Pushback on the Democrat Interrogation Report; a Reading List for You

NRO: The Democrats’ ‘Torture Report’ Is a Dangerous, Partisan Mess
... "America has never fought a war perfectly, and it never will. But the history of our arms and government in war is largely one of courage and honor, and this war is no exception. The “torture report” should not stain America, but it should stain those who twist reality for their own partisan ends — without sufficient regard for innocent American lives or the innocent lives of our friends and allies."
Also at NRO:
The Feinstein report reflects the Democratic party’s contempt for U.S. intelligence agencies.
"Led by Senator Dianne Feinstein and conducted only by Democrats, the partisan investigation in the short term could provoke retaliation against Americans."
Torturing the Truth  ..."But a full and fair accounting of such policies wasn’t what committee chairman Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats set out for. Republicans on the committee soon realized this and quit the effort. It’s simply impossible to conduct a fair investigation without interviewing its subjects, and Senate Democrats did not do so. " ... 

Blitzer to Feinstein: ‘I Assume You Would Feel Guilty’ if Americans are Killed Because of CIA Report
 

 

“ 'I would feel very badly, of course. I mean what do you think, Wolf Blitzer?” Feinstein shot back."

...

"When pressed on CIA Director John Brennan’s response to the report — he asserted in a statement that “the intelligence gained from the program was critical to our understanding of al Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day” — Feinstein said “an examination of the records going back to the beginning of the program indicates that this is simply not true.' ”...

Stephen F. Hayes: The Truth About Interrogation  ... "Now, for the first time, one of the lead interrogators is attempting to tell the other side of the story. Writing under the pseudonym Jason Beale, he has produced a provocative 39-page document in an effort to counter the narrative pushed by Democrats and amplified by journalists eager to discredit the program. The document—which Beale says was reviewed, redacted, and cleared by a U.S. government agency—does not reveal Beale’s precise role in the program." ...
 

Torcher

 

 

" Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee put America's citizens, interests, and allies at risk yesterday with their release of a report about CIA interrogation techniques used post-9/11. Techniques which B. Hussein Obama (who enthusiastically endorsed the release of the report, whatever the negative consequences) gleefully calls torture." ...
 

 

Will Islamic State Wring its Hands Over Torture? Not Likely   ... "I don't know how many of you have watched those videos. I haven't. I've seen one, years ago, the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and that was enough. A friend who'd spent time in the special forces told me it was important to watch it, in order to fully comprehend the cruelty of al-Qaida." ...

 

What Interrogation Tactics Would You Not Try?  ... "Now, put yourself in the shoes of the CIA director, or of the interrogator in the field.

"If you thought you had even a small chance of stopping another attack, what “enhanced” tactics would you not try?
"What moral code would impede you from your utmost exertion to quench the flame…to catch the falling man?
"Damn them in hindsight, if you will.
"I cannot.
"In their best efforts, I hear the whisper of angel wings.

CIA Torture Report May Set Off Global Prosecutions   "The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s secret prisons roiled Washington Tuesday, but its real impact could be felt in courtrooms across the globe in the months and years to come.

"Attorneys for human rights organizations are now poring over the 525-page declassified summary of the Senate majority report to find new material that could revive long-dormant and failed civil and criminal lawsuits on behalf of those detained by the Central Intelligence Agency." ... 

On the Democrat Interrogation Report: An Interrogator Breaks His Silence

STEPHEN F. HAYES  "What follows is the document written by Jason Beale -- a pseudonym for a longtime U.S. military and intelligence interrogator with extensive knowledge of the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA on some high-value detainees. Those techniques are scrutinized a forthcoming report prepared by the Democratic staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Beale would not confirm to THE WEEKLY STANDARD that he worked in that program, but others with knowledge of the program and its personnel tell TWS that he served as a senior interrogator beginning in 2004.

 

"Beale tells TWS that his document was reviewed, redacted, and cleared by a U.S. government agency. A CIA spokesman would not confirm that the CIA was the agency in question. Beale says he made minor edits for grammar and flow after the document was cleared.

