Waterboarding. Torture or not?

When President Bush nominated Judge Michael Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales as the U.S. attorney general, Democrats applauded.

And then Mukasey started talking. During confirmation hearings a couple weeks ago, Mukasey refused to say whether he thought that waterboarding amounted to torture.

Umm, wrong answer, came the reply from Democrats who control the Senate judiciary committee.

So Mukasey followed up with a letter this week describing waterboarding as personally “repugnant” and “over the line.” But he hedged on whether the practise is actually illegal.

Americans can be forgiven for being confused on the matter. Congress has banned the U.S. military from using the technique, which involves simulated drowning of an interrogation suspect. But the CIA has used waterboarding at least three times, and Mukasey’s refusal to declare the practise illegal is viewed as an attempt to protect the agents involved from prosecution.

At the Heritage Foundation this afternoon, President Bush weighed in….

“As a price for his confirmation, some on that committee want Judge Mukasey take a legal position on specific techniques allegedly used to interrogate captured terrorists.

“Second, he does not want an uninformed opinion to be taken by our professional interrogators in the field as placing them in legal jeopardy. Finally, he does not want any statement of his to give the terrorists a window into which techniques we may use and which ones we may not use. That could help them train their operatives to resist questioning and withhold vital information we need to stop attacks and save lives.”

Last year, Steve Harrigan of Fox News gave a very dramatic first-person report on the subject. Here is the video.

And, here is a link to the FoxNews report on their website

Harrigan says it’s more about fear than pain. “The thing that impressed me was just how quickly you can recover. They took me to the brink, where I was ready to submit and tell them anything….and then just minutes later I’m standing beside that pool, feeling fine.” Harrigan concludes, “This seems like a pretty efficient mechanism to get somebody to talk, and then still have them alive and healthy within minutes.”

Update: The Admiral of Chappaquiddick will vote against Mukasey…

“Judge Mukasey appears to be a careful, conscientious and intelligent lawyer and he has served our country honorably for many years,” Kennedy said in a Senate speech announcing his opposition. “But those qualities are not enough for this critical position at this critical time.”

Kennedy said Mukasey’s unwillingness to say that waterboarding is torture increases the chances that it will be used against U.S. troops.

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

US News and World Report was a favorite read of mine going back almost 40 years. I first discovered USNWR when going through the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature while doing some research for a current events paper while in Jr High. I loved it. And, when I could afford it, I became a subscriber. It was probably the last news magazine subscription that I let expire a few years back. I just never read it any more. By the time it came in, the stories were cold, and the opinions, sadly, predictable.

I still read occasional posts that show up on some of the internet forums that I frequent, like this one from Bonnie Erbe which takes aim at fast-rising Mike Huckabee.

Erbe recycles a couple of stories that have made the rounds over the past few months, and breathlessly asks…

Destroying records? Misusing mansion funds? Helping a convicted rapist? Would Clinton still be a viable candidate if she faced such stories? Would Rudy Giuliani? Methinks not.

Oh, please.

Erbe, who claims to have covered Washington politics since God was a baby should be aware of at least some of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s numerous “stories.” There are so many. Story after story during the Clinton Administration, as well as the “Greatest Campaign Finance Scandal in American History” from HRC’s first run for the Senate. Maybe Erbe was out of pocket when Norman Hsu’s dirty money somehow made its way to HRC’s campaign war chest. Perhaps the Chinese dishwasher money or the Milberg Weiss money that also made its way to Hillary’s campaign is just the product of Republican lies, like Ms Erbe told Linda Chavez,

“I expect insecure people and especially conservatives to lie and play games.”

I expect very little from PBSers and progressive journalists like Ms Erbe, and they seldom fail to meet my expectations. Why is it that people like Erbe seem to fit the stereotype of the burned out hippie who substitutes nasty cynicism for journalistic judgement? This quote taken from her Scripps-Howard column as it appeared in the Denver Rocky Mountain News:

“I have a confession to make: More than 25 years ago I used an illegal narcotic. I’m not running for President, nor any political office for that matter. And the statute of limitations has surely run out on my transgression. So it’s safe to come clean. I won’t make you guess about which drug it was. It was heroin. And here come the gory details. I snorted it — no, I didn’t inject it. I was caught up in the drug culture of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, which I state as a reason, not an excuse. And, oh yes, prior to trying heroin I smoked a lot of different types of marijuana and hashish (yes, inhaling all the time) and took a wide variety of hallucinogens: mescaline, LSD, you name it. Well, I not only survived that stupor, I excelled at high school studies and extracurricular activities during it.”

I do hope the Clinton campaign is “salivating”, as Ms Erbe suggests, at the prospect of facing Huckabee in the general election. It will be more than interesting. And, as I mentioned in yesterday’s column, it will be vicious…

Long stymied by their self-imposed quagmire of Dixiephobia, the over-the-top rhetoric from the Left, and wildly exaggerated claims of “theocracy” serve only to unite Southern Christians. Left-wing interest groups frame their criticism around their pet issues, but these early attacks signal a growing fear of the potential generational loss of Judiciary favor. Their fear will serve to drive a form of rhetorical arson in the general election that will make the current anti-war silliness look tame by comparison.

And, just in case Ms Erbe needs a few links to jog her memory on some of the Hillary “stories”, here are a few that I’ve gathered under the category heading “Truth-boating.” Enjoy.

Sources for this article: USNWR, Hillcap.org, and special thanks to: Media Research Center.

Update: Hey Erbe—-guess what, it made the Times, so it’s officially a story now, right?

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“One item from Baghdad, today. The news is that there is no news“……..Charlie Gibson, ABC News. Source

I expect a sea change in the rhetoric coming from the Democrat Party in time for the next round of debates, as the progress of the counterinsurgency continues to yield significant, visible results on the ground. Michael Yon recently predicted “some sort of milestone for the war in Iraq will occur early in the next year.” And, although that welcome milestone may be expected to get far less publicity than car bombings and kidnappings, my gut tells me that the Democrats will try to claim credit for the progress in Iraq by saying that it was their insistence on benchmarks that finally brought the Iraqi people to their senses.

Speaking of progress on the ground, Jammiewearingfool reports a “crippling blow against the enemy.” Even though I’ve heard nothing about this on cable news, I suppose I’m not too surprised. Charlie Gibson isn’t, either.

via Yahoo News

LONDON - Falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday.

Others have used superglue to stick crowns back on, rather than stumping up for private treatment, said the study. One person spoke of carrying out 14 separate extractions on himself with pliers.

More typically, a lack of publicly-funded dentists means that growing numbers go private: 78 percent of private patients said they were there because they could not find a National Health Service (NHS) dentist, and only 15 percent because of better treatment.

“This is an uncomfortable read for all of us, and poses serious questions to politicians from patients,” said Sharon Grant of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.

Oops. Mike Moore left out a few, *ahem*, details in his highly publicized propaganda documentary in support of government run healthcare.

Free Thoughts has the photo expose’…….

One of the major accomplishments of 1959 Castroite revolution has been turning once-world class hospitals of Cuba into places where not even pigs would ever enter. This is Cuban healthcare. For ordinary people, of course.

Read it all at Free Thoughts