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Wingers v. Wingers On Release Of Torture Memos

By Big Tent Democrat

Yesterday, implicated Bush Administration officials Michael Mukasey and Michael Hayden decried the release of the Bush Administration torture memos:

Proponents of the release have argued that the techniques . . . cost us more in the coin of world opinion than they were worth. [This] claim [does not] survive[] scrutiny.

While Mukasey and Hayden do not explain why it does not survive scrutiny, they are surprisingly countered by torture advocate David Rivkin:

At least one high-profile attorney says the declassified Department of Justice memos detailing interrogation techniques prove the U.S. did not torture[.] . . . David Rivkin . . . released a statement Friday saying the release of four memos provides a "great benefit" to the former president. . . He said the United States did not use "brute force" and the memos prove detainees weren't tortured. "In short, these memos go a long way towards rebutting shrill and unfair attacks on the integrity of Bush administration officials, and, more generally, on America's honor," he said.

(Emphasis supplied.) Oookay. In any event, it is funny to see torture defenders splitting on this. Some, like Rivkin, want to defend the memos and call themselves vindicated. Others want to attack the Obama Administration for "vindicating" the Bush Administration. Oh they will talk about how Obama has "tied his hands" on torture because, as torture supporters Mukasey and Hayden write:

There would be little point in the president authorizing measures whose nature and precise limits have already been disclosed in detail to those whose resolve we hope to overcome.

Of course that makes no sense. The techniques themselves were all known and frankly, no secret. To be honest, there really is nothing new in these memos - except for the fact that the Bush Administration lost all ability to claim they did not know about them.

If we knew all about the techniques, you can be sure al Qaida did too. Making statements from Bush lackey and torture advocate Michael Chertoff and Rivkin's statements absurd:

Michael Chertoff, former homeland security secretary, told FOX News the release gives terrorists advanced notice of what to expect during interrogation. . . . Rivkin said releasing the memos "rendered (the interrogation techniques) essentially unusable in the future," since U.S. enemies will train their operatives to "withstand" the techniques.

(Emphasis supplied.) I do not know if these people are just stupid or merely lying. We all know what the techniques were. The idea al Qaida did not is absurd.

Hell, if you really wanted to "surprise" Al Qaida with these "techniques" you would actually make a big deal of announcing you were not going to do these things and then use them anyway. I am surprised these Bush geniuses did not come up with that idea. What's a few more lies after 8 years of it?

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 18, 2009 (boomark / email).