Misleading statements, (empty) threats of physical violence, harassing and disrespectful language, nap deprivation: the CIA is accused of employing these and other ethically troubling techniques in the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh “Bluto” Mohammad and other al Qaeda operatives in the War on Terror the Great Unpleasantness.
This being a cruel world, however, we must recognize that there is a time and place for everything. We can employ one of the liberal’s favorite tools, situational ethics, to define when the use of violence, lies, threats and torture-ish techniques are morally acceptable.
Judging from the stated and unstated attitudes of President Obama and Attorney General Holder, there are instances in which the use of such coercive tactics may be ignored or even condoned. The following situational guidelines for coercion and threats of violence are offered in the interest of clarity.
THE ACTOR (the coercer)
Unacceptable: trained intelligence officer; security expert; Special Forces operative; law enforcement agent.
Acceptable: card carrying member of SEIU, the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the Teamsters or other labor union; community organizer with ACORN; “poll watchers” from the Black Panthers Party.
THE TARGET (the coercee)
Unacceptable: Radical Islamists; sworn enemies of the United States; al Qaeda-trained operatives; non-uniformed enemy combatants.
Acceptable: Capitalists; corporate managers; small businessmen; townhall protesters and members of other Organized Mobs; voters.
THE STAKES
Unacceptable: Potential destruction of a major American city; death of random innocent civilians; threats of harm to military personnel, installations or capital ships; loss of life, liberty or property of U.S. citizens.
Acceptable: union contract negotiations, involving work rules, pay rates or benefits; protection of vote fraud initiatives; intimidation of “Health Care Reform” protesters; stifling of right-of-center political discourse.
Careful use of these guidelines should avoid any conflicts with Obama Administration objectives.
Neil Stevens
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Daniel Horowitz
Jake Walker
I was thinking of a different twist on it
bk (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 6:17AM EST (link)Here’s how Obama/Holder envision questioning of detainees:
1. The interrogators must be trained and certified in techniques developed by CAIR in conjunction with the ACLU.
2. There must be at least two such certified interrogators in the room, they they are the only people on the US side allowed to speak to the detainee.
3. Also present in the room with the detainee must be an attorney and representatives of the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.
4. …etc…
The other thing I wondered about is whether Holder will okay waterboarding of the CIA people he questions about EITs.
Holder type interrogation
Castor (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 10:52AM EST (link)Please,pretty please, Mr. Khalid Sheikh Mohammmad.If you don´t tell us where the next attack is coming from we will cut off your cookies and milk.
bk is RIGHT ON!!!!
Interesting times
izoneguy (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 7:17AM EST (link)You put in writing what I have been thinking, thank you.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Well stated, Vladimir
RedBeard Wednesday, August 26th at 7:48AM EST (link)And accurate, sadly.
Most of us are reluctant to use extreme pejoratives when talking about the other side, but if this administration continues to build steam and travel in the direction it has been heading, there may be no other descriptively accurate options.
I have been cognizant of, and witness to, the actions of every administration since Eisenhower, and I cannot put a finger on anything done by any other administration that fell to the level of malfeasance that this gang practices on a daily basis. When factoring in the destructive behavior of Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, and the latter days of Nixon, that’s quite an achievement for Barack Obama.
And he’s just getting warmed up.
Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
And O'nothin gets to wash his hands of it
Andy W. Wednesday, August 26th at 8:51AM EST (link)by having his administration say, “The President prefers to look forward, not backward” and “The Attorney General has the power to appoint…”
He gets to appear out of the mix, and clean, while the very citizens he promised would be safe from prosecution a couple of months ago are placed on a pillory as a sop to the lib left that is crying for their blood. Classic Clinton misdirect of attention away from failed health care reform initiative? I think so.
Keep up the good work Sam Graves (R, MO-6)
Awesome use of your front page powers!
Brian Hibbert (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 9:29AM EST (link)Good one Vladamir. There does seem to be a bit of a double standard here.
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Socialism doesn’t work. It looks nice on paper, but it’s been tried and it’s failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
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Stop all interrogation now...
harlan Wednesday, August 26th at 11:45AM EST (link)…and let the liberal chips in New York and Washington fall where they may.
libs will soon beg to have enhanced techniques reinstated, and democrat politicians will be pariahs for a generation.
Actually, that may well be the plan, at least regarding the CIA
civil truth (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 11:55AM EST (link)…so that in public the Adminstration looks purer than the driven snow.
Meanwhile, their unaccountable executive interrogation group will use rendition to send high-value prisoners out of the country, where they can be secretly tortured for information while the Administration can maintain denial of anything that happened.
I wonder if there are any principled leftists around who will track the rendition flights and shell companias they did in earlier incarnations – or whether they will just keep their mouths shut – or whether they are getting truly scared at what’s coming down the pike regarding Obama’s secret government agencies that are accountable neither to legislative oversight or judicial action.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
I doubt the interogators were ever worried about becoming the interogated during the Inquisition.
The_Gadfly (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 1:24PM EST (link)And I suspect the same thing applies to The Big 0′s supplicants.
Just desserts for CIA
dennism (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 2:15PM EST (link)The CIA conducted war against the Bush Administration for 8 years. I bet there’s not a conservative or a republican in the whole outfit. If Eric Holder wants an investigation, we can only hope the prosecutor broadens his scope to the Dept of State.
The eat snails, frog’s legs and pea-soup. They’re John Kerry acolytes. Judas Iscariot had nothing on these back stabbers.
just to extend your diatribe against the CIA...
kyle8 (Diary) Wednesday, August 26th at 2:18PM EST (link)Has there ever been a more hidebound and useless bunch of back biting bureaucrats? They got nearly everything in the cold war wrong, including a long paper on the hidden strengths of the Soviet System only about six months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
They were riddled with spies, and they told Bush that WMD’s in Iraq was a “slam dunk”.
We should get rid of this counter productive agency.
“Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty”
Kyle