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Congressional Democrats politicize torture?
An interesting Washington Post article states that congressional Democrats were briefed on waterboarding in 2002. Some interesting revelations, indeed...
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""The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange."
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"Yet long before "waterboarding" entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.
With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan)."
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"In fairness, the environment was different then because we were closer to Sept. 11 and people were still in a panic," said one U.S. official present during the early briefings. "But there was no objecting, no hand-wringing. The attitude was, 'We don't care what you do to those guys as long as you get the information you need to protect the American people.' "
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This is extremely interesting. I hope congressional Democrats didn't politicize torture, but I wouldn't put it past them.
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-Matt Hittle
Posted at 03:12AM Dec 10, 2007 by College Republicans in Foreign Policy | Comments[2]
Waterboarding IS torture and to anyone who says that is ISN'T - I challenge them to experience for themselves the horror of being waterboarded by a CIA thug.
If you're not willing to undergo the experience yourself - then you clearly shouldn't be advocating it to be used on anyone else.
And I don't mean the actual CIA thugs who perform the torture - I mean politicians and pundits who claim it's 'not torture'.
I would like to see a delegation of both Repulican AND Democratic congressmen volunteer to undergo waterboarding and then let them decide whether or not it should be performed on 'enemy combatants' who may or may not have any information to reveal in the first place.
Posted by Douglas Bryenldson on December 10, 2007 at 12:41 PM CST #
Douglas,
Perhaps you could show more respect for those "CIA thugs" who risk their lives daily so you can have the freedom to dissent?
They have lives and families just like you and I, and are just doing their job to protect us.
Posted by Matt Hittle on December 10, 2007 at 03:01 PM CST #