Liz Cheney: “We’re Helping The Terrorists” (UPDATED)
On May 28, at least 44 photographs of supposed abusive interrogations will won’t be released. Interrogation transcripts may also become available.
“This will constitute visual proof that, unlike the Bush administration’s claim, the abuse was not confined to Abu Ghraib and was not aberrational,” said Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer.
Of course the right wing is objecting, saying this will empower al Qaeda and hurt America’s image. The former VP’s daughter, Liz Cheney, went so far as to say that the release of this information shows Obama is siding with the terrorists.
CHENEY: Clearly you know what they are doing is releasing images that show American military men and women in a very negative light. And I have heard from families of service members, from families of 9/11 victims, this question about, you know, when did it become so fashionable for us to side, really, with the terrorists? You know, for us to put information out that hurts American soldiers and you know President Obama has a lot of sort-of rhetoric about support for American military families and support for our men and women who are fighting overseas; but you knowif he really cares about them he wouldn’t be making such an effort you know to release photos that show them in a negative light.
At 3:58 in:
So, it’s not torturing other human beings that hurts our country and energizes al Qaeda. It’s pictures of torture that do it. We don’t mind breaking the law. We just don’t want the evidence to be seen.
UPDATE: Obama now says he’ll delay the release of torture photos.
Well Alan, I guess if our soldiers DO come into harms way after the photos are released, libs will still be able to use the “maybe this would have happened anyway” argument. Similar to arguments over whether interrogation techniques yielded results.
What exactly is the benefit of releasing the photos to the world anyway?
EricG Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Interrogation techniques approved by Republican President Bush are torture and nobody but people who refuse to listen to facts and live in their own fantasy land still think it works. The FBI, CIA and Army all say it doesn’t.
Only Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney and Bill O’Reilly are left on the torture boat.
What’s the benefit of the truth coming out? Oh how about freedom and justice. Just for starters.
havok333 Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
POTUS apparently disagrees with you. Justice has already been served, where needed.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Hey, if you don’t want America to look bad, then act like a real American, and don’t commit acts of evil.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
How is that information helpful to the terrorists? They already knew it was going on. Plus, the direction in which the current administration is heading and the message we have now sent out is: ‘look here. See these pictures? That’s no good, hu? Well, it ain’t ever happenin’ again under our watch now.’ THAT is what matters.
This lady is a fckng idiot! What kind of American suggests that another American is siding with the terrorists? Only an idiot! A fckng idiot!
May 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
The apple didn’t fall far from the 5 deferment tree. Her daddy, Dick. “they will welcome us with flowers”, Cheney, is busy attacking a vietnam vet and 35 year soldier Colin Powell as not patriot/criminal enough to be in the Democratic party.
We’ll take him, even though he was dumb enough to make your yellow cake wmd speech at the UN and ended his political career, like the Republican party.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Liz Cheney is wrong.
“.. when did it become so fashionable for us to side, really,with the terrorists? ”
This is total hog-wash. It is not siding with terrorists to want to defend the Constitution and our national pride by rejecting torture techniques as acceptable practice.
The Cheney family has an invested interest in keeping daddy out of jail. She would say anything to try to change the issue around and make it about Obama when we all know it was the last administration that broke the law.
Daddio Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Yadda, yadda, yadda, yadda.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
TDro319 Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
You had to post that??????? Like we really care if you’re sleeping???
May 13th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
“UPDATE: Obama now says he’ll delay the release of torture photos.”
Hmm, political pressure maybe … he should release them if he intends to do so.
RDM Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
The Associated Press news release doesn’t say anything about DELAYING the release of photos.
Omama decided he did not feel comfortable with the release and is attemting to BLOCK the release, not delay it.
I hope he can.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Very disappointed in Obama holding back this evidence. I always felt Presidents were more easily able to change the direction of the country’s domestic policy than they were foreign policy, but I had higher expectations of Obama. This is a very bad sign.
May 13th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I don’t understand why all information obtained from terrorist isn’t being released?
I understand that waterboarding it torture, but if all information regarding the method of torture has been released, why hold anything back? Let the public just it the obvious torture was worth it!
May 13th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Antomaino: “…torture was worth it!”
That’s very Christian of you, brother.
May 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I am surprised that in calling for the release of pictures that may show the use of “enhanced integration” methods in practice no one is calling for the release of the CIA memos detailing the intelligence obtained from the use of such methods.