 

Beale is on Twitter at @jabeale.  An Interrogator Breaks His Silence

 

An Interrogator Breaks His Silence

LET’S TALK ABOUT ERIC GARNER

 

Neal Boortz (Entire article here):
         Somebody damned sure should have been indicted in this one, though maybe not the police officers involved.
            Some background .. then I’ll flesh out my insensitive thoughts.
            Background .. On Staten Island the tax on one package of cigarettes is $5.85.  That means a thirty-cents tax on every one of the 20 cigarettes in a pack.  (There are 20 cigarettes, right?  I’ve never bought a pack, so I don’t know).  The tax on a carton of cigarettes would be $58.50.  The actual price for a pack of ciggys in New York City, and that includes Staten Island, is over $15.  A carton would be nearly $150.00.
            Now just who is buying these cigarettes and paying these taxes?  The poor, that’s who.  Studies show that the only group in the country where smoking is not on the decline is the poor.  The poorest among us – those making $13,000 or less, spend 26% of their income on tobacco.  Idiots.  But it makes sense.  You have to be pretty damned ignorant to smoke, and ditto for being poor.  I’ll cut some slack for physical or mental disasters .. but it’s so easy to avoid poverty in this country you really have to be a dumb mass to end up on the dole.
            Here’s what we have then.  New York state puts a huge tax on cigarettes, and New York City tops that tax with another $1.60 or so.  So at over $15 a pack you’re not going to find many poor people buying their pack of Camels.  What do they do?  They go out on the street and buy cigarettes one at a time from people like Eric Garner.
            The brilliant politicians want us to believe that they put this tax on cigarettes to make them unaffordable so people would quit smoking.  HorseObama.  It’s all about tax revenue.  And when people like Eric Garner go out there and fill a marketplace demand for single cigarettes the government loses tax revenue; and governments don’t like to lose tax revenue.

            Eric Garner was not depriving any person of life, liberty or property.  He was violating nobody’s rights.  He presented no threat to anyone.  He was engaged in free enterprise – at a base level, but free enterprise nonetheless.  The police are trying to say that he was harassing people on the sidewalk.  Seems kinda flimsy to me.  All they had to do was tell him to move on --- but noooooo.  Eric was costing the state money, and this could not be allowed to stand; so he died.  Not intentionally, but he died nonetheless.
            Never forget the one power that government has which you do not.  The government can use force, deadly force, to accomplish its goals.  In this case the goal was for tax revenue .. tax revenue from the pathetic habits of the poor.  When Eric Garner is found selling single cigarettes … which for some odd reason is illegal … he had to be stopped.  Well, they sure stopped him.
            But like I said … someone should have been indicted.  The cop(s)?  Perhaps.  But I’m thinking of the politicians who put this absurd punishing tax on cigarettes in the first place.  They knew what would happen.  New York is surrounded by states with a lower tax rate on cigarettes, so they knew smuggling and resale would be an issue.  No problem though.  They had the cops.  And they had to lawful right to order those cops to use force to make sure that by God those taxes were collected.  And Eric Garner is dead.  Find the right politician and indict them.  Let them explain why a father had do die so they could collect their taxes.

The Torture Report and the possibility of International Criminal Court charges. Former Sen. Bob Kerry challenges the report.

Sen. Bob Kerrey: Partisan torture report fails America  ... "I do not need to read the report to know that the Democratic staff alone wrote it. The Republicans checked out early when they determined that their counterparts started out with the premise that the CIA was guilty and then worked to prove it." ...

The Volokh Conspiracy via the Washington Post.
"The Senate’s report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s harsh treatment of detainees, amounting to torture, comes shortly after the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced she is conducting a preliminary investigation of alleged detainee abuse by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (Afghanistan joined the court in 2003 – I do not know what the U.S. was thinking when it allowed this – and torture is certainly a crime, or multiple crimes, within the Court’s treaty-based jurisdiction.) The Senate report, which I have read only in small parts, gives significant impetus and ammunition to the ICC’s investigation, as well as providing a basis for expanding its scope."

