liz cheney and bill clinton on waterboarding

On the topic of waterboarding and the torture vs. enhanced interrogation technique debate, I have to say, I am technically against the USofA using torture as a means of interrogation.

That said, I don't care that waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques were used in this situation.

This was done in 2002, after we were attacked on 9/11, and only three detainees were ever subjected to the method of waterboarding:

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks

Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda operative tied to the Sept. 11 plot

Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of playing a key role in the bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000

Sorry, but I just can't get all worked up about waterboarding those criminals. Personally, I think they should be executed.

CIA head Michael Hayden told Congress in 2008: "We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time. There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al-Qaeda and its workings."

I am against picking up people suspected of having ties to terrorists, but not actual evidence, and waterboarding or renditioning them. But, I am not against waterboarding murderers.

You can debate till the cows come home over whether these techniques work or not, but at that point in time, under the fear of further attacks, I think they did the best that they could. They tried whatever methods they legally could, to gain information.

These murderers were subjected to extremely uncomfortable situations to get information out of them, about other potential plots designed to kill more Americans.

This seems nothing more than a partisan fight, meant to appease Obama's most liberal supporters, that will get really ugly if allowed to continue.

This is a great interview with Liz Cheney and Norah O'Donnell. I find it quite hilarious that Liz calls Norah out for her shoddy journalism work - for reading from an AP article, not the actual legal documents.

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Hot Air has a clip from 2006 of President Clinton, discussing torture, waterboarding, and whether people would be prosecuted in an imminent danger situation, where waterboarding was used. You need to go listen.

On Countdown last week, Lawrence O'Donnell in an attempt to criticize Sean Hannity, and condemn Bush for waterboarding, made what I feel is the dumbest argument ever for not waterboarding someone.

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: "The reason Sean Hannity thinks torture is a good idea, the reason Sean Hannity thinks it works is because it would worked on him. There are two different kinds of people out there in the world, the warriors, which are a very, very tiny minority. Less than one percent of our population is ever going to face combat. Then there's the rest of us.

I am like Sean Hannity, one of those cowards, just like Dick Cheney, who has refused throughout my life to enter the military and ever subject myself to anything dangerous occupationally, where I might lose a tooth. That is exactly Sean Hannity's approach to life. And he has exactly the same cowardly fear that I do, of combat or submitting myself to anything of the kind of risk that the American military does.

But, al Qaeda, the people who have devoted their lives to destroying their enemy, the people who are willing to die in their exercises-they were all willing to die on 9/11, Sean Hannity thinks torture's going to work on them, because he has never, never known the kind of commitment that those people have. Nothing he's done in his life measures that kind of commitment that the American military has or what our enemies have. Our enemies are more committed than Sean
Hannity will ever be..."

I guess I am confused as to what O'Donnell thinks should be done with this enemy that has devoted their lives to destroying their enemy, and who are willing to die, and have such commitment to their murderous cause. Make them a cup of tea, and hope they just decide to share?

The big debate seems to be one equal to those who are pro-choice or pro-life, or who support the death penalty or not. People differ on what they deem right or wrong. Even the law is interpreted differently.

I don't really care if a mass murderer is waterboarded. In my opinion he loses his rights when he murders thousands of people.

The United States does not torture. The United States is better than their enemy. And the POTUS did the best that he could when we were a nation under attack. I never liked Bush, and never voted for him. But I have to believe that they did the best that they could under dire extreme circumstance.

Mistakes were made, mistakes are always made. Every president of the US has made mistakes in the time of war.

If people think issuing these guidline memos was a mistake, and if the Bush administration ends up prosecuted for these memos, Obama better hope he doesn't make any mistakes during his war.

The list of potential prosecutable mistakes could grow rather quickly....