DESPITE EXCESSES, ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES WORKED TO KEEP US SAFE DURING A DIFFICULT TIME “These interrogations (Enhanced Interrogation Techniques criticized in the recent Senate report) … gave us kind of a Home Depot-like storage of information on Al Qaeda on which we relied......... We are still relying on it today.” Former CIA Director Michael Hayden With the recent Republican Congressional mid-term victories, which include a new GOP majority of the US Senate when newly elected Republicans take office in January, Democrats are taking parting shots. Just as when the President passed Obamacare after Republican Congressional victories in 2010 (but prior to the Republican Majority being sworn in to the House of Representatives in January 2011), he decided to grant amnesty to around five million illegal immigrants after the election. Senate Democrats have decided to join the President and release a one-sided report about the enhanced interrogation techniques (EIT) used in the period following the September 11 attacks. Not only is the timing of the release of this report extremely questionable and dangerous, it is just wrong in the conclusions. Let me explain. The report, released by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, condemned the enhanced interrogation as brutal and not effective. The report goes into excruciating detail of alleged torture of just over 100 detainees, including water boarding, but also interrogation techniques which included sleep and food deprivation. From the report, it appears one detainee may have died from hypothermia due to the conditions in captivity. Former CIA chiefs have acknowledged excesses primarily due to this being new to those conducting the interrogation. However, the small number of those who underwent EIT and the lack of permanent physical injury (beyond the hypothermia case) puts EIT in a much different perspective from the report. The claim that EIT lacked effectiveness if just wrong and must be contested. To put the actual interrogation techniques in perspective, while again recognizing excesses, it is important to remember the circumstances in which EIT used. It was conducted during the period after September 11, 2001, in which 3000 Americans were murdered on home soil and the terrorist enemy (not subject to the protections of the laws of land warfare including treatment of prisoners) planned to kill as many American civilians as possible. To take one case, lets go right to the mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Khalid experienced water boarding, sleep deprivation and food deprivation in the attempt to break his will and learn about other attacks (note: As someone who went through over two months of having one meal per day and almost no sleep during the stress of Ranger School, I can attest to the resilience of the body in recovering from this type of treatment. Those service members who have attended Survival,Escape, Resistance, and Evasion (SERE) can speak to recovering from many of the other interrogation techniques). Unlike his victims, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed did not sustain permanent injury or death, but his will was broken. In fact, contrary to the Feinstein Report, the EIT performed on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed likely saved a number of lives and helped bring terrorists to justice. Fox News reported (from CIA sourcing) that Khalid Sheikh Mohammeds disclosures, obtained during EIT, produced more than 2,000 intelligence reports. Former Director Michael Hayden has claimed that the interrogation of around 100 detainees produced 8,000 pages of intelligence reports. According to General Hayden, this is around 50 percent of what the Intelligence community knows about Al Qaeda. Its important to note that General Hayden didnt become the head of CIA until 2006, which was after EIT was used. Further, from an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published on December 10, Former CIA directors and deputy directors called the report a one-sided study......partisan attack. Contrary to the report, the former officials claimed Bin Ladens termination was aided by information gleaned from the program. After September 11, 2001, most of us, Republican or Democrat, believed another attack was imminent. As we have discovered through declassified information, multiple terror attacks were planned and imminent. We faced a criminal enemy, not following the laws of land warfare preventing the targeting of civilians. Those civilians (us) were in the cross hairs, and many of us remember the helpless state our nation faced with this enemy after 9-11. Our leaders took action as best they could during that difficult and trying time period. Though we have learned lessons of the excesses of the Enhanced Interrogation Program, lets not now condemn those who were trying to protect American lives. Most importantly, lets remember we still face a brutal enemy and we have seen what they do to civilians and prisoners. Partisan politics must take a backseat to National Security before we face something much worse than 9-11. I, for one, and grateful for the efforts of our leaders after September 11, 2001. You kept me and my family safe! Thank you. God Bless America, Bill Connor
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 16:00:24 +0000
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