Chris Matthews ,sympathetic to the ticking timebomb argument, pressed CIA veteran Robert Baer on whether waterboarding didn't work in such emergency cases. Three times asked, three times he refused to take the bait, saying that the tortured person would tell you anything you wanted to hear. Baer, a 21-year former covert agent, advocated a blue-ribbon Presidential Commission to investigate the issue. Senator Ensign of Nevada pressed about the Senate Armed Forces Committee report simply charged it was a Democrat report (as opposed to Democratic as is the Republican coinage for the last few years) and that it was not endorsed by any Republicans. He claimed the mention of techniques imported from North K0rea and the Chinese Communists were simply devices used by the Democrats who had a political agenda.
Bill O'Reilly had guests from the Cato Institute and Strafor on to discuss torture and asked the usual question, "Wasn't it worth it, if it saved American lives?" Neither men would take the bait either questioning the whole premise of the question. When O'Reilly mentioned the assertions of former Vice President Cheney, the Cato guest, a former Green Beret, just commented,"I would have to see how he cherry-picked the information."
Not to be upstaged by Senator Levin, the Senate Intelligence Committee forwarded to Attorney General Eric Holder information that at least ten Bush officials reviewed and approved the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques in the summer of 2002.
From the military side, General Barry McCaffrey, a four-star general who commanded the 24th Infantry Division during the Gulf War, called for an investigation of the Bush White House. His views were echoed recently by General Taquba, who has detailed the abuse of detainees by the United States, and called for an investigation. It seems General Baccus had been removed early on as superintendent for Gitmo because of his resistance to the new manner of interrogation.
Making a television blitz from Al Jezeera to MSNBC was former Brig. General Janis Karpinski, who had been removed from her command ,which included Abu Ghraib. She told MSNBC that it was now clear that the interrogation techniques that were imposed on Abu Ghraib came from General Miller and the Tiger Team of 24 persons who flew from Gitmo to Abu Ghrain to tighten up control over detainees. Karpinski said that the so-called "bad apples", the 7 soldiers court-martialled for the Abu Ghraib photos had been given orders by contractors to abuse detainees as they did. In the Senate Report, Col. Woods ,who took charge of interrogators in Abu Ghraib, claimed that she saw power point slides prepared on techniques approved by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Gen. Karpinski said that "9-11 gave America an excuse to do all these things." She argued that since the Iraq War had an international coalition that an international tribunal be constituted to investigate these accusations, a position sure to win the hearts and minds of the Republicans.
Senators McCain, Lieberman and Graham sent an open letter to President Obama urging him not to prosecute the authors of the torture memos, arguing that this would criminalize differences of opinions, a recent position taken by Yoo, one of the prime authors. Former Florida Senator Bob Graham urged for an investigation and prosecution of Bush Administration officials.
Torture enthusiasts pointed out that the water-boarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed yielded information that prevented the bombing of the Library Tower in Los Angeles. This was trumpeted by Fox News and sundry conservative commenators--except there is a problem. He was apprehended after the Bush Administration claimed they had thwarted the second wave of bombings from Asia that included the Library Tower. Tomorrow may yield more aborted plots. But overall, a long day for fans of Dick Cheney.
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