Quotes of the day
posted at 10:35 pm on January 14, 2009 by Allahpundit
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The interrogation, portions of which have been previously described by other news organizations, including The Washington Post, was so intense that Qahtani had to be hospitalized twice at Guantanamo with bradycardia, a condition in which the heart rate falls below 60 beats a minute and which in extreme cases can lead to heart failure and death. At one point Qahtani’s heart rate dropped to 35 beats per minute, the record shows…
“There’s no doubt in my mind he would’ve been on one of those planes had he gained access to the country in August 2001,” Crawford said of Qahtani, who remains detained at Guantanamo. “He’s a muscle hijacker. . . . He’s a very dangerous man. What do you do with him now if you don’t charge him and try him? I would be hesitant to say, ‘Let him go.’”…
“I sympathize with the intelligence gatherers in those days after 9/11, not knowing what was coming next and trying to gain information to keep us safe,” said Crawford, a lifelong Republican. “But there still has to be a line that we should not cross. And unfortunately what this has done, I think, has tainted everything going forward.”
*
In less than a week Barack Obama will be sworn into office and Democrats will need to stop defining themselves by their opposition to George W. Bush and start arguing in favor of serious policies for keeping this country safe. For all the self-righteous talk about constitutional protections and international law and due process, the current consensus on the left would have Obama free Qahtani and prosecute Bush. If that’s the outcome dictated by a principled liberalism, then liberalism won’t be ascendant for very long.
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The photo says all you need to know.
fiatboomer on January 14, 2009 at 10:39 PM
“And unfortunately what this has done, I think, has tainted everything going forward.”
Yep.
okonkolo on January 14, 2009 at 10:39 PM
If the liberals get this guy released, and Bush in the dock charged with war crimes, that is an open declaration of war, as far as I’m concerned, in the same way the south said if Lincoln is elected president.
Skandia Recluse on January 14, 2009 at 10:42 PM
It’s kind of difficult to get information from someone in a coma or so weakened that they can’t function properly.
Harsh interrogation practices – which I support if they’re closely and carefully used – are intended to be applied to those terrorists we think have information about imminent or near-imminent attacks.
These methods should not be used, it seems to me, on general AQ detainees.
Even VP Cheney said that this appeared to be an example of people abusing or misuing the procedures available.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 10:46 PM
Not sure what the jihadi would be complaining about. If he had been able to accomplish his plans, he’d have been dead in a fiery explosion. Seems like this was a bit less final than that.
AZfederalist on January 14, 2009 at 10:49 PM
I agree. Free Qahtani. Then have him killed by the overwhelming feeling of breathing fresh air, as well as massive head trauma from a mysterious car accident. But mostly massive head trauma from a mysterious car accident.
Seriously. If there’s no way we can actually prosecute this guy, just let him go and off him secretly. Is our CIA that inept that they can’t do this?
Sometimes I wish our side was as cold and ruthless as, say, Russia.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Everything I needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. oBambi and company are going to do serious harm to this country. It won’t be theoretical or philosophical, it will be dead Americans lying in smoldering ruins.
Liberals could think for a couple of days after 9/11, after that they went insane again.
Mojave Mark on January 14, 2009 at 10:49 PM
True (classic) liberalism has not been ascendant for some time. Goldwater, maybe Reagan, was the last true (classic) liberal on the national scene.
MB4 on January 14, 2009 at 10:50 PM
As if this sort of thing is what we need to fear from these people for our people! And as if the ability to complain is in any way useful, let alone a priority. Like this is going to help the likes of Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker. Given the option, I’m sure they’d have preferred Zeus and the panties on the head.
Pablo on January 14, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Is the idea to abuse (I won’t use the loaded term) him to death or get information from him?
It’s not helpful for our intelligence if he’s incapable of responding to questions.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 10:53 PM
awww poor wittle terrowist was cold! give him a blankie and some hot cocoa, quick!