"This post will examine possible jurisdictional barriers to a full ICC investigation, especially in light of the new information in the report. " ...  More.

 

Brennan’s reversal: Enhanced interrogation saved lives  ... "That steps on the message that Democrats wanted to send yesterday — that the Bush era had nothing to do with them, and that any intelligence wins on Barack Obama’s watch were his alone. That’s the entire point of this exercise, after all. Dianne Feinstein and her panel pushed the report out before the Republican majority that voters just elected could stop them from releasing their cherry-picked conclusions." ...

 

Former Democratic Senator rails against 'partisan torture report  "Former Nebraska Senator and member of the Intelligence Committee Bob Kerrey wrote an op ed in USA Today, bemoaning the partisan nature of the torture report, and calling on the intel committee to offer recommendations for reform." Read more:

Sen. Bob Kerrey: Partisan torture report fails America  ... "I do not need to read the report to know that the Democratic staff alone wrote it. The Republicans checked out early when they determined that their counterparts started out with the premise that the CIA was guilty and then worked to prove it." ...

Lena Delivers The Apology "Barry" Was Waiting For. Churlishly, Natch

Lena's Campus Rape Story Unravels  "Lena Dunham – the 28-year-old writer, actress, director – seems to be getting more attention for the writing in her “memoir” Not That Kind of Girl in the past two months, than she has for the writing that won her two Golden Globe Awards and eight nominations for the Emmy Awards for her HBO series Girls.

 

"But this attention isn’t the “good” kind.  As a matter of fact, the amount of negative attention this book has gotten due to investigations by various news outlets is beginning to unravel one of the chapters of her book that centers on an alleged rape from a “campus Republican” named “Barry”, that it outed an innocent man who has racked up a tremendous amount of debt in legal fees trying to clear his name – even AFTER reaching out to Dunham and her publisher Random House a few months ago." ...

pastemagazine

JustOneMinute
"Lena Dunham, presumably typing with one arm twisted behind her back, shows how not to apologize:

"Lena Dunham: Why I Chose To Speak Out

 

"Ahh, because your lawyers thought it was the best way to keep your fancy condo?

"Noo! To inspire rape survivors everywhere! Her lead, with the apology "Barry" was looking for:

Lena and Grace Dunham: Life in the Shame-Free Zone  .."First, there is overwhelming evidence that Dunham perpetrated a rape-hoax against a fellow Oberlin student she identified as Barry the Republican. At the time this rape was supposed to have occurred, only one student at Oberlin College was named Barry, a well-known member of the small group of campus Republicans. This man, who now has a family and children, was readily identified and has had the national spotlight shined on him by what appears to be Dunham’s libel. Second, her book provided a multilayered history of her -- by her own feminist definition -- sexually abusing her younger sister, Grace."  Read more:

Obama's Scandal-Tainted BCGB (Best Chicago Golfing Buddy)

Michelle Malkin 

"In his "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior," George Washington offered this sage advice: "Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."

"Too bad President Obama and his best Chicago golfing buddy (BCGB), Dr. Eric Whitaker, didn't heed our Founding Father's wisdom. The duo's continued intimacy, as the stench of government corruption thickens around them, speaks volumes about our current commander in chief's reckless disregard for his reputation." ...

 Speaking of Obama's circle of friends:

Obama’s immigration taunt: Next president won’t dare reverse my executive action

The Washington Times

 

"President Obama insisted Tuesday that his successor won’t take the political risk that would come with reversing his recent executive action on immigration reform.

"Speaking at a town-hall meeting in Nashville, the president said it’s “theoretically” possible that the next administration could undo the amnesty Mr. Obama has granted to more than 4 million illegal immigrants, but he assured a supportive crowd that such a step it is extremely unlikely." ....

 

 

Near you? Allah in the Classroom — the ABC’s of Forced Conversion

Noisy Room

 

... "Here is an example from a textbook (by the way, this has been going on for some time now in the public school system):

Jesus was mentioned once as a Jewish prophet in the first chapter and the second chapter briefly discussed the division within the Christian Church. Chapter three is dedicated completely to Islam and the story of Muhammad, with multiple quotes from the Qur’an throughout the chapter. The book even goes on to say that “. . .Muhammad revealed the purest version of God’s truth” and that Muhammad is the final prophet of God’s truth with the most complete version of that truth.

