The debate about “harsh interrogation techniques”, AKA torture, is at it’s all time high. Liberals believe these techniques should never be used; yet there is evidence that when they were used, they worked. This, in spite of the claims that torture doesn’t work.

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

O’reely?

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

Admiral Blair sent his memo on the same day the administration publicly released secret Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of interrogation methods that the Obama White House has deemed to be illegal torture. Among other things, the Bush administration memos revealed that two captured Qaeda operatives were subjected to a form of near-drowning known as waterboarding a total of 266 times.

Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past,” he wrote, “but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.”

Of course Americans are alive today thanks to the efforts of the CIA and we should thank God this Admiral wasn’t in charge back then. The deletion of these facts doesn’t surprise me- and it shows the pure political bullshit coming from the White House among other places. This should make people very leary of trusting the current president.

CNS News reports this:

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

According to the previously classified May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that was released by President Barack Obama last week, the thwarted attack — which KSM called the “Second Wave”– planned “ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”

Oh, no biggie here. Just another terrorist attack. Which many liberals believe we deserve; and who believe we should be willing to sacrifice American lives that would be lost in such an attack, in the name of “human rights” and “Geneva Conventions”…

More:

Before they were subjected to “enhanced techniques” of interrogation that included waterboarding, KSM and Zubaydah were not only uncooperative but also appeared contemptuous of the will of the American people to defend themselves.

“In particular, the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including KSM and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques,” says the Justice Department memo. “Both KSM and Zubaydah had ‘expressed their belief that the general US population was ‘weak,’ lacked resilience, and would be unable to ‘do what was necessary’ to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals.’ Indeed, before the CIA used enhanced techniques in its interrogation of KSM, KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, ‘Soon you will know.’

“Soon we will know” — I guess liberals wouldn’t take that as a real threat. Nope. Instead, they would hand over some Oreo cookies with a glass of whole milk.

After he was subjected to the “waterboard” technique, KSM became cooperative, providing intelligence that led to the capture of key al Qaeda allies and, eventually, the closing down of an East Asian terrorist cell that had been tasked with carrying out the 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

What say liberals about this? Do they care? I doubt it. As I said before, Americans should be prepared to sacrifice themselves because our government should never ever use harsh interrogation techniques against our enemies.

And that useless POS who calls himself the POTUS is once again proving his inability to take a stand on much of anything. Flip flopping worse than John Kerry, Obama cannot make his mind up about whether to go after CIA operatives and others.

THURSDAY
In a written statement, Obama says that withholding the Justice Department memos “could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past.” He says CIA operatives who carried out interrogations based on legal advice “will not be subject to prosecution.” He adds, “This is a time for reflection, not retribution” and “nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.”

SUNDAY
Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says in a television interview that those who “devised policy” relating to the interrogation methods during the Bush administration “should not be prosecuted either.” White House aides say later he was referring to CIA superiors who ordered the interrogations, not the Justice Department officials who wrote the legal memos allowing them.

MONDAY
Obama goes to CIA headquarters and tells employees: “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes. That’s how we learn. But the fact that we are willing to acknowledge them and then move forward, that is precisely why I am proud to be President of the United States, and that’s why you should be proud to be members of the CIA.”

TUESDAY
Obama restates his view that CIA officers who conducted the harsh interrogations should not be prosecuted, but he seems to depart from Emanuel’s remarks about the status of former Bush administration officials who devised the policies.

“With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general, within the perimeters of various laws,” the president tells reporters in the Oval Office. “And I don’t want to prejudge that.”

Obama says he was not recommending that Congress investigate the interrogation issue more deeply. But it if does, he says, he would prefer it to “be done in a bipartisan fashion, outside of the typical hearing process that can sometimes break down” into partisan sniping. He says he would prefer “independent participants who are above reproach and have credibility.”

LATER TUESDAY
Spokesman Robert Gibbs says the White House had not changed its policy, but he struggles to reconcile the president’s latest remarks with those of Emanuel on Sunday. Asked if Emanuel misspoke, Gibbs replies: “Whether or not anybody was confused or misspoke, I would take what the president said” as the administration’s policy.

Gibbs says he did not know if Obama sees a legal distinction between Bush administration lawyers who wrote legal defenses of the harsh interrogation methods, and other officials who reviewed the legal arguments and approved the methods.

Head spinning yet? NoDramaObama’s apparently is experiencing some form of head spin.

I so do feel a revolution coming.