Noneya on January 14, 2009 at 10:54 PM
I don’t care what they do to these scumbags. Do it in other countries if they have to. If it saves a single American life, it’s well worth it.
KSgop on January 14, 2009 at 10:54 PM
Don’t agree. I think it is entirely possible that America has changed in the past four years, changed permanently and not for the better.
johnsteele on January 14, 2009 at 10:55 PM
How will we save lives if the guy is so physically depleted that he’s almost dead?
Sorry, but the arguments here make no sense. If the idea is to get information from these people to either prevent another attack or to learn about AQ operations, it won’t help us get that information if the detainee is so weakened that he is hospitalized and incapable (apparently) of responding to questioning.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Can we at least keep a record of the names of all the politicians, judges, and bureaucrats that have allowed this to happen……………….
…………. so when we are hit again, we know exactly whom to go after?
Seven Percent Solution on January 14, 2009 at 10:59 PM
One of the funny things about members of Liberal governments is that whilst not in power they spend most of their time protesting any changes to laws and emergency measures that give the government more power to act(Primarily because of fear of the potential for misuse of that power) only to then turn around and be the ones who misuse it once they gain control anyway.
Dreadnought223 on January 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM
1) Liberalism is, by definition, unprincipled
2) Liberalism will be ascendant as long as the media & the miseducation system conspire together with the Dems
jgapinoy on January 14, 2009 at 11:02 PM
There’s nothing in here that suggests this guy didn’t answer questions. We don’t know whether he did or didn’t. He probably did. Despite what Olbermann says, torture does work. There’s no way any organization or government could base their entire strategic advantages and knowledge on the lynchpin that one guy absolutely has to keep his mouth shut. That is a Hollywood novelty.
And if he’s near death, well, good. All of these guys should have been executed after a swift military trial already anyway. There’s no reason to keep them alive. They’re unlawful combatants, they have no Geneva convention protections.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:03 PM
I totes agree. Instead of getting info from this savage, I vote for a long walk off a short pier. Or a bullet to the back of his head.
Then again, maybe I misunderstood your suggestion.
mjk on January 14, 2009 at 11:03 PM
Aren’t these the “tough” guys that say they “want death more than we want life………”?
………….. I’ll say it again, give it to them.
Seven Percent Solution on January 14, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Jonathan Briley was not available for comment.
baldilocks on January 14, 2009 at 11:04 PM
The guys at Powerline, although disagreeing with Crawford’s determination that Qahtani was tortured, make an important point:
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Says Michael Goldfarb, but don’t bet on it.
Karl on January 14, 2009 at 11:04 PM
And with that any information that he might have?
Sorry, that’s a dumb move.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:05 PM
it won’t help us get that information if the detainee is so weakened that he is hospitalized and incapable (apparently) of responding to questioning.
In this aholes case, but perhaps the same method would be more effective on the next guy, you just don’t know.
One dude cracks just by seeing the thumbscrews, while the next one in line laughs while you tighten them on his digits; methods are used that are found to be useless or unproductive, so try another.
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:07 PM
Sorry, but the guys at Powerline are not professional interrogators, and I don’t really care for their off-hand insults at the guys whose actions, in the days after 9/11, definitely saved lives.
I don’t care if, some of the time, they were getting their kicks. Good. I get my kicks every time one of these scumbags dies.
I really don’t appreciate the tone of those Powerline guys.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:07 PM
I’m sorry, Einstein, but I don’t give a sh*t about any information he has. Perhaps your massive brain capacity missed the fact that I don’t care if he’s frigging Osama Bin Laden. I’d prefer him six feet under, thank you very much.
Subtext is not your friend, sweetpea.
mjk on January 14, 2009 at 11:08 PM
Exactly. To quote from A Few Good Men,
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:10 PM
If we had followed that approach with Khalid Sheikh Muhammad we’d never have uncovered the other attacks that were coming.
Let’s just shoot all of the AQ agents we capture. Never mind about gathering intelligence. Just shoot them.
