Chris Wallace interviewing Tom Donilon (White House National Security Advisor)

[tweakingit]

If we are at war with Al Qaeda why is Its Flag flying over the capital of Libya.

[darthrhom]

Because we signed an agreement stating how we would treat POWs. OBL was an enemy combatant fair game for one to the dome.

[mollesjohn]

The mission was a kill mission. Now we hear Bin Laden was unarmed. I guess he thought we'd capture him, and with Obama in office, he wouldn't be interrogated with enhanced interrogation techniques. Naturally Bin Laden had information that could save innocent lives, but Obama fooled him -- he declared a kill mission. In essence, Obama put out a wanted poster on Osama Bin Laden:

WANTED, DEAD or DEAD.

No political flak for Obama about getting info from Bin Laden if Bin Laden isn't even alive.

[mollesjohn]

Obviously THIS enemy, not only tortures, but beheads people. They have no qualms about torturing people to death. None.

Now we make then gasp for air, don't injure them physically, and we don't do it out of hatred or revenge, but to save the lives of innocent people. And it has. And it led to the capture of the guy who murdered 3000 completely innocent men, women, and children during peacetime. Wait a minute, correction, it led to Obama ordering our soldiers to kill Bin Laden dead, no trial.

[SuperShockjock]

@mollesjohn There have been 10's of thousands of completely innocent men, women, and children killed by US and NATO forces the last 10 years - they call it collateral damage. Invading 2 countries to get a few nutjobs is retarded foreign policy, Obama proves how it should be handled by special ops, killing the head retards.

I would suggest you get waterboarded and see how gasping for air works for you.....

[SuperShockjock]

Killing the guy who admitted he planned the 911 attacks and torturing enemy soldiers is completely different. We would have killed Hitler in an instant to help end the war but we never tortured captured Nazi soldiers.

[mollesjohn]

@SuperShockjock I think perhaps you are a little naive. And it also sounds like you don't know that a combat soldier in the field out of uniform is considered a spy. Know what they did to spies?

Did you know part of the training of some of our forces is to go through waterboarding? Did you know we waterboarded fewer enemy combatants than journalists?

If your mother was held for ransom and you saw her being tortured on webcam, and you caught one of her captures, what would you do?

[McGriff99]

The key ETHICAL difference between waterboarding and shooting someone in the head is that the person dies instantaneously when shot; during waterboarding, they are conscious and are made to suffer through, effectively, repeated drownings. One amounts to a very quick death, the other amounts to repeated torture.

[jgk724]

osama bin laden was responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 americans, so if u think that he shouldnt have been shot in the head, you need to be shot in your head, seriously

[mollesjohn]

@jgk724 I heartily agree. So you also agree that his capture, being a result of enhanced interrogation techniques, specifically waterboarding, is MORE humane than shooting an unarmed man in the head.

[jgk724]

you will never see anyone try to arrest obama for shooting bin laden, but bush just recently canceled a trip to europe cause he was scared he would be arrested for war crimes. what a coincidence, the ones who started the torture, will be arrested as soon as they step foot outside the u.s.a. But yet torturing inmates is a good thing, right?

[jgk724]

lets keep on waterboarding so that every president will be stuck in the continental u.s.a. for the rest of their lives, like bush and cheney, because they fear they will be arrested for war crimes which include TORTURE. fuckin idiots

[Chilililabombwe]

great question but no response. Hmmm...

[ConservativeTimes]

The only thing consistent with this policy is its illogic. Of course we should be waterboarding these inhuman psychopaths...

[lima33ful]

Watching someone on the left speak out of both sides of their mouth is hilarious. Do they really think that we're like goldfish with a 5 second memory? And why can't I ever get one to tell me exactly why they are so worried about ONE news organization? All you get are,"Fox an is evil right wing propagands source"? Even if it was, so what? They've got all the others as left wing propaganda sources.

[mdshort]

The lunatic right wing needs to get its head around 2 things:

1. Waterboarding and 'enhanced interrogation' is torture. It is not only unethical but is also against established multilateral international agreements. How would you feel if an American was tortured?

2. No meaningful intelligence comes from torture. . The US stopped torture in or about 2004. If serious intelligence came of the torture then why did it take 6 or 7 years to action it?

Time to stop being a Bush apologist.

[lima33ful]

@mdshort Gee, got anything besides talking points? Try revving up some braincells, you'll get a whole new outlook on life. It's time to get control of your BDS.

[cvict6]

@mdshort

"No meaningful intelligence comes from torture. . The US stopped torture in or about 2004. If serious intelligence came of the torture then why did it take 6 or 7 years to action it?"

You obviously haven't done your homework. Leon Panetta said information obtained from waterboarding did play a role finding Osama. Just cause it took 6-7 years doesn't prove anything. What do you think some good samaritan al-qaeda operative just called the CIA hotline last week? Typical drone.

[mdshort]

@cvict6 The last part of your response 'typical drone' is classic ad hominen behaviour. Play the man and not the ball. For a start, who are you to say that I am a drone and you are somehow a classic example of a free thinker just because I have a different view to you?

