.
The newspaper industry is a dying industry, that is the fact. For better or worse the internet is where people get the majority of their news and there is nothing that the government can do about it. They can pump bailout money after bailout money at the problem but there is no solution. It will be wasted money. (Wasted unless the ultimate goal is for the government to control the newspapers and their content, then it will be mission accomplished.)
I don’t want to see newspapers die out, but I do know one thing. If I had a choice between no newspapers and government run newspapers I would choose no newspapers.
New Hampshire Republican Wins Special Election
My former United States representative, Republican Jeb Bradley, won a special election yesterday for the district three state senate seat, and it was a runaway– 61-39%. (Contrary to media reports that this was going to be a close race and that we wouldn’t know the results for quite some time.)
While this victory doesn’t change the make up of the state senate and it is a seat that is traditionally held by Republicans, with the current Democrat trends in New Hampshire we have to wonder if the tide is beginning to turn.
Republicans have won fewer and fewer elections over the last four years in the state as the state becomes more and more Democrat controlled in all branches of the state government. So it is big news when any Republican wins here.
The state Democrat chairman is writing this victory off as name recognition and, as I wrote, this being a seat traditionally held by Republicans, but I have to wonder if there is more to it than that. With New Hampshire’s recent political climate, no Republican has been safe in this state recently, so could this be the beginning of the end for Governor John Lynch and his out of control spending? Have New Hampshire residents finally said enough is enough?
Thousands of New Hampshire residents showed up last week to protest the state and federal government’s overspending and over taxing. Governor Lynch’s latest budget proposal increased spending another 11%, this after his last budget increased spending 17.5% and has nearly bankrupted the state. Naturally he had to increase all sorts of different taxes to pay for these increases and now that the economy is in recession people in New Hampshire may be starting to take a second look at the governor’s tax and spend policies.
I certainly hope so, this could be the beginning…..
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
Last week there were several hundred tea parties all across the nation and in all 57 50 states. These tea parties were more about government spending than they were about taxes, but the issue go hand in hand. While the media tried to laugh off the tea parties and also tried to downplay them, the reality is that there is growing concern in the nation about government spending.
When asked about the tea parties last week Robert Gibbs said that the president found these tea parties amusing. It isn’t surprising that this president would take such a condescending position on this issue, it is standard operating procedure.
But the president must realize that these tea parties were not just a passing fad, he must realize that there is genuine dissent in the nation about government spending.
So while his press secretary claims that the president is amused, the president himself became pro-active in the fight against government waste and in a public relations move ordered a $100 million reduction in wasteful government spending.
All that this is is a public relations move– an effort to show the protesters that their voice was heard and that he cares. While that sounds like allot of money and I am happy that he will cut spending by $100 million it is not nearly enough. It is just a start.
After all, what is a measly $100 million when he has increased the deficit by trillions of dollars? To be exact the cuts that he has demanded are only .007% of the 2010 deficit that he has spent us into. A mere pittance.
This is nothing but a feel good measure designed to keep the tea party protesters at bay; a gesture to give us the impression that he gives a damn about fiscal responsibility; a bone being thrown to the dogs who dared protest the dear leader’s spending policies.
Did he really think that this is all it would take to bring people who are disgruntled with the trillions of dollars being spent by Washington back into the fold? Did he think that Americans would not see through this ruse? Did he really think that cutting .007% out of the trillions he has spent would make everything okay?
If so he was wrong. This is just plain insulting, a pander if ever there was one.
Dianne Feinstein Uses the Economic Crisis (And the Government) to Help Her Husband Profit
Senator Dianne Feinstein seems to be taking to heart Rahm Emanuel’s advice about never wasting a good crisis. On the very first day that the new congress opened session Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation that would have sent $25 billion to a government agency that just awarded her husband’s real estate company a new contract. She didn’t waste any time, did she?
But it gets even better when you read what the contract was for:
to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms.