Brilliant, simply brilliant.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Shutdown Gitmo, overturn FISA, tax the successful, silence the opposition….bring it, the sooner the better.
Pop-pop, fizz-fizz, wow his F’in head splodid……………
dmann on January 14, 2009 at 11:11 PM
The author inserted that to highlight the irony, you see, of a “lifelong Republican” perceiving that there might be two sides to this issue.
Because we all know all that, in general, “lifelong Republicans” are murderous torturers, free from the limitations of conscience.
Purple Fury on January 14, 2009 at 11:12 PM
You don’t care if they act unprofessionally and violate the orders given them not to abuse the detainees?
So, the folks at Abu Ghraib shouldn’t have been prosecuted?
I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of men and women in uniform who act professionally and with dignity and honor would disagree with you.
In fact, I know they’d disagree with you.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:13 PM
You guys need to understand there was real torture, beyond waterboarding KSM. The CIA was not the real problem. Rumsfeld DoD’s take off the glove hamfisted policy was the problem that got out of hand. There were about 30 questionable deaths of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, probably a dozen of those involved either beatings or hypothermic treatment (leaving them out in the cold naked after interrogations) that killed detainees in custody. Granted that is out of perhaps a 100,000+ detainees during the last eight years, but beating or freezing someone to death constitutes torture (even if they were Jihadi scum). There is a moral distinction between sending a Jihadi to Allah express on the battlefield with a bullet or missile and doing it to a Jihadi detainee in custody. The former is fine, the latter is not.
But the bigger issue is the propaganda victory obtained by our enemies at Abu Ghraib. Now granted, most of that were untrained sadistic inbred recruits unsupervised (and with digital cameras), but that is a major problem in itself. That fed the Iraqi insurgency and almost cost us the war. It hurt Bush’s presidency almost fatally.
There are also better ways to get information from detainees. Old school ways like isolation, small carrots and turning them like we did to Saddam Hussein (before we turned him over to his own people to be hung). Waterboarding should be a last report in the most dire of circumstances.
And if the result of all of this is we kill most Jihadis we find on the battle field or remotely with predator drones rather than taking them into custody, we are probably better off in the long run.
Mr. Joe on January 14, 2009 at 11:13 PM
he should have been waterboarded instead of being put through 54 consecutive days of 18 to 20 hour interrogations, including antics having no apparent value as an inducement to “talk.”
Perhaps he was boarded and nothing productive came of it. Intelligence agencies have all sorts of methods for interrogation, including some which seem to have no apparent value to those who don’t deal with these detainees, apparently because some are effective and some aren’t depending on the situation.
The Powerline crew seem to be making the same mistake that the MSM morons and blind followers of the NYT do, that what THEY know about something includes everything there is to know.
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:13 PM
How about we take his attorney’s advice and send him back to Saudi Arabia, where the Saudis can handle his rehabilitation in their own inimitable fashion.
unclesmrgol on January 14, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Abu Ghraib is not the same thing and you know it. Not even close.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Purp….
Justice dictates the absence of conscience…U da man!
dmann on January 14, 2009 at 11:16 PM
This is just moronic. We firebombed cities full of civilians in WWII, and rightfully so. That’s war. The only line you don’t want to cross in war is DEFEAT.
This is pure idiocy.
Our heads will be cut off while we’re so busy in our navel-gazing. This utopian view of the world that so many have substituted for reality will be the death of us. Insanity rules now.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:16 PM
I wonder what part of the “torture” gave him the bradycardia; wearing the bra, or the thong on his head?
aquaviva on January 14, 2009 at 11:16 PM
Exactly.
But in order to get AQ in the field, we need intelligence.
And it won’t help us get intelligence from captured agents if we just shoot them or so abuse them that they can’t respond to our interrogations.
Not to mention the propaganda problems we’ll face.
There’s a smart and aggressive way of doing this and a not so-smart way of doing it.
