tmitchell@reviewjournal.com

Y'see, Thomas, it's only "torture" when they do it to US. And, "it" is then apparently anything in excess of Three Hots And A Cot and daily visits from the Red Cross and the Embassy. But only where it pertains to US.

Moreover (instructively), the Colonel gave up false information (Hel-LO?). In response to relatively mundane interrogative impositions which would never even have come upon Jay Bybee's Is/Is NOT radar, insofar as they fell so far dramatically below the Former Cubmaster's Best-Legal-Advice 08/01/02 OLC Memo "Definition-of-IS'" stratified threshold specs.

Col. Fischer was kept in a dark, damp cell, fed shitty chow, subjected to dog whistle noise (we lacked dilettante-patriot long-hair-and-tats primal-scream puke rock 'music' back then), and questioned incessantly, day and night, for weeks. Wow, how not-Waterboardingly, not "Walling," not "stress position," not deliberate insect infestation, not Gitmo, not Abu, not snarling dog, not CIA Black Site horrific.

There are (what should be patently obvious) admonitory lessons here. Which, of course, will be utterly lost on you schadenfreude-ista, pornographically vicariously thrilled, Jack Bauer-wannabee "enhanced interrogation" apologists.

Cheers -

BG

Here's what I wrote regarding 9/11 over on Open Salon (link in my name):

"...A couple of thoughts occurred to me in short order. First, it soon looked as though we'd been the victims of The Mother Of All Sucker Punches, the most cost-effective attack against us in our history..."

I would argue that the principal reason we've not been hit again "in the Homeland" was that these pukes pretty much shot their tactical wad on 9/11 (to undeniable impact). Barney Fife could have thereafter "prevented" a subsequent equivalent event. Torture likely added nothing. It was a way more likely a significant net negative.

The only assertions I want to hear from Cheney and his co-conspirators are those proffered from within the defendant's dock at the Hague.

Senator Lindsay Graham today during the torture hearing:

---

"Now. I don't know what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it. And I really don't think she's a criminal if she was told about waterboarding and did nothing. But I think it is important to understand that members of Congress, allegedly, were briefed by ... about these interrogation techniques. And again, it goes back to the idea of what was the Administration trying to do. If you're trying to commit a crime, it seems to me that'd be the last thing you'd want to do. If you had in your mind and your heart that you're going to disregard the law, and you're going to come up with interrogation techniques that you know to be illegal, you would not go around telling people on the other side of the aisle about it."

___

Uh, Petard, meet Hoist?

According to Marcy Wheeler:

---

"...NO ONE in Congress was told that the CIA was going to start torturing in 2002, until it was too late. Pelosi and Goss were told, after CIA had waterboarded Abu Zubaydah 83 times, that CIA might waterboard in the future. Bob Graham was not told of waterboarding at all...

The first time CIA can say for certain that any Democratic members of Congress at all were briefed on waterboarding was in July 2004, after CIA had waterboarded for what ended up being the last time, and after their own Inspector General determined they were breaking the law."

___

Oops. Maybe Senator Graham was just sleep-deprived today. Or, had been forced to listen to death metal rock music for 24 hours.

This obvious little red herring dust-up (what Pelosi ostensibly knew and when), is nothing more than a lame attempt to deflect culpability anyway. And, they're gonna have to do better than this. Lindsay Graham ain't helpin' matters.

an Obama "present" vote.

a CIA vs FBI interagency turf spat? The CIA's record, going all the way back to William Casey's Afghan Ops days (thru those of "Slam Dunk" Tenet), is not reassuring.

that blew up the global economy?

i.e., the Gaussian Copula? After all it was the empirical totem of CassanoWorld.

Anytime I see the name "Gauss" associated with some non-physical phenomenon (e.g., derivatives default correlations) my hand moves over my wallet pocket.

But, hey, it was this Asian math cat with a Pee-H-Dee, what's not to love (and defer to)? LOL, the dude who single-handedly made the word "Quant" a major resume negative. He (Li) has since slinked back off to China.

eom

stands between us and all of those innumerable "nuclear-armed terrorists" who would otherwise slip undetected into the United States.

This is all getting really tiresome.

is the only thing standing between us and cadres of innumerable "nuclear-armed terrorists" slipping into the Homeland undetected. And, continued torture of those collared 6-7 years ago as teenagers is essential to our security in this regard.

You snark-challenged or somethin'?

S-L-O-W-L-Y for you:

DISDAINFUL SARCASM.

Link in name below. Bring a Snicker's, you'll be a while. Maybe 3/4 done at this point.

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

"The U.S. health care policy morass" - a detailed work currently in progress. Link in my name.

"The U.S. health care policy morass"

Link in my name.

Now nearing completion. Link in my name. Ideological blinders are quite likely to continue to trump empirical evidence that ought drive rational policy.

so, former Repu'ublicist senator Rick Man-Dog-Marriage Sphinctorum can rest easy.

Mr. Ensign,

Let me recall: you called for President Clinton's impeachment over his moral shortcomings, and you lectured the nation from the floor of the Senate on the "Sanctity of Marriage."

But, political expediency now requires that you fail to do the right thing and resign in the wake of exposure of your own moral turpitude. Why am I not surprised?

Were it not for your blatant, preening hypocrisy (which increasingly seems to be a membership requirement in the GOP), I might be inclined to grant you a pass with respect to your infidelity.

But, you now look like a total fool and a coward. Your effectiveness in representing Nevadans is now gone.

Resign.