Torture Has Not Kept Us Safer
So says Robert Mueller in Vanity Fair:
I ask Mueller: So far as he is aware, have any attacks on America been disrupted thanks to intelligence obtained through what the administration still calls “enhanced techniques”?
“I’m really reluctant to answer that,” Mueller says. He pauses, looks at an aide, and then says quietly, declining to elaborate: “I don’t believe that has been the case.”
And, as is pointed out elsewhere in this article, if torture was producing any actionable intelligence BushCo would have been trumpeting that from every news organization on the planet. Besides, none of our allies saw any actionable intelligence coming from the torture of any of the “enemy combatants”.
Laura Rozen at War and Piece suggests that Mueller would be an interesting subject to look at — out of all of the BushCo security team he has survived and survived with his reputation intact.
Tags: Another Bush Atrocity, torture
We’ve heard multiple times that torture doesn’t work and gives false information, but Cheney still believes in his 24 torture porn fantasies and the non-existent ticking time bomb scenario. I’ll be glad when the country is run by smart people again.
If Mueller really believes that torture doesn’t work he was a pretty ineffective advocate.
Only 28 days left in for the Worst.President.Ever. But I feel we will be living with his mistakes for many years to come.
Torture was once part of the judicial system but it was used to obtain confessions rather than truth. This was a proper rationale for the prohibition against self-incrimination. The courts may have gone too far with their Miranda decision but the eponymous thug did get a well-deserved knife in his heart.
When torture was commonly practiced, there were limits applied and there was a point where it was halted and the subject was presumed to be innocent. Given the variations in thresholds of taking pain, this was no safeguard.
However, when dealing with terrorists, the goal in information rather than a mere confession. This is information that could save innocent lives.
Would a bit of waterboarding be acceptable if it would avert the crashing of an airliner into a populated target?
Those who would be squeamish about use of such a technique may be in the same daze as the PETA Pukes who claim that a cure for cancer (or AIDS) is not worth the life of a single lab rat.
This post is very silly. Mr Mueller would not be the focus of this effort and you guys know it and so does he.
If he had information on successes with enhanced techniques they would not be revealed by anyone in the Bush administration.
Here is my question for you:
It is 21 January and suspects are detained/captured in Pakistan’s NW provinces close to where Osama Bin Laden is suspected to be. These suspects reveal there will be a substantial attack on America, say at the Super Bowl on 1 Feb 2009.
What will Pres. Obama do? The sources are credible, the capability exists and the deaths would be in the thousands.
What will he do? Say no to enhanced techniques? Say no to rendition? What will he say yes to?
Mike Protack,
So they torture her (to indulge your silly fantasy) and she gives false and wrong information just to stop the torture and WE ALL DIE!!!!
Obviously, as a repub, you hate the Constitution, rule of law, and democracy so we know you’re pro-toture.
Hopefully, Obama would use the best psychological techniques for getting truthful information to stop the attack and then WE ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!!!
What really is amazing is that leading up to 9/11 all the dots were there… they just weren’t connected. In fact, most were stunningly ignored.
The torture fantasists have seen way too many movies and certainly don’t know people in the intelligence business — many of whom would rather not know about torture. These same fantasists also never recognize that if you are at your imminent Superbowl scenario, a whole lot of intelligence work has been a total failure. And these fantasists aren’t capable of looking at the complete picture — if I know when a bomb goes off and I’m being tortured for info — all I have to do is survive until it is too late. And there are alot of ways to do that. But more importantly these fantasists have given up any claim to morality whatsoever when they can conjure up ways why Americans should be able to torture anybody.