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Bush’s demagoguery knows no
bounds
Steve Benen
Crooks
& Liars
Wednesday October 24, 2007
Even by the president’s standards, his speech
today on torture policies was remarkable.
“In this new war, the enemy conspires in secret — and often
the only source of information on what the terrorists are planning is
the terrorists themselves. So we established a program at the Central
Intelligence Agency to question key terrorist leaders and operatives
captured in the war on terror. This program has produced critical intelligence
that has helped us stop a number of attacks — including a plot
to strike the U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, a planned attack on the
U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a passenger plane and fly
it into Library Tower in Los Angeles, California, or a plot to fly passenger
planes into Heathrow Airport and buildings into downtown London.
“Despite the record of success, and despite the fact that our
professionals use lawful techniques, the CIA program has come under
renewed criticism in recent weeks. Those who oppose this vital tool
in the war on terror need to answer a simple question: Which of the
attacks I have just described would they prefer we had not stopped?”
Seriously? To question whether the United States government is torturing
people, outside the law and treaties to which we are a part, is necessarily
to “prefer” that terrorists execute successful attacks?
Also, pointing to today’s list, Dan Froomkin asks, “Which
of those attacks was more than a fantasy? And which would not have been
stopped with more humane and arguably more effective interrogation techniques?”
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