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The Real Motive Behind the Cheney Family Torture Tour
I never thought I'd ever lead off a column by quoting Jesse Ventura. Not because I don't respect him. I do. Hell, he was in Predator! But rather, I never really had a specific reason to quote him. Until today.
The following is perhaps the best elevator pitch against the Bush administration's criminal torture policy, and it cuts the heart of exactly why torture was employed:
"You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders."
For several weeks now, I've been attempting to unravel the answers to a pair of important "why?" questions, and Jesse's quote helped to crystallize some possible answers. Why did the Bush administration authorize torture when other methods were more successful? And why is Dick Cheney so desperate to exonerate himself and to skew the debate with trivialities?
The second question first.
I don't know if it's even possible for a vampiric supervillain like Cheney to experience the human emotion known commonly as desperation, but I tend to question the motives and stability of anyone who, as part of his public defense against a possible criminal investigation, shoves his daughter into the ring to absorb some of the punches intended for his own translucent-fleshed cheek. This was a guy who, when questioned about his other daughter's homosexuality, made it perfectly clear that his family was off limits. And now he's enlisted Liz Cheney as a surrogate in a bit of parental psychosis not seen since the contents of Cody and Cassidy's poopy diapers became unofficial sidekicks on Regis.
That's not to suggest Liz is doing this against her will or that she can't hold her own. She was clearly blessed with daddy's Freon chromosome.
Personally, however, I grapple with the very idea of herein mentioning that I have a daughter. It's impossible to even fathom the notion of asking her to somehow go forth and publicly defend my work. And if she were to volunteer for such an effort, I would physically block her. You know, lay down in the path of her car and the like. Yet here's Dick Cheney employing his daughter, who, until now, we never even really heard from, to defend his decision to authorize the domestically and internationally illegal act of torture.
What motivates a man to exploit his daughter like this -- and in the context of an issue possessing such serious consequences?
I believe it's the desperation of a crook who's under significant strain and duress. And as information related to his authorization of torture trickles out, the reason for his desperation becomes increasingly evident.
This isn't just about torture or a tangential debate about ticking nukes or "keeping us safe."
It's apparent that torture was authorized for the purpose of fabricating a case for invading Iraq.
According to multiple accounts and experts, the efficacy of torture is limited to ascertaining what the torturer wants to hear -- rather than information that's actually true. In other words, if Jesse Ventura tortured Dick Cheney with The Waterboard, he could very likely force Cheney to confess to the Sharon Tate murders even though, obviously, Cheney didn't have anything to do with them.
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.
On Monday, the body of terror suspect Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was found in his Libyan cell following what appeared to be a suicide. Andrew Sullivan, who has been tracking the relationship between torture and Iraq for some time now, wrote:
...Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was first captured by the US and tortured by CIA surrogates in an Egyptian cell. Apparently, they beat him and put him in a coffin for 17 hours as a mock-burial. To end the severe mental and physical suffering, he confessed that Saddam had trained al Qaeda terrorists in deploying WMDs. This evidence was then cited by Colin Powell as part of the rationale for going to war in Iraq.
We still don't know if they coerced al-Libi to confess to the Sharon Tate murders. But we do know that the torture of Abu Zubaydah began only after CIA operatives ascertained this false information about Iraqi WMD from al-Libi. (On Wednesday, former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan told Congress that he was able to get actionable intelligence from Abu Zubaydah within about an hour by employing legal interrogation techniques.)
For the record, here's what then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said about al-Libi in his now infamous speech at the UN:
I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to al Qaeda. Fortunately, this operative is now detained, and he has told his story. I will relate it to you now as he, himself, described it.
