A Tortured Charade

We are not safer, and the President's Guantanamo posturing, along with the release of the "torture memos" only puts us more in danger.

Cheney and Obama went head-to-head a few weeks ago over the treatment of captured terrorsts, with the former VP administering a masterful schooling to the President. Gerald Seib sums the issue up quite succinctly in his definitive WSJ analysis:

He (Cheney) said the release "was flatly contrary to the national security interest of the United States," adding that it gave terrorists "a lengthy insert for their training manual."

Mr. Obama said releasing the memos in no way helped aspiring terrorists train against U.S. tactics, since the interrogation techniques were now banned by the White House.

Cheney is right. Obama is wrong. Here is how the memos help any terrorist going up against the US:

The memos reveal our medically-supervised, careful regard for human life and the law, what with the fake walls, anti-whiplash collars and whatnot. Oliver North said it best. I paraphrase from memory, with my own embellishments added in, so apologies to the Colonel:

These techniques were intended to scare the crap out of the scraggly bearded rabble we scooped up off the battlefield. Killing and torturing is against our values, so we cannot do those things; but we sure as hell can make captured combatants think that we will torture or kill them. So we scare the crap out of them hoping they will spill the beans. We crafted a deliberately well-thought out plan intended to put mortal fear into them, but the cat's out of the bag now.

What's the lesson?

Imagine the following advice being dispensed in a thick Arabic accent to a young jihadi: Americans are weak. They can't even bring themselves to kill their mortal enemies. If you're captured, take the fifth, ask for your ACLU lawyer and an International Red Cross representative. You can ride out whatever they throw at you while reclining at table eating halal. Accuse them of Koran abuse while you're at it. They will not kill you, they will not harm you. They will only try to scare you with threats that we now know are empty.

That's it folks. The Obama administration has emptied the toolbag. Feel safer now?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124291383880043289.html
WSJ - No Middle Ground - Gerald Seib

The News Media is Torturing Us

The "Torture Memos" have the unhinged Bush haters ululating with excitement.

Here's a simple question for those screaming "torture!" What is the definition of torture? Not your definition, but the only one that counts in this discussion, the legal One. Here is one definition from the US Code:

Section 2340A of Title 18, United States Code, prohibits torture committed by public officials under color of law against persons within the public official's custody or control. Torture is defined to include acts specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering. (It does not include such pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions.) The statute applies only to acts of torture committed outside the United States. There is Federal extraterritorial jurisdiction over such acts whenever the perpetrator is a national of the United States or the alleged offender is found within the United States, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or the alleged offender.

You can read the International Committee of the Red Cross's broader definition here .

The screaming hordes spilling ink and infesting our radios and TV sets have so misused and sensationalized this word, but no one has started by defining it. Such blather is unproductive and unworthy of your attention. These sensationalists also risk falling prey to the logical fallacy of equivocation, where the meaning of a word, especially an emotional one like torture, is shifted to fit the arguer's agenda.

This tower of babble has various agendas: The lefties use it to further castigate and discredit the Bush "regime," and the good folks at FOX, CNN, et al are milking it to rake in the advertising dollars by keeping you agitated and tuned in. Getting at the truth has nothing to do with it.

How can the critics be so sure we tortured when they can't even honestly define it?

DOJ Manual
ICRC
HuffPo
Wikipedia - Equivocation