For every Leon Panetta defending there is another criticizing the torture. A basic course in evidence will provide you an appreciation of how to weight statements made in favour as and against self interest.

[mollesjohn]

@mdshort I don't think you know what ad hominem means...

Second, YOU need to stick to the issues rather than do a he-said-she-said argument.

We waterboarded THREE people. Count them: THREE.

We got the couriers nickname with enhanced interrogation techniques from one guy that had been waterboarded.

We got the courier's full name with enhanced interrogation techniques from another guy that had been waterboarded.

Now, you actually believe those names weren't given up from waterboarding?

[mdshort]

@mollesjohn Oh, I am sorry. 3? I suppose that makes it perfectly Ok then. 

[SuperShockjock]

@mollesjohn We executed Japanese soldiers who waterboarded our guys in WW2, they called it chinese water torture.....suggest you watch Christopher Hitchens (Iraq war supporter) getting waterboarded on youtube.

[mollesjohn]

@SuperShockjock

I don't think Chinese Water Torture was remotely similar to waterboarding. As I recall, it had to do with water dripping drop by drop. That's my understanding of it from when they taught us about it in the 50s.

[mdshort]

@mollesjohn Laughable. They dripped water on people? Really? Perhaps they gave them ice cream too. Chinese water torture (ie dripping water on people) is a ridiculous myth.

The Japanese used ghastly methods using water including waterboarding. My great uncle was tortured by the Japanese before & during the death marches (wiki Sandakan death marches). He gave evidence in the war crimes trials in Tokyo where Japanese soldiers were hung for, inter alia, waterboarding.

[mdshort]

@mollesjohn Well, I bet one of us had to look up ad hominem in the dictionary before commenting. Fossor postulo aspicio res sursum.

[cvict6]

@mdshort

You're a drone because you make poorly-thought out claims based on nothing but your own warped ideology. Leon Panetta wasn't condoning or criticizing the use of waterboarding (get informed drone). He simply stated that it played a role in finding Osama. Considering he is the director of the CIA (appointed by lib Obama), you won't find a more factual source than that. Therefore your claim that waterboarding doesn't produce meaningful intelligence (durr it took too long durr) is invalid

[cvict6]

@cvict6

You're a drone because you make poorly-thought out claims based on nothing but your own warped ideology. Leon Panetta wasn't condoning or criticizing the use of waterboarding (get informed drone). He simply stated that it played a role in finding Osama. Considering he is the director of the CIA (appointed by lib Obama), you won't find a more factual source than that. Therefore your claim that waterboarding doesn't produce meaningful intelligence (durr it took too long durr) is invalid

[mdshort]

@cvict6 Did you copy/paste this out of a Fox News quote book?

[mdshort]

@cvict6 I am no fan of John McCain. Today he has a piece in the Washington Post "Torture didn't get Osama bin Laden".

... McCain says, citing information he says he got directly from CIA director Leon Panetta. The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from KSM... . Intelligence officials first learned the nickname of bin Laden's courier ... from a detainee ... who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed's real name ...

[cvict6]

@mdshort

"learned the nickname of bin Laden's courier ... from a detainee ... who WE believe was not tortured"

Who is "we?" And why use the word "believe" instead of "know." Go look up Panetta's quote. Its available directly from him, not through John McCain's hearsay/gossip. Add to the fact that McCain has been a VERY vocal critic of waterboarding, and you're "evidence" is even more useless. Why don't you just accept the facts?

Funny you source the washington post and accuse me of quoting Fox.

[mdshort]

@cvict6

Spelling and grammar not your strong point?

[loetzfan]

Everything on Fox news is a lie. None of this interview actually happened.

[CheckDare]

@loetzfan

Absolutely. And you never actually wrote that stupid comment, right?

[InTheArmsOfGod]

It's hilarious watching this guy avoid the question over and over and trying to force Matthews and the overall public on his invalid and illogical reasonings for doing what they did. I feel bad for the left-wing ideologues who can't come to the light and will always look at it one way.

[iamrodtaylor]

these lefties are as dishonest and phony as anything ever to come along. they've endangered our nation. they're destroying our economy. at any time that they're asked a difficult question they blab the same old crap they're used to getting away with via the usual subversive media outlets. the combination of arrogant superiority, down to the thurston b howell teeth-clinch and the flourish of .50cent words is insufferable. we need to get them all out of government. how?

[classic7890]

If the left were consistent they would DEMAND Obama be hauled into the Hague for violating sovereign territory AND assassinations ( two).

.

.

. And, AND the White House declared the war on terror OVER in 2009.

.

.

[mollesjohn]

I've long maintained that when we prosecute our own military using politically correct standards, it will lead us to:

--> Kill instead of capture <---

Everyone in on a raid understands how they risk prosecution if they attempt a live capture when they have another option.

In short, political correctness will lead to fewer captures and more killing.

Naturally, this politically correct policy prevents interrogations, with no possibility of getting ANY information out of our enemies.