Courtesy of Mish.
In 2009, CIA Director John Brennan criticized CIA techniques for having “led us to stray from our ideals as a nation.” Brennan also stated “Tactics such as waterboarding were not in keeping with our values as Americans.”
Today, the New York Times reports C.I.A. Director Defends Use of Interrogation Tactics, Avoiding Issue of Torture.
John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, defended the agency’s use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation tactics on Thursday, sidestepping questions about whether agency operatives tortured anyone.
Mr. Brennan, responding to an excoriating Senate report detailing years of brutal interrogation tactics in secret C.I.A. prisons, criticized only those officers who he said went “outside the bounds” of the guidelines established by the Justice Department. Those guidelines allowed for waterboarding, a week of sleep deprivation, shackling prisoners in painful positions, dousing them with water, and locking them in coffin-like boxes.
“I will leave to others how they might want to label those activities,” Mr. Brennan said.
“My fervent hope is that we can put aside this debate and move forward,” Mr. Brennan said.
Definition of “Moving Forward”
By “moving forward” Brennan means sweeping the mess under the rug and letting every one of the CIA torturers get away with what they did, without so much as a slap on the wrist.
Definition of “Torture”
Since it was torture in 2009 but not torture now, it would be perfectly “fitting” if Brennan were captured, waterboarded, deprived of sleep, and shackled like a dog, in painful positions, for months on end.
Perhaps then, Brennan would change his mind back to the blatant lie he stated in 2009.
Although that would be perfectly “fitting”, it’s not what I advocate. Two torture wrongs don’t make a right, regardless of Brennan’s asinine defense of the practice.
My “Fervent Hope”…