I prefer the smart way.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:18 PM
It was probably the sight of a naked woman that wasn’t his sister.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:18 PM
According to the story, this AQ agent was forced to wear a bra and a dog collar and leash and act like a dog.
There is no justification for that type of treatment.
VP Cheney responded to questions about this story by saying that this appeared to be interrogators not following the proper procedures.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:20 PM
Oh please. Abu Ghraib was a joke, to begin with. ANd, since you don’t seem to understand arabic culture, let me enlighten you, the only thing that helped the insurgency recruit (from Abu Ghraib) was the way we apologized profusely for it and begged forgiveness. Those apologies and begging for forgiveness are exactly what got recruits, not what happened at Abu Ghraib.
Until Westerners start to learn about how arab culutres react we will be stuck. They are not individualistic Americans and they do not value life the same way we do. Arabs do not react to situations the same way we would and Americans had better learn this soon.
Arab cultures build for attacks based on how likely they think they are to win. If they think they don’t have a chance they won’t even start fighting, but when you let them think that they might win (by treating them like Westerners, with kid gloves) they get aggressive and start attacking. That’s how those cultures are.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Very well put. Shooting fish in a barrel is not sporting.
And then, there’s this, which certainly is neither black nor white.
unclesmrgol on January 14, 2009 at 11:22 PM
Waterboarding should be a last report in the most dire of circumstances.
In this age of potential bioterror, with Mumbai slaughters committed with rifles literally waiting to happen, waterboarding these guys should be the LEAST of the methods used and the first one utilized.
I’m sorry but in my mind even a potential assault to kill a single American is the most dire of circumstances, and I would hope our guys do everything possible to stop it. That one person could be me.
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:22 PM
The only bad propaganda is that in which we are apologizing and asking for their forgiveness. That is what sets the arab street afire.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Speaking from….ahem…experience, a well fitting bra and a thong on my head always gives me tachycardia.
aquaviva on January 14, 2009 at 11:24 PM
“……. lady, were not ready to die!”
…….. neither am I.
This is what our country has come to?
Seven Percent Solution on January 14, 2009 at 11:24 PM
Yeah, and his plan was to murder thousands of innocent Americans. And you are honestly complaining about somebody who dressed him up like thousands of men in San Francisco willingly dress? Underwear on the head? I think there’s a club for that in Tokyo.
If they weren’t following proper procedures, they should get a talking-to from their superiors. They should not have to be subjected to public scrutiny for something this inane. If they chopped off his foot, or his hand, fine, they did something wrong. And no, there’s probably no argument that this saved lives. But this is such a stupid think to get upset over.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Mr.Joe,
I hope you speak from personal suffering, if not…blow me!
dmann on January 14, 2009 at 11:25 PM
TORTURE!!!! Please.
And there’s nothing wrong with this treatment. It goes to their sense of manliness, which is EXTREMELY effective for their culture. You’ve got a few things to learn.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:25 PM
So true. The other liberalism is a psychological self-destructive illness, without realization.
On topic – shoot them on the field and discuss it later.
mjk has it totally right. If they’d be dead (especially that they fight not as an army, and in uniform, and by Geneva conventions) we wouldn’t have to worry about them or Gitmo.
Entelechy on January 14, 2009 at 11:25 PM
Sorry, the radical anti-American types – around the world – use these stories to foment anti-Americanism.
Not just in the Arab world. But in Europe and elsewhere.
Not to mention our own press.
That’s the way it is. I don’t like it. But we have to take these facts into consideration when we make our policies.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:26 PM
FYI. At rest (but awake), my heartbeat varies between 54 and 60 per minute. It has gone as low as 42, at which point I begin to feel a little faint.
I think someone is telling porkys about “near to death”.
OldEnglish on January 14, 2009 at 11:26 PM
These practices, apparently, were against the orders given by the White House.
Cheney said that this case was an aberration and that, from what he’s read, that the treatment was not authorized.
If these interrogators were violating accepted procedures, they need to be held accountable.