One person’s crisis is another’s opportunity and the senator seems to agree. Her husband was going to be selling the homes that were foreclosed on that the FDIC took from failing banks. And under the legislation proposed by Senator Feinstein the government agency that gave her husband the contract was just going to happen to receive $25 billion.
Dianne Feinstein denies there is any connection between the legislation and her husband receiving the contract and as much as I would like to believe her (not) this isn’t the first time that this has happened with Senator Feinstein and her husband.
In 2007 the esteemed senator left her position that she held for six years on the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee because it was learned that the subcommittee was funneling money to her husband’s company for military construction. A little war-profiteering.
Here is what Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had to say about Senator Feinstein:
highlights the problem of a senator with a spouse who has extensive business interests that intersect frequently with the federal government
This is worse than the AIG executives getting the bonuses that they were contractually obligated to receive, this is the senator and her husband not only profiting from the economic crisis but using the economic crisis to funnel money into government agencies which can then pass the money to her husband.
Who didn’t see this coming? The president is now considering turning the money that the government loaned the banks into stock options. As I have said before, once the government gains control of something they never give it back and this is just the next logical step in this president’s incursion into the private sector.
Under this plan the government will become the largest stock holder in the nation’s 19 largest banks. This is being justified by the administration as a means to save the taxpayers money but it is nothing but a government takeover of the banking industry and a nationalization of the biggest portion of the banking industry.
This is what happens when a private industry hops in bed with the government. And I thought it was bad enough when the president fired the CEO of a private company and I thought it was bad enough when the president ordered another company to merge with a foreigncompany but this takes the cake. The federal government will now have a majority stake in 19 of the biggest banks in the country, a majority voting interest.
This goes well beyond this president’s other intrusions on the private sector. Evidently being the CEO in Chief wasn’t enough for him, he now wants to try his hand in the banking industry. If the president is this interested in running banks I would suggest that maybe he made the wrong choice by going into politics in the first place.
The government is on the verge of nationalizing the banking industry and there isn’t a damned thing that we can do about it. America is headed into uncharted waters, at least on this side of the Atlantic. America is headed towards European socialism.
He who controls the purse strings…..
New Hampshire Tea Party Videos
Here are a couple of videos from the Manchester New Hamphshire tea party. The speakers in these clips are talking mostly about New Hampshire issues. It seemed to me that more attention was payed (pardon the oun) to state spending during this rally than federal spending.
The highlight of the videos comes at the three minute mark of the second video thanks to Kevin Smith.
Obama Considers Regulating Stock Market Bubbles
This is a little concerning to me. The president is looking at extending the tentacles of government into the free market. He wants to regulate the stock market in a manner that has never been seen before. His administration would be on the lookout for new bubbles emerging in the stock market and then he will squash them. (Let us hope he takes terrorism man caused disasters this seriously.)
We will have a Bubble Czar, or as the administration calls the position; a systemic regulator. That gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, doesn’t it.
If new threats are spotted, he said Obama would use “regulatory oversight to prevent guys who want to make a quick buck from doing real harm to the economy. … That is what it means to get out of the bubble-and-bust cycle.”
If he sees someone making too much money in the stock market he is going to put an end to it. He wants to burst a bubble before it becomes a bubble and according to the article linked to above, the best way to do that is raising interest rates.
Correct me if I am wrong but wouldn’t raising interest rates hurt EVERY American and not just the Americans who are foresighted and opportunistic enough to see an opportunity to make a little money in the stock market? And won’t this also affect average Americans who might have some of their 401k plans invested in the market?
The president would also ORDER banks to stop lending money to people with certain kinds of assets. Think about that. He wants to tell banks who they can and cannot lend money to.
Charles Blahous sums it up well:
If they are talking about the government affirmatively acting to slow growth in good times, that would be very troublesome
The government is looking at ways to slow people down from making money and that is very troublesome to me also. Once the government has control over the stock market and total control over the economy; and once the government can stop people from making money if they see a threat; and once the government has control of who can borrow money, what is next?
Obama and Chavez Hit it Off
The president and Hugo Chavez seem to have hit it off. A meeting of like minded individuals.
