The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 363
April 27, 2009
Ultimate Meltdown Edition
Some say that the GOP has lost its way. If by "lost its way" they mean "fallen down a two-hundred-foot flooded mineshaft where it is using the remainder of its failing strength to desperately tread water in pitch darkness as it awaits its inevitable death by drowning," then I would have to agree. Let's be honest. The Republican Party has flipped out. They've gone completely bonkers. What you are about to read is perhaps the craziest collection of conservative idiots I've ever had the misfortune to write about. Don't forget the key...
1; The Party Of Torture
Vampires hate sunlight, and Republican bloodsuckers were scrambling for the safety of their coffins last week after President Obama released a series of Bush Administration torture memos. But it didn't take long for the pushback to begin. Our Great Ex-Leader remained silent on the matter (probably because he hasn't seen the outside of a bottle of Jim Beam since January 20th) so it was up to the ever-popular Dick Cheney to catapult the GOP's pro-torture propaganda.
Cheney appeared on Fox News (natch) and in an unprecedented and unstatesmanlike bit of president-bashing told Sean Hannity that Barack Obama was making the country less safe, and that the memos ignored "the success of the effort."
Which is odd because according to the Washington Post on April 24:
The military agency that provided advice on harsh interrogation techniques for use against terrorism suspects referred to the application of extreme duress as "torture" in a July 2002 document sent to the Pentagon's chief lawyer and warned that it would produce "unreliable information."
"The unintended consequence of a U.S. policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaries as justification for the torture of captured U.S. personnel," says the document, an unsigned two-page attachment to a memo by the military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. Parts of the attachment, obtained in full by The Washington Post, were quoted in a Senate report on harsh interrogation released this week.
Not so fast, cried Dick! "... There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity," he told an enraptured Hannity. "They have not been declassified."
Which is odd because according to the Washington Post on March 28:
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.
In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.
But never mind that - Cheney's comments had already paved the way for a whole host of GOP minions to dutifully pick up the "Yay Torture!" baton and run with it. Take for example Deroy Murdock who wrote in the National Review last week that:
While the White House must beware not to inform our enemies what to expect if captured, today's clueless anti-waterboarding rhetoric merits this tactic's vigorous defense. Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud. Waterboarding makes tight-lipped terrorists talk.
Rah rah waterboarding! Okay, sure, so after World War II we may have executed Japanese soldiers who waterboarded American prisoners, but who cares about that? Waterboarding is something we should all be proud of!
Murdock went on to list a bunch of terrorist plots that torture allegedly uncovered. Which is odd because according to McClatchy Newspapers:
The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.
That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney and other former Bush administration officials that the use of harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, was justified because it headed off terrorist attacks.
But there is actually plenty of evidence to indicate that torture worked exactly the way the Bush Administration wanted it to. What do I mean by that? Well, a Senate report released last week revealed that:
President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. This act, the committee found, cleared the way for a new interrogation program to be developed in-part based on "Chinese communist" tactics used against Americans during the Korean War, mainly to elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes.
And why would the Bush Administration need to "elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes?" I'm glad you asked. McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that:
The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.
Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.
(snip)
"There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and why extreme methods were used," the former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.
"The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow-up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there."
It was during this period that CIA interrogators waterboarded two alleged top al Qaida detainees repeatedly - Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times in August 2002 and Khalid Sheik Muhammed 183 times in March 2003 - according to a newly released Justice Department document.
(snip)
A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under "pressure" to produce evidence of ties between al Qaida and Iraq.
"While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq," Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link ... there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."
Starting to connect the dots yet?
2; Banana Republicans
At least the GOP's talking points machine is still running full steam ahead. Check out this parade of hapless torture apology from the past seven days:
"Well, we shouldn't criminalize legal advice ... It makes us look ... like a banana republic, where each succeeding administration looks backwards." -- Radio host Bill Cunningham, April 21
"What the Obama administration has done in the last several days is very dangerous. What they've essentially said is, if we have policy disagreements with our predecessors, what we're going to do is we're going to turn ourselves into the moral equivalent of a Latin American country run by colonels in mirrored sunglasses, and what we're gonna do is prosecute systematically the previous administration or threaten prosecutions against the previous administration based on policy differences." -- Karl Rove, April 21
"All I hear is a bunch of mealy-mouthed complaining about how this prosecution threat is unprecedented and we don't need to investigate past administrations like they do in, you know, these Third World, you know, dictatorships, which by the way, is a great point." -- Sean Hannity, April 22
"If there is evidence of criminality, then the Attorney General has the full authority and should prosecute it. But going after the prior administration sounds like something they do in Latin America in banana republics." -- Sen. Arlen Specter, April 22
"In banana republics, this week's president for life takes over, and he decides that all the fellows that supported last week's president for life are now criminals, and he prosecutes them. And that's what -- that's what the Obama administration has done." -- Radio host Mark Steyn, April 23
"Your principles as the president of the United States needs to be, we don't make ourselves into a banana republic." -- Glenn Beck, April 23
"This whole thing about punishing people in past administrations reminds me more of a banana republic than the United States of America." -- Sen. Kit Bond, April 23
"It adds fuel to the fire for demands for criminalizing the legal advice that the president was given. We set that kind of precedent, we're no better than a banana republic." -- Sen. John McCain, April 24
So let me get this straight... if we torture prisoners, we're living in a shining city on a hill.
But if we investigate and prosecute those responsible for torture, we're living in a banana republic.
No wonder people have stopped taking Republicans seriously.
