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Truth vs. Ideology
By Bill O’Reilly
Frustrating! That’s the appropriate word for what is happening in the
wake of the Osama bin Laden raid. Besides the precision of the Navy
SEALs, the big story to emerge from the action is that coerced
interrogation gave the CIA vital information used to track bin Laden to
his lair. Current CIA Chief Leon Panetta has confirmed that.
Of course, that exposition is embarrassing to the left, including
President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton,
who are all on record as saying coerced interrogation does not work.
Apparently, they were wrong in a big way.
The nails-on-the-blackboard part of this story is that some liberal
pundits are trying to deny the undeniable. The spin they are using is
that a “mosaic” of intelligence led the CIA to bin Laden. It was not
just waterboarding or whatever. To paraphrase Panetta: We’ll never know
if we could have gotten the same intel without the water.
That’s true, but who cares? It is the duty of the federal government to
protect Americans from harm. And that’s what the Bush administration
did when it signed off on coercive questioning.
The record shows that just three men were waterboarded: Khalid Sheik
Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Rahim al-Nashiri, all al-Qaida big shots.
Under duress, KSM gave up vital information that crippled his terror
group and ultimately led U.S. authorities to watch bin Laden’s top
Pakistani courier. Eventually, that man led the CIA to the compound
outside Islamabad.
But still, the far left won’t budge. No matter what the facts are about
the effectiveness of coerced interrogation, they will deny them.
Infuriating.
The sane policy going forward is this: The president and only the
president should have the power to order coerced interrogation,
including waterboarding, if national security is endangered or American
lives are on the line. One man makes the decision, and his orders are
carried out by an elite intelligence team answerable directly to him.
So if Obama doesn’t want to order waterboarding, fine. That’s on him.
But the elected leader of the nation should have the power to make the
decision.
It is ironic that many on the far left openly celebrated the death of
bin Laden. So, guys, let me get this straight: It’s OK for U.S. forces
to shoot a terrorist in the head, but it’s not OK to waterboard him if
lives are in danger? Good grief.
It is long past time for Americans to reject ideology that endangers
human beings. We live in a dangerous world chock full of doomsday
weapons. Common sense should dictate how the federal government defines
strategies to protect us. How many times have you heard ideologues say
that coerced interrogation does not work?
Well, it does. Ask bin Laden. Wait, we can’t.
Read it at Townhall
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