Sources: Obama ready to end harsh interrogations
January 16th, 2009 . by TexasFredSources: Obama ready to end harsh interrogations
WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to prohibit the use of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques by ordering the CIA to follow military rules for questioning prisoners, according to two U.S. officials familiar with drafts of the plans. Still under debate is whether to include a loophole that would allow exceptions in extraordinary cases.
The proposal Obama is considering would require all CIA interrogators to follow conduct outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the officials said. The plans would also have the effect of shutting down secret “black site” prisons around the world where the CIA has questioned terror suspects - with all future interrogations taking place inside American military facilities.
However, Obama’s changes may not be absolute. His advisers are considering adding a classified loophole to the rules that could allow the CIA to use some interrogation methods not specifically authorized by the Pentagon, the officials said, although the intent is not to use that as an opening for possible use of waterboarding.
The new rules would abandon a part of President George W. Bush’s counterterrorism policy that has been condemned internationally. Bush has defended his policies by pointing to the fact that the nation has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on its soil.
Full Story Here:
Sources: Obama ready to end harsh interrogations
I don’t know how many of you were connected to the military or the Intel services during the Clinton administration but if you were, you know that my next statement is nothing less than Gospel! The Clinton administration, read Bill and Hill, emasculated the Intel services and cut our military capabilities to the DANGER point! Well, get ready people, it’s about to happen again.
As anyone that has ever read my blog knows, I DO NOT consider George W. Bush to be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but there were many things that Bush inherited from the Clinton administration that were nothing less than dangerous to this nation and it’s citizens.
I think we all pretty much agree, Bill Clinton let bin-Laden get away under HIS watch. I think we all pretty much agree, the CIA was not at it’s best when Bush took office and their information was somewhat less than accurate in the days following 9-11. They had a pretty good idea regarding Afghanistan but were clueless for the most part regarding Iraq, and the case officers that DID have the *picture* were pretty much ignored when they attempted to advise Mr. Bush that Iraq was NOT the place we needed to go at the time we went there.
Barack Obama, the JUNIOR Senator from Illinois, the most liberal Senator to ever be admitted to the Senate, our president elect, who will now become the most liberal POTUS in the history of this nation, a man that has NO clue of what it’s like to face an enemy on the field of battle, a man that seems to believe that he can personally establish a meaningful and constructive dialog with the Islamic enemies of this nation, is on the verge of once again emasculating the Central Intelligence Agency, and quite likely, our military as well.
Get ready for it folks, it IS going to happen. The Clintons are about to be back in power too, make NO mistake about it. Remember this, in the line of succession, Hillary is not that far from the office of President right now. She is 4th in line after the V.P., Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate. In Arkansas political speak, that’s just 3 more skeletons in the closet, nothing more.
Obama is going to bring his own brand of liberalism to the Oval Office, and Hillary will have his ear. She and Bill will once again be pulling the strings, Obama hasn’t had an original thought since the 1st time he went to the bathroom by himself. Obama has his strings pulled from above, his Senate career, if you can call that a *career*, proves it. How many times did the *Clueless Messiah* vote ‘present’ simply because he didn’t have even a remote idea of what was going on? Obama is nothing more than a puppet and the Clintons are master puppeteers.
Our military and Intel services are going to pay the price again, as are We, The People…
Sources: Obama ready to end harsh interrogations
Unless you have called him “messiah” out of context, Or if you have said anything negative about him (even under your breath) then you will think waterboarding is a treat that only the privelidged get.
I don’t believe that milk and cookies or comfy chairs will work. I expect to see more and more terror attacks on Americans both here in the US and abroad due to this ignorance.
Our intelligence services are in the process of being politicized and, as wimpy appologists, will serve our country no good in the international arena with Al Queda terrorists, nuclear bullies like North Korea, a burgeoning China, megalomaniacs like Iran’s Achmandenijad, and of course, the jerk Chavez along with his friend Bolivia’s Morales. Hillary and the Messiah will have a really giood time with these characters. And, oh, yes, let’s mention the scrapping nuclear neighbors, the Pakistanis and India. Fred is right. Stand by!
The WHOLE point in intelligence and/or interrogation is learning potentially damaging plans, and acting to unravel them before they can be implemented!!! Personally, I think known proven terrorists deserve NO rights or considerations whatsoever. They should be tortured same as back in medieval times, then killed. To do any less totally restricts our guys that put their lives on the line for us. For that matter-child rapists fall in same classification and should be promptly put to death.
Unfortunately, the gutting of our intel capabilities started farther back. EO 11905, created under the Ford Admin, 2-19-76, banned assassination. EO 12333, signed under Reagan, 12-4-81, took it further, with Section 2.12 of the order stating: “Indirect participation (in assassination). No agency of the Intelligence Community shall participate in or request any person to undertake activities forbidden by this Order.�? E.O. 12333 is still in force.
However, greater damage to the US intelligence community occurred under Carter, and prior with the Hughes-Ryan Act of 1974, Church Committee of 1974, House Select Committee on Intelligence in 1975, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1976. The Church Committee, under Nixon, excoriated CIA Director Colby resoundingly in public.
The outcome of this was the intel community’s withdrawal from HUMINT, which is human intelligence. This in itself was the greatest failure of the past 30+ years. The US discarded human assets in place and instead placed all its reliance upon technology. ELINT, SIGINT, etc is only so effective. The FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA, NRO etc., lacked human assets in place, humans who could speak the language, who could meld and blend, and we’ve been paying the price ever since. Very little can beat an agent in place gathering first-hand and real-time intel. We will continue to pay the price for this omission, AND for disregarding or misconstruing the intel we DO receive for, as we all know, if we’d listened, 9/11 knocked at the door any number of prior times.
Gutting our intel capabilities further and equating terrorists or agents of foreign armies as civil criminals will do the entire WORLD no good, as I firmly believe the United States is the last, best savior of the planet. As I have written on many occasions, the world damages the United States only to its collective global detriment.
BZ
Very simply put, you need info to defeat the bastards.
Any bastards.
Back in ’61-’64, as a MACV-SOG chieftain interrogation analyst !st.Lt, I never tortured, only gave them(the invading VC) helicopter rides above their villages. Shit, accidents do and did happen.
This kept our troops and Meo and Hmong tribesmen alive and well.
Just amazing how the VC disappeared, and went somewhere else.
My region became peaceful for many years afterwards.
We have to remember that 9/11 was in the planning stages for 5 years under the Clinton Administration.
Yep…this should be something to sit back & watch. While praying we can survive four years of it… Hell, he isn’t even in the “big chair” yet until tomorrow and Hugo Chavez is already stirring the shit pot.
Chavez, in a Venezuelan interview stated that Obama has the same stench as Bush. He also stated that if Obama thinks he [Chavez] is an obstacle to progress, then he must be following orders from certain corners of the empire. (Even Chavez knows Obama is a puppet). He followed that statement with…”If he doesn’t obey the orders of the empire, they’ll kill him”…although he doesn’t specify who “they” are…
I’ve got my seat belt on
I’m gearing up for the rough ride…and Lord knows I HATE 4 WHEELING over rough terrain in a truck…IT SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME…