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Thank God The CIA Destroyed Interrogation Tapes
Liberals are howling this morning about the recent NY Times article and subsequent admission by CIA that 2 tapes showing the harsh interrogation of terrorists were destroyed.
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. The tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to legal risks, several officials said.
In a statement to employees on Thursday, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the C.I.A. director, said that the decision to destroy the tapes was made “within the C.I.A.” and that they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value.
General Hayden’s statement said that the tapes posed a “serious security risk” and that if they had become public they would have exposed C.I.A. officials “and their families to retaliation from Al Qaeda and its sympathizers.”
I don’t blame C.I.A. for destroying the tapes. Leaving those tapes lying around where some turncoat within the agency could possibly turn them over to the NY Times was not worth the risk.
Republicans are interested in fighting the war on terror, meanwhile Democrats (minus Joe Lieberman) are more interested in undercutting those fighting the war on terror.
If we didn’t live in a country infested with cowards who would just love to prosecute a C.I.A. agent for doing what’s necessary to keep us safe, then it wouldn’t be necessary to destroy tapes.
It’s a great victory for America that those tapes never saw the light of day. Thankfully, the C.I.A. no longer records interrogation sessions so after the a few rounds of pointless Senate hearings this whole story will most likely just fade away.
-Chris Jones
Bush Says U.S. ‘Does Not Torture’
Once again left-wing wimps are howling about the U.S. “torture” policies that are once again front and center thanks to that liberal rag known as the New York Times.
The Times reported that the first 2005 legal opinion authorized the use of head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings, known as waterboarding, while interrogating terror suspects, and was issued shortly after then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took over the Justice Department.
That secret opinion, which explicitly allowed using the painful methods in combination, came months after a December 2004 opinion in which the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” and the administration seemed to back away from claiming authority for such practices.
A second Justice opinion was issued later in 2005, just as Congress was working on an anti-torture bill. That opinion declared that none of the CIA’s interrogation practices would violate the rules in the legislation banning “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment of detainees, The Times said, citing interviews with unnamed current and former officials.
President Bush once again defended his administration’s detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects on Friday, saying they are both successful and lawful.
“When we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on America, you bet we’re going to detain them, and you bet we’re going to question them,” he said during a hastily called appearance in the Oval Office. “The American people expect us to find out information, actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That’s our job.”
It’s beyond belief that some people are actually worried about the CIA slapping terrorists around a bit or waterboarding them. Those people want to kill us and whatever the U.S. Government needs to do to make those people talk they should do. I sleep better at night knowing that we have the guts to do what’s necessary to keep our country safe.
-Chris Jones
The Hot Joints
