mainstream media

9/11, al Qaeda, mainstream media, waterboarding

U.S. official waterboarded, survived unharmed, but opinions still vary

by  • 

waterboarding demonstration

ABC News has reported that a government official was voluntarily waterboarded (he survived, apparently none the worse for wear). In 2004, Daniel Levin “was the top Department of Justice official in charge of deciding which interrogation techniques could be used in the War on Terror” and “decided to experience” waterboarding “first-hand.”

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment about that,” Daniel Levin said in response to ABC News’ questions about his experience while seen…

Daniel Levin

wearing a nice suit and tie,

Daniel Levin

walking unassisted,

Daniel Levin

entering an expensive foreign car,

Daniel Levin

and even driving it away on his own.

Despite surviving waterboarding unharmed, ABC News reported it, “…learned [from an undisclosed source] that Levin told the White House that even though he knew he would not die, he found his experience terrifying.”

It has been widely reported that waterboarding, as it was used by the CIA, is not life threatening and only invokes the fear of drowning in the one being waterboarded. The CIA waterboarded three top-tier terrorists in 2002 and 2003 and its use is said to have prevented additional death and destruction after 3,000 died on 9/11, assisted the CIA in determining how al Qaeda operates, and identified many additional terrorists. Members of Congress were briefed on waterboarding as far back at 2002.

Waterboarded al Qaeda terrorists

Unfortunately (in my humble opinion), the CIA stopped using waterboarding to interrogate terrorists in 2003 but at least one former senior U.S. Navy lawyer disagrees. That lawyer, who was never deployed during his career, is now the dean of law at a very liberal college. He regularly testifies before Congress alongside those representing the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay and is often quoted by the mainstream media. He told ABC News that, “There’s no question it is torture. This is a technique by which an individual is strapped to a board, elevated by his feet and either dunked into water or water poured over his face over a towel or a blanket. It has been torture or considered torture since the Spanish Inquisition and ever since then.”

Now that he and I have put our spin on waterboarding, you can watch ABC News’ video report here (after their brief commercial).

mainstream media, Political wind, Terrorist Surveillance Program

House may vote soon on terrorist surveillance renewal

by  • 

Today, the Associated Press is either confused or deliberately misleading its readers:

The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence expects a compromise soon on renewal of an eavesdropping law that could provide legal protections for telecommunications companies as President Bush has insisted. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, in a television interview broadcast yesterday, did not say specifically whether the House proposal would mirror the Senate’s version. The Senate measure provides retroactive legal immunity to the companies that helped the government wiretap U.S. computer and phone lines after the September 11 attacks without clearance from a secret court.
…
The eavesdropping law makes it easier for the government to spy on foreign phone calls and e-mails that pass through the United States. Congress did not renew the law before it expired Feb. 16. Mr. Bush opposed a temporary extension and has warned that failure to renew the law would put the nation at greater risk.

House Democrats worried that the legal protections would erode civil liberties and accused Mr. Bush of fear-mongering. A quirk in the temporary eavesdropping law adopted by Congress in August allows the government to initiate wiretaps for up to one year against a wide range of targets.

No “quirk” in the law allows the government to “initiate wiretaps … against a wide range of targets.” Only those targets known to exist prior to the law’s expiration may continue to be monitored.

House Speaker Pelosi’s FISA negligence endangers our troops.