I too hope the pictures are released and that a FULL investigation by independent council is undertaken. Lets get to the bottom of what was done and what was learned. Lets find out what attacks if any were prevented. Lets find out which members of congress knew what and when they knew it. Lets find out why those members of congress didn’t blow the whistle. At the very least congress could have cut off funding had they not liked what they were hearing.
Today we debate whether Bush did too much to keep us safe. But, had another attack befallen the US on the scale of 911 we would forever debate why he didn’t do more. Personally I am glad we are having the former debate and not the latter.
And, I might add, had some “enhanced integration” been applied prior to 911 may-be, just may-be that disaster could have been prevented.
Imagine that, two wars and countless deaths avoided Sounds like a fair trade to me but that just me.
Rocky the Liberal Rottweiler Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Don’t even try to suggest that BushCo kept us “safe” EXCEPT FOR 9/11 because they were warned and warned and warned prior to 9/11 and THEY DID NOTHING!
RDM Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Rotty, you to retake a controlled agression class.
Bernie-in-Michigan Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Rocky, forgive me for not understanding your post are you saying Bush DID NOT keep us safe expect for 911? Because unless I missed something he did keep us safe EXCEPT for 911. And for our sake, even yours, I hope Obama does just as well if not better.
And, exactly WHO warned them? Was the warning plot specific? Was it time specific? Was it place specific?
JaredfromTexas Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
ROCKY,
Ah…another display of the eager forgetfulness of the Clinton years…must be nice to have such a short-term memory. pssst…clinton knew…
TDro319 Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Jared:
Psssssst, I don’t care if Clinton knew. He wasn’t president in 2001.
And besides, Bush was warned we were going to be attacked and he did nothing but sit back and wait for it to happen.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
TDRO,
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect example of the partisan/liberal mindset: Blame BUSH and the REPUBLICANS! Nevermind that Clinton knew about a possible Al Queda attack! Nevermind that Clinton let Bin Laden escape no less than 4 times! Nevermind that it was George Tenet that was the head of the CIA for Bush’s first 4 years!
It’s Bush’s fault dammit!
Here’s what Bush knew: Al Queda was plotting an attack. Bush didn’t know where, when or how.
How much more vague can the information be, TDRO?
What, exactly, would you have liked Bush to do, TDRO. Put the entire US in a state of panic? Raise to DEFCON 4? (Oh…wait…that would’ve been entirely for political purposes, right OLD LEFTY?) Racial profiling at all airports? (Oh, wait…you liberals are against racial profiling)
Please, tell me what YOU would’ve done…because I’m 100% certain your “hug it out” theory wouldn’t have worked…
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 3:04 am
For lunch I’m having bratwurst
For lunch I’m having hamburger
For lunch I’m having Salad
For lunch I’m having Tuna sandwich
For lunch I’m having steak
For lunch I’m having salmon
For lunch I’m having a club sandwich
thre you go Rocky, you know what I’m having for lunch, try and stop me from having what I’m really having.
The NSA/CIA/FBI etc.. intercepts and/or recieves hundreds of threats a day, trying to discern the legitimate with the illigitimate is an art and not a science for the most part, subject to interpretation. It’s not an easy job.
Daddio Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Exactly Guido. The President does receive hundreds of possible threats every day. To say that Bush should have known that the terrorist attacks were a 100 perecent certainty is absurd. The 9/11 attack would have happened if Obama was Pres. at the time.
The President relies on his security team to asses all threats and the priority with which to place them.
The libs expected Pres. Bush to be a sage. They expected Bush to be perfect. That would have been the only way for Bush to avoid any attack from the libs.
TDro319 Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Nice spin on that Daddio;
Let’s just review a few facts that have recently come out shall we? The FBI
knew Bin Laden’s people were studying how to fly (but not land) jumbo jets
in various US flight schools. The FBI the CIA and even GW knew they planned
to hijack jumbo jets. Every security service in the world knew the WTC was
the world’s #1 target for Islamic terrorists. Yet, they did nothing, ignored
all intelligence, issued no warnings, increased no security. Bush announces,
“We hit the trifecta!” after hearing of the attacks.
JaredfromTexas Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
TDRO,
sources…
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 15th, 2009 at 3:26 am
TDRO…what would you have them do? shut down air travel? not allow muslims to fly? perform mandatory strip searches? Go public? If you can’t figure out why those issues have problems attached to them, then you don’t understand how life works.