The idea here is to get information from these detainees. Not be so abusive that they die or have to be hospitalized because of the treatment.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:29 PM
According to the story, this AQ agent was forced to wear a bra and a dog collar and leash and act like a dog.
There is no justification for that type of treatment.
Wait, what? Used on a guy from a misogynist culture that favors outrageous machismo and who follows a religion which condones and requires that dogs be killed?
They hit this guy from all angles, as they should have.
But waterboarding IS justified?
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:29 PM
Even if it was, or is (and we could discuss this at length on a thread of its own), the very nature of what the CIA does is illegal, clandestine and dirty. Ask any good agent. No, they should not tell us. The “ask” was an abstract. Therefore all the talk about them and espcially the hype is futile. The left will never understand this and unfortunately they have infiltrated the agency too.
Entelechy on January 14, 2009 at 11:30 PM
You’re just wrong. What we do means little. It is our apologies and displays of guilt that are effective in recruiting their fighters. That’s how things work in those cultures – and it’s been that way for CENTURIES. You can go read some Ibn Khaldun from the 14th century to get an inkling for how those cultures really operate. And you can see accounts through the centuries describing them in the exact same ways.
You dso not understand those cultures but are using your empathetic responses to assume what motivates them. That does not work.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:31 PM
FYI – There are thousands of American citizens who, simply because they were convicted of a crime, are sent to prisons where their treatment among other inmates is far worse than anything any AQ detainee at Guantanamo has ever faced. The idea that, if sent to prison, there is a legitimate risk of sodomy or death, that bothers me. That’s not what is being sentenced when someone violates the law. That is cruel and unusual punishment. Being applied to citizens.
jimmy the notable on January 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I’m waiting for the 24 episode where Jack straps a B-Cup Wonder Bra and a lime green thong on the perp and screams “Tell me where the CIP module is!!”
aquaviva on January 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Waterboarding is done to get information about imminent attacks.
Forcing the detainee to wear a dog collar and act like a dog is nothing more than degrading.
It was also in violation of White House directives on detainee treatment according to Cheney.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Sorry, my response is only applied to the arab/persian/muslim world and not the rest of the America haters (who will hate America for being successful, so nothing else much matters, anyway).
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Ofer Chri….as if people who torch and loot and murder and riot over a dozen CARTOONS need to be taken into account when formulating our policies? These retards kill their own people and destroy their own neighborhoods when Americans do something they don’t like.
WTF? No seriously, WTF?
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:33 PM
meh. I’m sure Hitchens has the answer.
VolMagic on January 14, 2009 at 11:33 PM
I’m not talking about the Arab culture. I’m talking about the anti-American elements in Europe and elsewhere that used these incidents to foment anti-Americanism.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:34 PM
I understand Arabic culture a lot better than you think. But unless you are going to go Saddam Hussein on the world, doing a half ass job like Abu Graib is a joke that back fired.
We can kill these scum on the battlefield all day and no one will blink an eye (well maybe Michael Moore will but who cares). They will respect us for being strong. But make a naked pile of Arabs and have a woman lead one on a dog leash, and it created a major problem. Why do you think Petraeus was so against this stuff? He refused to allow any of it under his earlier commands and then banned it outright when he took over. This nonsense does not work, it backfires.
Mr. Joe on January 14, 2009 at 11:34 PM
Exactly.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:34 PM
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Precisely. The only thing they respect and fear is force. Period.
Entelechy on January 14, 2009 at 11:35 PM
You’re making too much sense with this stuff.
Forget about the Arab world; the anti-Americans elsewhere had a field day with this incident.
But if someone thinks all (or the vast majority of) Muslims are uncivilized, I guess it doesn’t matter.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Yes, I clarrified my response later. But to the other anti-Ameicans, what motivated them to hate America before 9/11?
They are just jealous of America, and unless you want to destroy ourselves just to satisfy them there is nothing to be done. If you think the non-muslims care about what America does in the war on terror, you are just barking up the wrong tree. They hate us because they want what we have and they will glom onto anything to make it look as if they hate us for any other reason.
