Source: CBS
President Obama pushed back at Republican criticisms on Iran and comments on the practice of waterboarding discussed at the CBS News/National Journal debate. Bill Plante reports.

Former Bush speech writer Marc Thiessen tells Bill O’Reilly how enhanced interrogations led us to Bin Laden.

(hat tip The Right Scoop)

The ACLU is asking the DOJ to prosecute former President Bush over his admission that he authorized waterboarding.

I’m not surprised they’re asking and I have no doubt Holder would love to prosecute Bush. That said, it ain’t gonna happen.

President Bush is a great American who did whatever it took to keep this country safe.

In his new book “Decision Points,” President Bush recalls the CIA coming to him and asking if they could use waterboarding against Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

Bush writes that his reply was "Damn right" and states that he would make the same decision again to save lives…

That’s the kind of decisive leadership we want in our president. The man has balls.

A new CNN poll out today shows Americans approve of enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding by a margin of 50-46.

This is not a surprise to me at all. I’ve seen many polls that show a margin of approval much wider than that.

The only people getting worked up about waterboarding terrorists are the corrupt, left-wing media.

Anyone else besides the media upset about interrogation is an idiot and doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

I pray for the day when we can boot this Marxist out of the White House and get somebody in there with some balls.

The media has been frothing at the mouth over the recently released torture interrogation memos.

The NY Times has devoted as much ink as possible to deceiving the public into believing terrorists were tortured and Bush is a war criminal.

However, the only thing criminal are the lies the nearly bankrupt NY Times prints.

One of their favorite lies of late has been that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times.

That’s the kind of red meat The Times has been dreaming about for years and has been only too happy to peddle it.

Unfortunately for The Times, it isn’t true.

That 183 figure represents the number of times water touched his face. Since the object of the technique is only to scare, water is only poured on the face for maybe 5 or 6 seconds at a time.

Then KSM was allowed to catch his breath briefly before more water was poured. But each time the water is poured counts separately.

So a single waterboarding might consist of 15 or 20 pours, maybe more.

The Justice Department memos don’t explain all that, because they were never meant for public consumption. The CIA never dreamed those documents would be plastered all over the Internet and the evening news.

The real outrage here has nothing to do with interrogations and everything to do with the outrageous irresponsibility of Obama for releasing the documents.

Our president doesn’t give a f*ck about national security, and would rather placate the ACLU then do what is necessary to protect this nation.

-Chris Jones

Waterboarding seems like an extremely effective method of interrogation. I still don’t see why peacenik liberals get so worked up over waterboarding. It looks like the easiest and most humane way of interrogating a person that won’t talk. Instead of attaching wires to their nuts and administering electric shocks or beating them to within an inch of their life, you simply give them the sensation of drowning without actually doing them any harm.

The fact is it’s unlikely the U.S. will ultimately prevail against radical Islam. Americans simply don’t have the stomach or the courage to do what’s necessary to win. Our enemies have no conscience and can decapitate a hostage without hesitation. Americans on the other hand get squeamish about making a guy feel like he’s in imminent danger.

If WWII happened today, it’s doubtful that America would win. We have allowed left-wing peaceniks to burrow themselves deep into our higher education system where they’ve successfully brainwashed generation after generation into believing America is the bad guy and the oppressor. Liberal universities have graduated millions of little peacenik pussies who lack the courage to ever defend this nation or see any reason why they should.

We have lost the ability to see things in black and white. Not everything is nuanced as it is in Barack Obama’s world. Some things really are simple. Some people really are evil. Sometimes people have information in them that we must get at no matter what it takes. Getting that information is not always fun, and can sometimes be downright ugly, but nevertheless it must be done.

-Chris Jones

(hat tip HuffPo)

Here’s a little news snack that’s sure to have lefty bloggers and pinkos seeing red:

We were fortunate as a country to have a hardliner like Cheney around after 9/11. Rather than bow to the ACLU he did what was necessary to protect this country. The loony left doesn’t care about keeping this country safe. They’re more interested in the comfort and well being of our enemies.

Another dog and pony show took place today on Capital Hill as John Ashcroft was brought before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about detainee treatment. The purpose of these hearings is not about finding out information, but rather to provide a forum for Democrats to grandstand during an election year, and hopefully cause the Bush Administration some embarrassment.

I pretty well lost count on the number of hearings that have been held to discuss waterboarding. Even though waterboarding was only used on 3 occasions in the last seven years, Democrats have felt the need to hold hundreds of hours of hearings.

John Ashcroft was unshakable as he explained to the committee that enhanced interrogation techniques were incredibly valuable and that,  “…the value of that information exceeded the value of information that was received from all other sources.”

Resorting to the usual “straw man” argument, Rep. Maxine Waters brought treatment of U.S. soldiers into the debate.

Waters asked Ashcroft whether such techniques would be regarded as “totally unacceptable and even criminal” if they were used on American soldiers.

To which Ashcroft swiftly responded:

“Well, my subscription to these memos, and my belief that the law provides the basis for these memos persisted even in the presence of my son serving two tours of duty overseas in the Gulf area as a member of our armed forces,” Ashcroft said.

Ouch, that’s gonna leave a mark.

The fact that Democrats want the CIA to strictly adhere to the Army field manual is not only completely absurd, but extraordinarily dangerous. Our intelligence operatives are supposed to work in the shadows and have the latitude necessary to get information and keep America safe. Democrats don’t know the first thing about keeping America safe, and are either too stupid or too weak to do what’s necessary to win this war.

-Chris Jones

A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.

That’s right, “motivational waterboarding” is what this guy allegedly did! Now the guy who was waterboarded is suing the company claiming that he’s in therapy now as a result.

I find this story to be hilarious! For one, because a motivational speaker would actually do something that outrageous. Secondly, because the guy actually allowed himself to be waterboarded.

The whole story sounds a little over-the-top, but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out in court.

-Chris Jones