There’s some important news about Dick Cheney and torture in a speech that Senator Carl Levin gave before the Foreign Policy Association this week.
Specifically: Levin confirmed that he’d seen the classified CIA documents that Cheney has been asking the CIA to declassify and release — and said that they don’t prove Cheney’s claim that torture worked by any stretch.
Levin’s comments are highly newsworthy because they give us the most detailed picture yet of what’s in the documents Cheney wants. You can watch Levin’s speech right here at TPM. This is what Levin said about the documents:
Mr. Cheney has also claimed that the release of classified documents would prove his view that the techniques worked. But those classified documents say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of the abusive techniques. I hope that the documents are declassified so that people can judge for themselves what is fact and what is fiction.
If this is true, it’s big. A Senator who has seen the documents Cheney claims will prove that torture saved lives says that those docs contain absolutely nothing about whether the torture techniques were actually responsible for yielding any valuable intelligence.
Networks such as MSNBC have given literally hours of airtime to Cheney and his daughter Liz to claim endlessly that these docs will prove Cheney’s torture assertions. These claims have gone almost entirely unchallenged, due to the classified nature of the documents. You’d think that a contrary claim from a well-respected Senator who has also seen the docs would merit a few passing mentions, too.
Via
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11 comments:
Would you rather the CIA list number of lives "saved or created" using waterboarding? Perhaps that would clarify some things.
If they do not prove anything, why not release them?? That would further prove the pansy a$$ dems point that our interrogation techniques did not work and it was just the luck of the draw that we were not attacked again.
I think more people have read about the speech here than even know msnbc was still on the air. What hours are they speaking about? msnbc is always low in the rankings, they stink, just like this lie of an article. So if someone agrees with you and says so in a speech, it is automatically proven to be true?
Of course Carl Levin can make those assertions knowing full well that the documents will never see the light of day. Sort of like Pelosi claiming she was never told about the enhanced interrogation techniques.
This story's accuracy assumes that Levin is being truthful--
History says that is quite a stretch.
This is just partisan BS.
plese do no torture.
calmly & politely ask.
you catch more flies with honey, you know...
I am prepared to be waterboarded for a cause I believe in-ask some old school military vets here how 'pansy-ish' this form of interrogation really is {NOT TORTURE!!-Sen. McCain/Reservoir Dogs fans..any thoughts on how this can be upgraded to TRUE TORTURE? Do I 'have your ear' yet????}-it can't be any worse than a decade of marriage can it?But, for the record, you ding-dang well better kill my azz while you have the chance, or after I get a good nap and a bottle of Patron under my belt; I am going to come back and huff, and puff and blow your fudgin' house down....big time..this is why the Bush Doctrine failed.
{BTW..you wouldn't allow me to say "fart" in a post a couple weeks ago so I really don't expect this to be posted}.
Really, do you think if those CIA documents proved that waterboarding did not work they would not be released? What about Obamas school records from Occidental and Columbia? Why can't those be released? Wise Up those with nothing to hide HIDE NOTHING. We have the MOST corrupt and unethical President and staff ever. ESPECIALLY GEIHTNER.
You guys and your confirmation bias is so cute.
Amongst Carl Levin's Biggest contributors and backers are Pro Israeli Lobby and Pacs, $362K in the past 5 years, something to the tune of $70K+ a year. Now one must ask what the "respected" Senator think of the Mossad's interrogation methods, which aught to make waterboarding seem like a kindergarden picnic.
The U.S. Government should respect the will of it's people. Polls show that an overwhelming majority support aggressive interrogation of terrorists, whether that means water boarding or skinning the murderous bastards alive. If these measures would save even one American life they are effective and worth doing!
President Truman had no problem neutralizing the inhabitants of two major Japanese cities to save American lives. Do you think he would have winced at water boarding? Hell, no!
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