May 13th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Robert Gibbs: “The president does not believe that the strongest case regarding the release of these photos was presented to the court and that was a case based on HIS concern about what the release would do to our national security”.
It doesn’t appear to me that Obama had any political pressure in making this decision. If he did, it came from his left wing supporters in Congress who are outraged that waterboarding was used but maybe, just maybe, knew all about it.
Daddio Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 8:56 am
To bad Obama didn’t think before he released the memos of our interrogation techniques. They will as much harm to our getting information from our enemies as the photos would do to our security and to the recruitment of terrorist by the Muslim world.
I applaud Obama for not releasing those photos. He did the right thing.
TDro319 Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Of course you do! That’s because Cheney’s in the hot seat. Now, if it were Obama who ordered torture, you’d be screaming for the photos to be released.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I couldn’t agree more with Cheney and his daughter. What good is going to come from it. Why does the US feel the need to justify everything it does with an open book policy that the terrorist can read from. I don’t need to know what method the interrogators used or pictures of it. Do what ever you have to do to get the imformation out of them.
I agree with Bernie as far as “enhanced interrogation” prior to 9/11 and as far as I’m concerned turn up the heat
May 13th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
But it doesn’t get information, and it only helps al Qaeda.
The only purpose of the techniques they used is from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.
The fact is the United States spent most of the eight years before last January making things easy for its enemies. It was in the ammunition-supply business.
Nothing comforted U.S. foes as much as Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, axis-of-evil moral certitude and the schoolyard politics of punishment.
If you think it’s OK, then you should demand the reinstatement of Lynndie England and Charlie Granier, and the rank of Gen. Karpinski
Personally, I think Cheney belongs in an orange suit, making little rocks out of big rocks.
May 13th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Hi my name is RDM and I am a Cheerio addict.
May 13th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I can think of someone who needs to be in a straight jacket and a padded room.
May 13th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Interrogation techniques approved by Republican President Bush are torture
Nope. An act becomes torture when accompanied with intent. So, when I say to you “Take me to your leader or I will punch you in the nose.” And then I do it, that’s not torture.
However, if after you do take me to your leader and I continue to punch you in the nose, then THAT becomes torture.
We are ALL against torture. Everybody is. I think torturing someone is a horrible horrible act.
What’s the benefit of the truth coming out? Oh how about freedom and justice. Just for starters.
I agree. Obama should release the memos that speak to the success or failure of these techniques in obtaining information.
This lady is a fckng idiot!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
That Our Blessed Leader agrees with! Awesome.
It is not siding with terrorists to want to defend the Constitution
What part of the Constitution speaks to foreign nationals having rights as a Citizen?
Personally, I think Cheney belongs in an orange suit, making little rocks out of big rocks.
Pelosi….just a free pass for the Speaker? Nice.
I had higher expectations of Obama. This is a very bad sign.
Finally, an Obamabot that is able to speak honesty. While I disagree with your position, I applaud your integrity. Well said!
Rocky the Liberal Rottweiler Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
“An act becomes torture when accompanied with intent.”
If you put a gun to the prisoner’s head and pull the trigger, and you weren’t doped up or drunk or nuts, it doesn’t matter if you intended to kill the guy or just “mess him up,” you’re guilty of murder.
goliath43 Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
That makes no sense whatsoever. Did you not read Pino’s analogy it makes perfect sense. putting a gun to someones head and pulling the trigger is murder of course but I don’t see the comparison to torture.
GuidoVanHorn Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Pino…why can’t you just accept that waterboarding is torture, what possible personal conviction/attachment to waterboarding can you have to not be able to discern that.
TDro319 Reply:
May 14th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
“Pelosi….just a free pass for the Speaker? Nice.”
Cheney already admitted he approved torture. Do you have proof that Pelosi knew? And if she did know, how do you know she wasn’t informed that the interrogation techniques used wasn’t classified information?
May 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
[...] • ACLU attorney Alex Abdo responds to President Obama’s decision to block the release of detainee abuse photos. [...]
May 13th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
If you are a card carrying member of the ACLU and you are an Obooboo supporter what do you do?
OldLefty Reply:
May 13th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
What is an Obooboo supporter?
May 13th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
you’re guilty of murder.
No one is saying anyone is being killed.
Heel puppy.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:32 pm