Why was Europe so anti-American while Reagan was President? Why did they march in hundreds of thousands in the streets and compare Reagan to Hitler? Because they are jealous of America. Period.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Whisky
Tango
Foxtrott
If I’d drink, I’d be inspired – so mad does this topic make me.
Bishop, always like ya, but after you posted your service history I fell in love all over, again :) Thanks for being part of all those who kept/keep us free, and free to be stupid.
Entelechy on January 14, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Mr. Joe,
You are clueless!
dmann on January 14, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Waterboarding is done to get information about imminent attacks.
Forcing the detainee to wear a dog collar and act like a dog is nothing more than degrading.
It was also in violation of White House directives on detainee treatment according to Cheney.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM
From what I understand, “degrading” people and attempting to humiliate them can be and is part of the process of breaking someone down to the point they start babbling about what you want to hear.
Pouring water down my nose to the point that I start crying and begging and whining for it to stop would also be considered “degrading”, neh? Perhaps we could have a side debate on the precise meaning of “degrading”?
As for the White House policies, no offense to Cheney or Bush, but they are still politicians and like most pols they aren’t in the habit of admitting to the queasy-inducing things, in this case saying “Oh yeah, we told these guys to do the really nasty stuff, break ‘em down as hard as possible.”
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:41 PM
Well, first I don’t want to give them more propaganda to use against us.
Second, I want to use smart tactics against the Jihhadists. It makes no sense, as some have suggested, that we just shoot the captured agents.
We should try to gather as much information from them as we can. If we have to, waterboard them.
But doing stupid things like having them wear dog collars or being so brutal that they die or have to be hospitalized before we get information from them is short-sighted.
The goal is twofold: (1) getting them off the battlefield and (2) capturing them and getting information from them.
Shooting them all after being captured or having them die in our custody doesn’t make sense.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:42 PM
Entelechy on January 14, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Nice words, thank you. I’ll just go blush in the corner now.
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:42 PM
tachycardia, what’s that. Is that something that Bill O’Reilly says? Like poppinjay, bloviating and pithy. Or it could be maybe tachycardia sounds like some sort of medical term. like a fetish. I wonder.
“thanks for sending in those emails. And remember, don’t be a tachycardia ……. because the spin, stops here.”
wise_man on January 14, 2009 at 11:42 PM
Death is degrading, anything short of this is opportunity!
dmann on January 14, 2009 at 11:42 PM
They’re the ones who issued the orders.
The military and CIA are supposed to follow those orders.
Fullstop.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:43 PM
What they are up to the devil only knows
It’s unfortunate to note congessional curiosity just grows and grows
At the precise details of what they do congressman should only be left to guess
And no sanctimonious congressman should inquire into their identity nor their address
PercyB on January 14, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Not from what I’ve read.
No. Us prostrating ourselves in front of the world for such a joke was the problem. You can disagree with me, but you’d be wrong.
Now you know that this is not true. They’d just scrape together battlefield photos of dead bodies (or photoshop some if they don’t have what they need) and do the same thing. We will never be able to do right by those who hate us (or worse, those who are jealous of us). That’s just how it is.
No, it didn’t.
Whatever. But he’s wrong – and don’t let arabs being bought off convince you of anything. arabs are always for sale (that’s the culture) but they are never trustworthy. You’ll see this as US pressure is released from Iraq and the country descends into chaos.
progressoverpeace on January 14, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Elevated heart rate…opposite of bradycardia.
aquaviva on January 14, 2009 at 11:48 PM
Forget about the Arab world; the anti-Americans elsewhere had a field day with this incident.
Those professional anti-Americans who don’t raise an eyebrow over the slaughters in Darfur, Russian excesses in Chechnya or the destruction of Zimbabwe by Mugabe’s thugs?
Oh no…wouldn’t want to piss off those people, I mean it’s not as if they have an agenda against us or anything.
