YA liberal nightmare? Leon Panetta confirms that controversial "enhanced interrogation techniques" worked?

Question

Leon Panetta, the CIA director, has confirmed that controversial "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding yielded some of the intelligence information that ultimately led to Osama bin Laden.

Mr Panetta's admission lays Mr Obama open to politically explosive claims that bin Laden would not have been killed had it not been for the use of those techniques by the Bush administration.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8491509/Osama-bin-Laden-killed-CIA-admits-waterboarding-yielded-vital-information.html

Answer 1

The ends do not justify the means.

Waterboarding has been Internationally recognized as torture, and outlawed as such, for over 50 years.

Answer 2

Liberals don't like debating difficult issues like this. They like things to be simple. Pro abortion: babies are not really alive so it's ok to kill them. Anti torture: it doesn't work. But now we know as most people always have, that it does work. And we can get back to the true ethical dilemma of it. If torturing a terrorist could yield information that saves lives, is it morally right to do so? I think this is a discussion worth having. You can't just avoid the issue by claiming it doesn't work when we know it does. You need to actually debate the moral and ethical implications of doing it or not doing it.



@ Bug - I respect your position. You are taking a stand on principle without obfuscating the issue to try to make it easy.



In my opinion, in a country of laws torture can never be legal. That doesn't mean it never gets done. That means that when it does happen it should be concealed. If it can't be concealed, it must be punished. The government can't be seen as approving of torture. So when it has to be done, someone has to take the fall for that. The public needs to believe that their government doesn't use torture.

Answer 3

First: It's flat out delusional to object to water boarding, yet support assassination (in person or by drone). That's a fact the o-bots need to be confronted with at every turn.



Second: It's also delusional and or dishonest for Obama and his apparently brain-dead followers to claim "We don't torture or water board" when *The Obama Administration Continues Bush's Rendition Policy To This Very Day* - Source: Huffington Post and The New York Times.



Rendition is shipping suspects off to be dealt with by foreign intelligence agencies. Circumstances under which Water Boarding is the LEAST of their worries.



So yes it's a nightmare for the left. Facing reality is always a painful experience for them.

Answer 4

"And why is Obama taking credit for getting OBL when he wanted to prosecute the people in the Bush administration responsible for getting the intel that was used to get him?" Because Obama was the one who had the balls to ACT on the intel. Panetta did not say that the intelligence came from waterboarding. KSM gave us the name of the courier while in detention in Eastern Europe months after he was waterboarded.

Answer 5

I see answers to this question using the terms, ethics and morality:



Literally, a Muslim terrorist knife to the throat, DOES WONDERS for someones uncertainties!

Answer 6

Now I guess Panetta is going under the bus

Answer 7

It surprises me that Panetta hasn't issued a retraction yet. I'd like to hear that one.

Answer 8

It's easy, now they'll turn on Penetta too because the biggest sin a Progressive can commit is tell the truth, they hate that!



It's like ratting on the Mob, they will GET YOU! if you tell the truth about them

Answer 9

So John McCain is lying about it then?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110512/ap_on_re_us/us_bin_laden_torture

Answer 10

They will find somewhere to place Panetta 'cause truth has no place on a liberals menu.

Answer 11

The next kill order goes out on Panetta.

Answer 12

I agree with "Think Outside the Box" ethically and morally I don't think one could support torture.

Answer 13

Yes, it is confirmation for liberals what level-headed thinking people already knew.

Answer 14

i'm for pulling out fingernails of Islamic terrorists like KSM...or full body wax

Answer 15

That website is like reading a Tabloid.

Answer 16

Though some may argue over the effectiveness of torture, I think it's more a question of ethics.