April 27, 2009
Ultimate Meltdown Edition
Some say that the GOP has lost its way. If by "lost its way" they mean "fallen down a two-hundred-foot flooded mineshaft where it is using the remainder of its failing strength to desperately tread water in pitch darkness as it awaits its inevitable death by drowning," then I would have to agree. Let's be honest. The Republican Party has flipped out. They've gone completely bonkers. What you are about to read is perhaps the craziest collection of conservative idiots I've ever had the misfortune to write about. Don't forget the key...
1; The Party Of Torture
Vampires hate sunlight, and Republican bloodsuckers were scrambling for the safety of their coffins last week after President Obama released a series of Bush Administration torture memos. But it didn't take long for the pushback to begin. Our Great Ex-Leader remained silent on the matter (probably because he hasn't seen the outside of a bottle of Jim Beam since January 20th) so it was up to the ever-popular Dick Cheney to catapult the GOP's pro-torture propaganda.
Cheney appeared on Fox News (natch) and in an unprecedented and unstatesmanlike bit of president-bashing told Sean Hannity that Barack Obama was making the country less safe, and that the memos ignored "the success of the effort."
Which is odd because according to the Washington Post on April 24:
The military agency that provided advice on harsh interrogation techniques for use against terrorism suspects referred to the application of extreme duress as "torture" in a July 2002 document sent to the Pentagon's chief lawyer and warned that it would produce "unreliable information."
"The unintended consequence of a U.S. policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaries as justification for the torture of captured U.S. personnel," says the document, an unsigned two-page attachment to a memo by the military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. Parts of the attachment, obtained in full by The Washington Post, were quoted in a Senate report on harsh interrogation released this week.
Not so fast, cried Dick! "... There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity," he told an enraptured Hannity. "They have not been declassified."
Which is odd because according to the Washington Post on March 28:
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.
In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.
But never mind that - Cheney's comments had already paved the way for a whole host of GOP minions to dutifully pick up the "Yay Torture!" baton and run with it. Take for example Deroy Murdock who wrote in the National Review last week that:
While the White House must beware not to inform our enemies what to expect if captured, today's clueless anti-waterboarding rhetoric merits this tactic's vigorous defense. Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud. Waterboarding makes tight-lipped terrorists talk.
Rah rah waterboarding! Okay, sure, so after World War II we may have executed Japanese soldiers who waterboarded American prisoners, but who cares about that? Waterboarding is something we should all be proud of!
Murdock went on to list a bunch of terrorist plots that torture allegedly uncovered. Which is odd because according to McClatchy Newspapers:
The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.
That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney and other former Bush administration officials that the use of harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, was justified because it headed off terrorist attacks.
But there is actually plenty of evidence to indicate that torture worked exactly the way the Bush Administration wanted it to. What do I mean by that? Well, a Senate report released last week revealed that:
President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. This act, the committee found, cleared the way for a new interrogation program to be developed in-part based on "Chinese communist" tactics used against Americans during the Korean War, mainly to elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes.
And why would the Bush Administration need to "elicit false confessions for propaganda purposes?" I'm glad you asked. McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that:
The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.
Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.
(snip)
"There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and why extreme methods were used," the former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.
"The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow-up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there."
It was during this period that CIA interrogators waterboarded two alleged top al Qaida detainees repeatedly - Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times in August 2002 and Khalid Sheik Muhammed 183 times in March 2003 - according to a newly released Justice Department document.
(snip)
A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under "pressure" to produce evidence of ties between al Qaida and Iraq.
"While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq," Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link ... there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."
Starting to connect the dots yet?
2; Banana Republicans
At least the GOP's talking points machine is still running full steam ahead. Check out this parade of hapless torture apology from the past seven days:
"Well, we shouldn't criminalize legal advice ... It makes us look ... like a banana republic, where each succeeding administration looks backwards." -- Radio host Bill Cunningham, April 21
"What the Obama administration has done in the last several days is very dangerous. What they've essentially said is, if we have policy disagreements with our predecessors, what we're going to do is we're going to turn ourselves into the moral equivalent of a Latin American country run by colonels in mirrored sunglasses, and what we're gonna do is prosecute systematically the previous administration or threaten prosecutions against the previous administration based on policy differences." -- Karl Rove, April 21
"All I hear is a bunch of mealy-mouthed complaining about how this prosecution threat is unprecedented and we don't need to investigate past administrations like they do in, you know, these Third World, you know, dictatorships, which by the way, is a great point." -- Sean Hannity, April 22
"If there is evidence of criminality, then the Attorney General has the full authority and should prosecute it. But going after the prior administration sounds like something they do in Latin America in banana republics." -- Sen. Arlen Specter, April 22
"In banana republics, this week's president for life takes over, and he decides that all the fellows that supported last week's president for life are now criminals, and he prosecutes them. And that's what -- that's what the Obama administration has done." -- Radio host Mark Steyn, April 23
"Your principles as the president of the United States needs to be, we don't make ourselves into a banana republic." -- Glenn Beck, April 23
"This whole thing about punishing people in past administrations reminds me more of a banana republic than the United States of America." -- Sen. Kit Bond, April 23
"It adds fuel to the fire for demands for criminalizing the legal advice that the president was given. We set that kind of precedent, we're no better than a banana republic." -- Sen. John McCain, April 24
So let me get this straight... if we torture prisoners, we're living in a shining city on a hill.
But if we investigate and prosecute those responsible for torture, we're living in a banana republic.
No wonder people have stopped taking Republicans seriously.