"So much for separation of church and state. Evidently that only applies to other religions, not Islam. Can you imagine how confused the children must be? And those that come from Christian and Jewish homes surely know deep down this is wrong and abhorrent to their faith. The children are having to write and say the Muslim declaration of faith (the Shahada), over and over."...
...
"A number of parents across America are beginning to wake up to the brainwashing in the schools being foisted on their children. A number of them are saying enough is enough.

"Let’s start with the Marine veteran who complained about the pro-Islam bias in his daughter’s schoolwork in Maryland. He was banned from her school for objecting to said bias. It’s his child and his right – we are not the Middle East… not yet, any way.

From the Daily Caller:

A Maryland father who asked that his daughter be excused from learning about Islam in her world history class now finds himself under a no-trespass order that prevents him from setting foot on the girl’s public school campus.

More here.

Mandated Teaching of Islam in California Public Schools-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:  " The message says "Public Schools Embrace Islam - A Shocker."  It focuses on seventh graders in Byron, California, and says that although students in a growing number of public schools cannot wear crosses or utter the name of Jesus, they are being required to attend an intensive three-week course on Islam including mandated study of the tenets of Islam, the important people of Islam, wearing of a robe, adopting a Moslem name, and staging their own Jihad.  It says that the California-required course uses a textbook that says a lot more about Islam than about Christianity and quotes a teacher who says she couldn't teach Christianity like that and can't even say the name of Jesus in the classroom, but the seventh graders are learning how to pray to Allah."...

Our Weasel Of The Week Nominees! – 12/09/14

 Tom White at Noisy Room 

"It’s time again for the Watcher’s Council’s ‘Weasel Of The Week’ nominations, where we award the famed golden plastic Weasel to a public figure who particularly deserves to be slimed and mocked for his or her dastardly deeds during the week. Every Tuesday morning, tune in for the Weasel of the Week nominations and check back Thursday to see which Weasel gets the votes and walks off with the statuette of shame!"

Here are this weeks’ nominees. More detail on each at the site.

• Former Secretary of State, Senator And First Lady Hillary “Benghazi Babe” Clinton!!
• 
• Commie, 9/11 Troother, ‘Palestine’ Groupie, Green Energy Scamster And Obama Favorite Van Jones!
• The Obnoxious, Degenerate Lefties At Rolling Stone Magazine!!

• New York City Mayor Kommissar Bill DeBlasio!!
• Journalist’ And Rape Fantasy Fiction Writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely!!

 

Also here.

Rescue or Ransom? Obama Made Right Call.

Jonathan S. Tobin  "This past weekend’s Navy SEAL mission to rescue Luke Somers, an American held by al-Qaeda in Yemen, ended in tragedy when the terrorists holding the photojournalist killed him and his cellmate, South African Pierre Korkie, before they could be rescued. Like all military disasters, the attempt is subject to second-guessing about the risks that were taken. But adding to the anguish of this failure is the revelation that, unbeknownst to the U.S., a South African charity had already negotiated a ransom for Korkie and he was supposed to be released the day after the attempt to free him took place. This opens up President Obama, who personally ordered the mission, as well as the U.S. policy of no negotiations or ransoms for American hostages, to criticism. But as unfortunate as these events may be, the president was right." ... (Emphasis mine, TD)

Feinstein, Democrats Putting Petty Politics above National Security

 

Michael Rubin  "During the Bush administration and in the wake of 9/11, CIA interrogation policy and extraordinary rendition became a lightning rod for controversy (never mind that the Clinton administration had also embraced rendition). In short, terror suspects were often snatched and transferred for interrogation to other countries, some of which allegedly engage in torture. Senate Democrats launched an investigation, and Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, planned to release the report this week." ...
...
"Don’t like CIA methods and extraordinary rendition? By all means, use all legislative and oversight power to put an end to it. But don’t drag allies into a political debate or air dirty laundry publicly. Don’t damage relations. Trust is at the heart of alliances, and once destroyed, it will never be rebuilt. Let us never punish allies and their leaders for standing by America when the request comes, no matter what politicians may, in hindsight, think of that request."

