The last time a set of similar photos was released the effect was to stimulate more active recruitment of suicide bombers throughout the moslem world. The inference by President Obama and David Axelrod that the same thing might happen again was highly plausible. The contradictory inference would be highly implausible -- in fact blameworthy dereliction of duty --- the sort of thing that very irreponsible people with no stake in the matter would do.
There is no indication that torture kept America safe. The purpose of the torture was to elicit information that is in fact not true, -- that Saddam had an Al Qaida connection. Cheney should be tried as a war criminal.
The intent of the torture was to get information showing that G.W. Bush did not invade Iraq in error. But he did. Dr. Kay's report proved that. And no connection has ever been found between Saddam and Al Qaida prior to G.W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.
The torture was done to keep G.W. Bush safe from political embarrassment. Cheney was hoping that something would turn up so that people wouldn't think the Iraq war was created by a cabal of Texas oilmen intent on dividing up the spoils in Iraq's oilfields.
It was not done to keep America safe- as Cheney claims.
It was done to keep Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney and G.W. Bush safe from being thought of as idiots or worse. These are the "Slam Dunk" guys. They were mistaken. A lot of people were tortured trying to get some scintilla of information indicating that they were not mistaken -- that they were correct. You can read the Matt Smith article just by searching "Matt Smith CNN Cheney" on Google. It would take you 3/1000ths of a second. Too hard? Or too hardheaded?
Read the article. Senior people who were in the room make the claim.
If it's true, Cheney's conduct is heinous and dishonorable. He should be turned over to an International Tribunal for trial as a war criminal.
Not since the Inquisition have people been tortured for political ideology or religious beliefs, or just to save an idiotic politician from the embarrassment of his own idiotic errors. Cheney's actions, if confirmed, violate all the preremptory norms of human conduct. He is a monster of self-serving power abuse.
Just my opinion, if the Matt Smith article is substantiated by sworn testimony of eyewitnesses, which I think it will be, if anybody cares to call them in and put them under oath (which I expect will happen).
I don't claim to have any independent knowledge of the veracity of Matt Smith's article. I do claim to be a retired Navy JAG, trained in military law, and international law. Trial of Cheney as a war criminal does not mean he is one -- it just means we want to find out if he is one. I want to find out. So do some other Americans -- maybe not the conservative GOP dittoheads -- but some Americans, patriots even.