And, as we're all aware, that UN speech outlined the administration's entire case for connecting Iraq, al-Qaeda and WMD, and thus the case for war. We now know that one of the chief conclusions in the speech was actually formed from the tortured confessions of a man, al-Libi, who was flogged, buried alive, then forced to confirm the administration's mushroom cloud fantasy. (By the way, I'd like to hear from the cable news and talk radio sadists about whether or not the so-called interrogation techniques used on al-Libi were torture or not. I doubt Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh would submit to being beaten and stuffed in a coffin for 17 hours. Charity or not.)
Sadly, the complexities and parameters of torture appear to be open for debate these days. But using torture as a means to falsify evidence for war is a far more damning and despicable can of worms. So it stands to reason that Cheney would roll out whatever ammunition he has in order to obfuscate and sidetrack the issue. Including the use of his daughter as a spokesperson. This way, we're all wrapped up in debating whether waterboarding is actually torture, or whether the Bushies kept us safe (they didn't), or, in the case of the cable news talkers, whether or not the Cheney family "closed the deal" with their various TV performances. It's all horseshit to prevent us from seriously examining the Bush administration's motives for deliberately breaking the law and selling-out our American values. And the evidence is pointing to a motive for war.
If we eliminate the idea that torture works; if we take seriously the fact that the terror suspects who were tortured had previously revealed valuable information without being tortured; if we factor in the reality that these techniques were invented in order to gather intentionally false confessions; and if we look at the evidence showing that detainees were tortured so they would specifically connect Iraq and al-Qaeda, we're left with no conclusion other than this. Or sadism as sport.
No wonder Dick Cheney is so frantic.
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Not really sure you answered the question as to WHY the Cheney family is on a tour to promote torture. Is Liz Cheney seeking public office? Does Cheney, who does indeed look a bit hurried, anxious, and aggressive in his public appearances, want to absolve himself, does he seek peace..., guess that would be an obvious no, or what? We've had eight years of a borderline whacko administration, but to defend its actions NOW when the ship has landed...., I can't figure out.
I believe that for political reasons President Obama (wants to live) thinks that releasing the photos is a bad idea for HIM but.....
He hopes that WE will demand to see them and have them displayed to the world?
Torture me, I'll tell you where Jimmy Hoffa's buried, How Eichmann got out of West Berlin, and why Dulles plane crashed in Africa. I'd tell you my pin numbers for much less than waterboarding.
It might appear that Colin Powell was subjected to the Jesse Ventura questioning methods just before appearing at the UN to reveal the Mobile Bio weapons labs he showed us to prove his and the DIA's and the CIA's contention the Iraqi's have WMD's?
You know, since Dick is so darned to determined to exonerate himself, he really should get the chance to do it legally, before a court of law, so we can answer once and for all (what we all were sure was settled law just a few years ago) whether water-boarding is torture, and wether torture is legal or not.
DICK'S now defending his pro-torture stance, is he? My question is, Where was he in defending all the privates, sergeants, & corporals who were prosecuted over their 'following orders' from higher ups at Abu Gihrab...? Hunkered down in an undisclosed spot with his big mouth shut then...Probably trying to come up with more of an explanation for his 5 deferrments out of going to Viet Nam...COWARD!!
Those wanting so much to hear the truth about the remarkable results obtained from torturing
criminal suspects may not be so thrilled when they learn how many of these detainees died
as a direct result of torture.
THE RIGHT SAYS - ...oh that torture is NOT so bad on THEM.....to protect the homeland...
BUT - when you manipulate and lie and torture to start a fake war where > 4500 men and woman have died....about (A.P.) > 1,000,000 Iraqis have died....
ADD IN: ....." But using torture as a means to falsify evidence for war is a far more damning and despicable can of worms...."
Mr. Chainy (sic) will not let this go away - EVER!
So release all the files including his favorites but also about the justification for Iraq!
Only FULL Investigation will make Chainy happy!
He needs his day in court so he can prove his case under oath! OR NOT!
I am astonished to find some comments of my friends who all tended to trying to validate the criminal doings of Bush + Cheney gang in regard to interrogation technique in Gantanmo. To me it seems interested peoplle as paid agents is engaged to try and avert the legal issue by any means.
