Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute
David Addington, Cheney's legal capo, can't say whether he authorized waterboarding because he is afraid that al-Qaeda might be watching C-Span.
Al-Qaeda is this crew's excuse for everything that they always wanted to do before there was any al-Qaeda.
posted by Juan Cole @ 6/28/2008 12:40:00 AM
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Winner, October 5, 2007, Scott Nearing Award for Courageous Scholarship (Awarded by the Graduate Students of the Political Science Department, University of Pennsylvania).
Winner, 2005 James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, Hunter College.
Winner, 2004 Koufax Award for Best Expert Blog
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7 Comments:
Addington appears to have adopted the Republican Fifth Amendment: "I decline to answer on the grounds that Al Qaeda is listening."
Hopefully al Qaeda was not watching C-Span when Addington was on. You never want to show your enemies your weaknesses, and Addington is certainly one of them.
The vision of the congress torturing the torture issue would also be of value to al Qaeda. I presume most Americans (including myself) are against torture. I also presume al Qaeda could not care less if we torture or not. But watching the C-Span show would put their mind at ease knowing that we can choke on a gnat's pinkie.
Re torture hearings:
In the excerpts I've heard, I was struck by how unprepared the congressional questioners sounded.
When Congress is serious, for instance during the Iran-Contra hearings, they have expert counsel with prosecutorial experience conduct the questioning.
By comparison, the Addison-Yoo hearing was like watching the Harlem Globe Trotters humiliate the local college squad; impotent speechifying as the clock runs out, where there should have been tightly scripted and directed questions.
Democratic leadership was informed enough on interrogation/torture policy to be complicit in the events of the last 7 years. IMO, we need new congressional leadership (and committee staff) that is not covering their own tracks.
In the excerpts I've heard, I was struck by how unprepared the congressional questioners sounded.
True. Most politicians and government functionaries wouldn't last ten minutes on any one of a number of intelligent internet forums. It's frustrating to watch these "lawmakers" flounder around on important subjects because they're either too dumb and lazy to do their research or too afraid to speak the truth and ask incisive questions. Television still drives much of the American mentality, especially in public. Everything is superficial show-biz. The world is a stage.... The first thing the typical American, particularly politicians think of when there's a camera or a microphone present is "What performance should I give in this situation?"
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ref : “struck by... unprepared congressional questioners”
indeed it is remarkable how openly complicit or otherwise passively enabling the old-guard Democratic "opposition party" has been, despite the now quite well-known majority will of the American people.
imho, the more-or-less ‘baby boom’ generation of American politicians, journalists, business leaders and military officer corps seem blissfully unaware that their time has come and gone; That they are now (or will soon be seen in historical retrospect) fast becoming obsolete, if not yet entirely irrelevant to us: “CHANGE”. . . is no new mantra: it is already our history writ, if not their last gasp epitaph.
During the last mid-century it was once a popular (and now ironic) saying that, “The Revolution will not be Televised.” And while the traditional one-to-many media literally indulges itself in figurative faux news = pre-packaged P.R. content -cum- infotainment; with its teasing, rhetorical question "headlines", posed but never really resolved; and this relentless debate-not farce, this generation's Fair & Balanced festival of blather consisting of "reporters" interviewing other "reporters" : The painful truth is, imho all too evident to everyone except (embarrassingly) themselves ~ that insofar as news nowadays, half a centiry later ~ The Whole World Is Watching Something Else.
Its hard to know what's more frustrating - watching snakes like Addington thumb his nose at anyone who dares question his administration's policies, or watching the pathetic response from the Democrats. How a person could talk to a man like Addington for five minutes and not be goaded into furious indignation is beyond me. And yet, sit there they did while Addington scolded them and while John Yoo tried every shameless lawyer trick in the book to evade giving an honest answer to direct questions. In the end, it may be the apparent apathy and complacence of the so-called opposition which has been the most frustrating part of this seven year debacle.
In light of Carlin's death, I caught a euphemism in the questioning of Yoo. It is well known that Yoo basically said you could crush the testicles of a terrorist suspect's child, depending on the circumstances. John Conyers was asking about that, but he glossed over the part about crushing testicles and just said "Horrible sexual torture" or something like that.
Why not come out and say what they said in that Debate? I'm really disappointed in Conyers, the paper tiger.
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