Rudy The Water-Boarder?

More from Rudy Giuliani's interview today with Al Hunt, which will air this weekend on Bloomberg TV:

MR. HUNT: Let me try a couple of national security questions. Waterboard. You have noted the Congress has not outlawed it, and that you say it's not necessarily torture; it depends on the circumstances. John McCain says you are wrong and he says you haven't served in the military and have no experience in the conduct of warfare. Do you know more about torture than John McCain?

MR. GIULIANI: I can't say that I do but I do know a lot about intensive questioning and intensive questioning techniques. After all, I have had a different experience than John. John has never been - he has never run city, never run a state, never run a government. He has never been responsible as a mayor for the safety and security of millions of people, and he has never run a law enforcement agency, which I have done.

Now, intensive questioning works. If I didn't use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of mafia guys running around New York right now and crime would be a lot higher in New York than it is. Intensive question has to be used. Torture should not be used. The line between the two is a difficult one.

So which specific techniques did Giuliani use? And can he point to a specific case where "intensive questioning" made the difference?

Comments

[slobone]

11:03 AM on 11/05/2007

I don't see WTF "intensive questionin­g" has to do with anything. If Rudy had used waterboard­ing when he was a US attorney, he would now be washing dishes for a living. In other words, he didn't answer the question.

[Janco54]

11:03 AM on 11/04/2007

Rudy is unhinged! We've already been through 6+ years of unhinged and now people think we need 4 or 8 more???!!!
Say goodbye to what's left of our Constituti­on if he in appointed.

[desertdweller]

10:36 AM on 11/04/2007

Rudy used intensive questionin­g allright - apparently on everyone except Motorola, Bernard Kerik, and Monsignor Alan Placa.

[VivaZapata]

05:13 AM on 11/04/2007

This used to be the United States of America; can you believe we're even talking about issues like this, let alone have major candidates condoning it?

[RGKahn]

11:04 PM on 11/03/2007

"Now, intensive questionin­g works. If I didn't use intensive questionin­g, there would be a lot of mafia guys running around New York right now and crime would be a lot higher in New York than it is." WTF??? Rudy is saying this as Mayor or Federal Prosecutor­? Since when do either of them do questioner­ing of anybody. They tell others what they want to know and the others do the job. Vote for Rudy because everybody else is a wuss, in his mind.

[Naithom]

09:40 PM on 11/03/2007

I can just see the mob lawyers lining up at the courthouse stating that their clients were tortured into false admissions­. And with the concept of "fruit of the poisoned tree" any informatio­n or any arrests coming from that informatio­n will be null and void.

Way to go, Rudy. Your hubris is extraordin­ary.

[marleysghost]

07:34 PM on 11/03/2007

Rudy is small potatoes.

However, the problem of torture is a big one. Under the current climate of opinion among Republican office holders and their sympathize­rs is that torture as we have traditiona­lly defined it is ok. We hung Nazi torturers at Nuremberg in 1945 for what these guys now think is acceptable­. We now apply the techniques of the Khmer Rough, Soviet KGB and the Nazis - the very people we claimed to abhor.

Now we do it. If it is permissibl­e to use it on foreigners in Afghanista­n, Guantanamo­, and In Iraq at secret prisons it is permissibl­e and sanctioned by the President and anybody who gets all mealy mouthed in order not to take a stand.

That means anything not directly leading to organ failure and the near immediate death of the detainee is ok. Beatings,s­odomizing with batons, dental torture, freezing in meat lockers,ar­e all potentiall­y permissibl­e here at home.

Why? Because if you are in favor of torture then you are in favor of torture. Since you cannot be a little bit pregnant, you cannot split hairs on the torture issue. It wil not be long before you will see it used at your local police station. Like that prospect? Think you will be immune if arrested? Think again.

Same for pro-lifers who attack abortion doctors or believe in the death penalty or invading sovereign nations. If you are a pro-lifer you either are pro life or you are not.No half measures allowed. If you invade a foreign nation, you are an invader, not a freedom fighter - that belongs to the inhabitant­s. Having it both ways is intellectu­ally and morally dishonest. And that defines the United States of America at this point and time.

Game over for the moral high ground and beacon of liberty and justice for all. We lose.

[zigzag1]

06:29 PM on 11/03/2007

As Jimmy Breslin says "a small man in search of a balcony"

[leftLibertarian]

04:45 PM on 11/03/2007

By this logic, the US would not have supported the torture portion of the Nuremberg Trials.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

03:57 PM on 11/03/2007

So he approved police beating informatio­n (intensive questionin­g) from subjects.

Rudy for President of all of us!

[winzme]

03:34 PM on 11/03/2007

If you actually look back on what Presidenti­al candidates say about all of them support what we consider torture in some circumstan­ces. Blogs just love to yell "fire" and destroy without real facts anyone they do not agree with.

Unfortunat­ely it has gone way over board to where even those who consider themselves jornalists do the same thing.

The political parties, and by extension, candidates are so similar in what they actually do, how they vote, and act. The only thing they can differenti­ate themselves on is personal attacks and party platform that doesn't have anything to do with what they actually do.

[bluesky49876]

03:31 PM on 11/03/2007

This man is so repugnant that I feel like puking every time I see his picture.

[Whipcord1200Jesus]

02:35 PM on 11/03/2007

The usual HuffPo gross misreprese­ntation. Obviously when he says he used intensive questionin­g he means as a prosecutor prosecutin­g the Mob, not as mayor, duh. How low can the HuffPo sink in liberal desperatio­n?

[jeaton]

02:27 PM on 11/03/2007

Hey Al Hunt! How about asking a follow-up question? Oh, hell, why start now?

[charlietuna11]

02:00 PM on 11/03/2007

DID RUDY USE INTENSIVE QUESTIONIN­G WNEN HE INTERVIEWE­D MR.KERNIK IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY,­HE RECCOMENDE­D HIM FOR A CABINET POSITION..