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:49 PM
NEVER AGAIN!
JetBoy on January 14, 2009 at 11:52 PM
Man, you couldn’t pay me enough to be in Obama’s shoes right now. This is a no-win situation for him.
Tanya on January 14, 2009 at 11:53 PM
They’re the ones who issued the orders.
The military and CIA are supposed to follow those orders.
Fullstop.
SteveMG on January 14, 2009 at 11:43 PM
Well of COURSE they issued the orders, written in triplicate, signed in blood and notarized by the Archangel Gabriel himself.
However just as black funding exists, so do black operations guided by black orders, things which will never ever ever never ever see the public light of day. The official documents are for CYA, nothing else, and in six days it won’t matter what Bush did or didn’t say, do or officially order.
Nice timing on this story breaking, don’t you think?
Bishop on January 14, 2009 at 11:57 PM
PercyB on January 14, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Yeah, don’t make me name the weasels in Congress who were against the Contras.
Entelechy on January 14, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Whatever it takes.
Johan Klaus on January 14, 2009 at 11:59 PM
I wonder what the world would be like if Bush had of told us to go to war instead of the kifaya sale at the mall?
BL@KBIRD on January 15, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Solution: Close Gitmo, put all of the detainees on a plane to TX. We bought a lot of ammo, time for some target practice. Hogan’s Alley only goes so far.
john1schn on January 15, 2009 at 12:03 AM
Exactly. But that’s why all intelligence agencies lose their effectiveness when they become known and public. The CIA is more like a corporation now than a real intelligence agency. I only hope that their real operations have been taken over by some still-covert agencies that no one’s heard of. It won’t be long before our insane COngress decides that spying breaks laws and is illegal …
progressoverpeace on January 15, 2009 at 12:03 AM
Jonathan Briley was not available for comment.
baldilocks on January 14, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Ugh…I still can’t over those photos. Gawd those are awful.
Bishop on January 15, 2009 at 12:04 AM
Why is “Might makes Right” so hard to accept? We are the most benevolent and generous world power to date. Those that question the methods we employ to maintain and protect our supremacy are children who have been sheltered from the ugly realities of human history, get a grip!
dmann on January 15, 2009 at 12:05 AM
In previous wars, any combatant, who was out of uniform, was excuted when they were taken into custody.
Johan Klaus on January 15, 2009 at 12:06 AM
Hear, hear!
progressoverpeace on January 15, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Or the ones fighting against these kinds of things.
‘Liberal’ and ‘progressive’, indeed, bastards on the left, the world over.
Entelechy on January 15, 2009 at 12:09 AM
progressoverpeace on January 15, 2009 at 12:03 AM
+1000
dmann, you are the Mann!
Entelechy on January 15, 2009 at 12:13 AM
we did go to war. And when people stop buying things as they do in normal times, then the economy comes to a halt.
This whole ‘Bush told us to go shopping, can you believe this moron’ BS from liberals and anyone else who buys into this bastardization of that moment back then are full of sh*t.
wise_man on January 15, 2009 at 12:14 AM
Entelechy on January 15, 2009 at 12:09 AM
Shhhhhhhh…you’re not supposed to mention that.
The brave feminists at NOW are busy chiding Obarfa for not appointing enough women to his administration, they don’t have time to actually work on behalf of women being maimed and murdered by misogynist men.
Bishop on January 15, 2009 at 12:17 AM
If one of them dies, throw him away and get another one.
Johan Klaus on January 15, 2009 at 12:21 AM
If it wasn’t that incident, they would find something else with which to foment anti-Americanism. These are professional victimhood and hate-mongers. They hate the US, period. Doesn’t matter what the US does (as Obambi is about to find out), they will manufacture some feigned offense to show how evil the imperialist yankees are.
Only thing Obama can do is bring us down to their level by instituting European style socialism, enterprise-crushing regulation, and incentive-killing taxes. Oh, wait….
AZfederalist on January 15, 2009 at 12:21 AM
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