Americans Working Overseas Brace For Release of Democrats' CIA Enhanced Interrogation Report  "Americans and CIA operatives working on counter terrorism operations around the world are bracing this morning ahead of the release of a report produced by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques to gather intelligence after 9/11/2001. " ...
..."Meanwhile President George W. Bush, who has made it a point to stay out of the current public debate on a number of issues, is standing by the men and women working in the CIA to keep Americans safe from terror."
 

Releasing the Feinstein report on the CIA in the middle of a war would be an act of exceptional recklessness  ... " At the CIA, these concerns are not hypothetical. “I know the Predator program intimately,” a former senior intelligence officer told me. “There have been hundreds and hundreds of Predator shots, the most carefully targeted in the history of warfare, but not 100 percent right. What if the next president, [say] Rand Paul or Elizabeth Warren, comes after people involved in this program?' ”...

...“If you have to worry about a new administration coming along 10 years down the road,” the intelligence officer told me, “making villains out of agency officials following the exact letter of the law, it is sobering. We think about that all the time.'”

Mr. Holder, here is some of that "conversation" on racism you said you wanted

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Who Is to Blame for How Black Males Are Viewed by Others?  "The meme that Mr. Smiley and other prominent black Americans keep repeating is that police officers have such a negative view of black males (which Smiley and others attribute to racism) that they place less value on their (black males’) lives.  That in turn causes the police officers to set out from the get-go to shoot to kill.

 

"Now, there is no evidence that supports that claim.  However if that is the case, how did the police officers come to view black males so negatively in the first place?" ...

 

Rowdy white protesters in Portland instruct articulate and polite black man on oppression  ..."Last week, I highlighted a video (embedded below) of a female UCLA student instructing an older black cop from the Deep South that he failed to understand racism.  Today, courtesy of Laughing at Liberals and Gateway Pundit, we have the following video, in which a highly civil and articulate black male in Portland, Oregon attempts to get a group of rowdy, seemingly drunk white protesters to stop chanting “f**k the police!” and is rewarded with similar condescension."...
 

Victor Davis Hanson: Lying for the Cause ; If myths do more for social progress than facts — then why worry?

 

... "From the details of Rigoberta Menchú’s memoir, to Tawana Brawley’s supposed rape, to the O. J. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” myth, to the open-and-shut case of the hate-crime crucifixion of Matthew Shepard by savage homophobes, to Dan Rather’s fake but accurate National Guard memo, to the Duke lacrosse team’s supposed racist raping, to Barack Obama’s autobiographic interludes with his girlfriend, to Scott Beauchamp’s “true” stories of American military atrocities in Iraq, to Lena Dunham’s purported right-wing sexual assaulter at Oberlin College (home of the 2013 epidemic of pseudo-racist graffiti), to the pack of University of Virginia fraternity rapists on the loose, to “Hands up, don’t shoot,” we have come to appreciate that facts and truth are not that important, if myths can better serve social progress or the careers of those on the correct side of history." ...

 

Andrew C. McCarthy: What’s Really Going on with Holder’s Civil-Rights Crusade against Police Departments  ... "Here is how the game works. Holder streams in behind a tragedy that Sharpton and Obama have demagogued. He announces a civil-rights investigation. Eventually, he backs down from the threat of an indictment in the individual case, never conceding that the supporting evidence was not there, usually citing some strawman injustice that has nothing to do with the matter at hand — in Florida, for example, it was “stand your ground” gun laws that purportedly needed reforming. But, the attorney general is pleased to add, the original civil-rights probe of the non-crime has metastasized into a thoroughgoing civil-rights probe of the state or local police department’s training, practices, and . . . drumroll . . . institutional racism." ...

 

Can't this nation find better people to govern us than these?