Both G W Bush and his partner in evil doing Dick Cheny the perpetrators took great pleasure in even tortureing innocents not only in Gantanmo but in war field. These criminals in link with private firm
wisked away public money during Iraq war and emptied the public treasury. The agents who all now comments in favor of the Bush Cronies and criticize OBAMA's actions and his doings are likely to be the beneficiaries lot. if otherwise then how can a sane person argue in favour of criminal acts done with motive to torture to extract Government desired confessional statements under duress.
Majority of the American public wants to see these criminal offenders be brought to justice and if found guilty of any offence includung corruption( moral + Intellectual turpetude) they should be severely punished.
"...these techniques were invented in order to gather intentionally false confessions."
True, but this is an ancient invention of the catholic church sadly known as the inquisition.
"Or sadism as sport."
Torture cannot be a sport since it is the ultimate drug. Like all chemical drugs, it gets its addicts "high". Yet no chemicals are needed here -- just the illusion of arising high above their victims by abasing them to sub-human level.
In order to get the tortionaries addict to this drug, they first are tortured themselves until they feel so hoplessly down and out that the only means for them to arise from this lowest possible level -- and to black out the unbearable recollection of it -- is to abase their victims to this level so as to create the illusion to arise above it.
NOTE: This is not to say that standard interrogation procedures generally do not work, but that they were not effective against some men, particularly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the master planner of the 9/11 attacks, and Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaeda henchman.
It wasn’t until after enhanced interrogation that Abu Zubaydah gave up Ramzi bin al Shibh, who in turn corroborated intelligence given by Zubaydah that led to the arrest of KSM. KSM’s revelations after enhanced interrogation led to the arrest of 6 more terrorists: Iyman Faris, Rusman Gunawan, Hambali Gunawan, Majid Khan, Jose Padilla, and Yazid Sufaat, all members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Islamic terrorist organization that had inherited from KSM in 2002 a plot to fly an airplane into Los Angeles’s Library Tower.
In conclusion, the rescinding of enhanced interrogation techniques, which worked, hurts the country because wicked men that otherwise could be tracked down and arrested, and wicked deeds that otherwise could be interdicted, are not because the method to acquire that intelligence was foreclosed.
Torture produces lies, lies that want to be heard by the torturer.
Pain does not produce a willingness to be "honest" - it produces a desire to stop the pain. Thus, just as soon as the tortured person can figure out what the torturer wants to hear, he will try to be as convincing as he can.
All it takes is a little logic to figure out that torture or "enhanced interrogation techniques" don't work and can't work. Please explain how, if you were torturing someone to get information, you would be able to discern if it was true?
So you're saying that we need to keep torturing suspects because the enhanced airport security measures are worthless.
your two assumptions have proven to be false. Torture does not work, unless by work you mean "getting propoganda", and it was regular interrogation that got workable intelligence from AZ, not torture.
get your facts straight, and , that may mean getting news somewhere besides FOX, who continues to report the false statements you laid out here.
I assumed nothing. I stated facts. The enhanced interrogation techniques, which included waterboarding, worked on Abu Zubaydah, and they worked on KSM, where normative interrogation methods were ineffective. It led to valuable intelligence on the bad guys and their schemes to murder hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent people. Read the CIA memos.
It's actually her mother's Freon gene. Liz is as icy, strident and hard-edged as Lynn.
"I don't know if it's even possible for a vampiric supervillain like Cheney to experience the human emotion known commonly as desperation", I'll agree with that, but what we have much evidence of is he knows a lot about fear. He's an easily frightened creature.
It is clear now that Bush and Cheney deliberately manipulated intelligence and outright lies
to empower themselves and their inner circle of friends in a war for profit.
Addington and Yoo were employed to help them get around the law and to undermine
the Constitution.
We have a word for this.
TREASON!
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