No House resolution honoring SEAL's bin Laden mission

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Rhianne

Ten years, thousands of lives, billions (trillions?) of dollars but in the end they did find Osama.

In his house.

Yep, ironically it was the waterboardings, etc. that allowed us to find that house.

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Flint

Yep, ironically it was the waterboardings, etc. that allowed us to find that house.

Except that NO confirmed data has been reported that supports that assertion, and MANY statements have been made by THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE that indicate that waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation had NOTHING to do with the operation.

[Fair&Balanced]

Originally Posted by Ibram

Except that NO confirmed data has been reported that supports that assertion, and MANY statements have been made by THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE that indicate that waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation had NOTHING to do with the operation.

Right.

The evidence is much more compelling that it was the result of putting more CIA assets in the field in Afghanistan and Pakistan several years ago and then NSA's intercept of e-mails and phone calls, based on what those assets found or heard.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Rhianne

Ten years, thousands of lives, billions (trillions?) of dollars but in the end they did find Osama.

In his house.

It wasn't really him. It was a look alike surrounded by whores.

[Trilby]

It's always the last place you look.

[Flint]

Osama Bin Laden Found Inside Each Of Us

[glatt]

In the paper this morning was an article about a dude ranch where you get to go through the "same" training a SEAL goes through. Run by a former SEAL. Pictures showed a bunch of portly men sitting down.

[Ibby]

And almost all reputable primary-source accounts not from Republican candidates for office state unequivocally that not only was "enhanced interrogation" not a significant factor, and not only did tortured prisoners actually give misleading and utterly unhelpful testimony, but in fact all the prisoner-derived intel helpful to the case was either accidentally gained (that is to say, the prisoner let slip information without intending to let it slip) or given by detainees NOT subject to "enhanced" techniques or torture.

I'm not entirely willing to say that I don't think there is a time or a place for the more "mild" forms of torture - of course if one wants to make WHAT IF THE TERRORIST KNOWS WHERE THE BOMB IS AND ITS THE ONLY WAY arguments, then i grudgingly support SOME forms of "enhanced interrogation" - but I also firmly believe that in almost all cases, intelligence gained through torture is dubious at best, and even more so, that rule of law should be supreme.
If the US is to honestly act on "enhanced interrogation" techniques regarded under the Geneva Convention as torture, then I believe that the US should disengage itself from the Geneva Convention and any other international treaties that ban the actions taken.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They discovered the nickname of Bin Laden's body guard/primary courier at Guantanamo. It was a long complicated investigation from there.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

They discovered the nickname of Bin Laden's body guard/primary courier at Guantanamo. It was a long complicated investigation from there.

I don't think anyody is denying that the prisoners at Guantanemo were the source of intelligence. It's whether that intelligence was the result of enhanced or standard interrogation techniques that is being questioned. From the reports I have read it would appear that the information was the result of standard techniques.

[Griff]

Looks like the birthers are deathers now?

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Griff

Looks like the birthers are deathers now?

I may be being totally dense, but I don't get this:p

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

They discovered the nickname of Bin Laden's body guard/primary courier at Guantanamo. It was a long complicated investigation from there.

Well a number of high ranking officials said the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques played a part in finding Bin Laden, among them were Leon Panetta, CIA Chief, who stated on NBC's Brian Williams that the intell obtained via enhanced interrogations helped the agency find Bin Laden. Jose Rodriguez also stated for Time Magazine that such techniques made the operation possible. He ran the CIA counterterrorism center from 2002 - 2005. So I guess they lied.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Well a number of high ranking officials said the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques played a part in finding Bin Laden, among them were Leon Panetta, CIA Chief, who stated on NBC's Brian Williams that the intell obtained via enhanced interrogations helped the agency find Bin Laden.

You can spin his statement pretty much any way you want. He doesn't say the water boarding helped. He said it happened.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: I'd like to ask you about the sourcing on the intel that ultimately led to this successful attack. Can you confirm that it was as a result of waterboarding that we learned what we needed to learn to go after bin Laden?

LEON PANETTA: You know Brian, in the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information, and that was true here. We had a multiple source -- a multiple series of sources -- that provided information with regards to this situation. Clearly, some of it came from detainees and the interrogation of detainees. But we also had information from other sources as well. So, it's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got.

WILLIAMS: Turned around the other way, are you denying that waterboarding was in part among the tactics used to extract the intelligence that led to this successful mission?

PANETTA: No, I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees. But I'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always going to be an open question.

WILLIAMS: So, finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation techniques -- which has always been kind of a handy euphemism in these post-9/11 years -- that includes waterboarding?

PANETTA: That's correct.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by glatt

You can spin his statement pretty much any way you want. He doesn't say the water boarding helped. He said it happened.

No, he was purposefully vague. He never confirmed nor denied that it was specifically waterboarding that was what got the confessions. He said Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. That can be a whole list of things. He said those techniques contributed to the capture. Nothing more, nothing less. And you can spin it anyway you want, actionable information was gathered, albeit, delayed, that lead to the eventual killing of OBL.