It’s Thursday Threatcon, your intelligence briefing on right wing activity. Below are the best reports, investigations, exposées, and debunkery of the wingnutosphere this week. Due to the release of the Senate torture report, our Threatcon Color Code is RECTAL FEEDING BROWN

17 thoughts on “Thursday THREATCON – #TortureReport Edition”
      1. I would say that it’s professional courtesy. This administration doesn’t prosecute the last for war crimes and the next one won’t prosecute this one for murdering american citizens without due process with drones. I wonder what the next administration will get away with?

        1. Logically, “professional courtesy” would involve making the torture report disappear. Are you really weeping for al-Awlaki, a man who actively organized to kill Americans?

          1. His innocent 16 year old son went to a war zone to be with his dad, who was an enemy of the United States actively aiding and abetting the murder of Americans. He was killed in company with armed militants who were presumably targeted by the aircraft flown out of Saudi Arabia. His death is a tragedy that could have been easily prevented by his not hanging out with America’s enemies in what was already a lawless, fighting-filled tribal area.

          2. You think killing Al-Awlaki without due process, without him having ever been indicted for any crime was ok? Just because the government said he was not on “our side” he deserved to die?

          3. No, it’s not. Routine torture of those who have been held without due process is wrong. How can we sit on our high horse and condemn other countries for doing what we’re doing?

          4. We can’t. And it’s not really about the double standard. It’s about crimes being committed and criminals being allowed to roam free. Every single one of them, from Bush down to a soldier standing guard outside a door while it took place, should stand trial for war crimes.

          5. Here’s the thing: Al Qaeda said they were not on our side. Awlaki said he was not on our side. (That’s the thing about making videos that exhort jihad, is that you get seen calling for the deaths of Americans.) He was an enemy of the United States actively encouraging, aiding, and abetting people who actively worked to harm Americans. He got snuffed out by a missile and I just don’t feel bad about that.

            FTR, I’ve been in favor of droning AQ since 1996. That was the year I lost a friend at Khobar Towers and also read Stars & Stripes’s reporting on the “hot new job” in the Army: drone operator.

        2. Interestingly, President Obama keeps trying to move the drone program out of the CIA, but the war party in Congress keeps shutting that door. It’s exactly like Camp X-Ray, which he keeps trying to close and Congress keeps open.

          As far as due process goes: there was no due process at Shiloh, either, but neoconfederates often seem to think every southerner killed by union fire was an unjustifiable homicide. I also note that my enlistment oath swore me to defend the United States “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

          Interestingly, the Law of Land Warfare allows for the potential of civilian casualties. It does not allow for torture, however, and that is because captives are a very different proposition from armed, hostile enemies.

          1. Earlier you said that professional courtesy would have involved burying the torture reports. The Dems dont like the republicans. Just because they don’t want to prosecute them doesn’t mean they don’t want them to look like the evil sons of bitches they are. They’re more than happy to rain a bit of bad publicity down on them.

            Did your oath swear you to defend the constitution?

            I guess one of the differences between you and I is that you look to what’s legal. I look to what’s right.

          2. Like knowing what the Law of Land Warfare says, which I do. You’re the one who seems to think there’s an unwritten law somewhere against drone strikes.

          3. You are putting words in my mouth. I said, there is a law against the government executing american citizens without due process. It’s part of the constitution you took an oath to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Other than that, I only said that when It comes to killing civilians with drone strikes, I expect my government to do the right thing rather than whatever they can get away with legally. You seem not to care about a few thousand dead women and children. I’m not sure how someone gets to that point, but at least you have no problem admitting it. Possibly you also believe any male between 15 and 65 is an enemy combatant. I think that that would be a naïve view, but hey, that’s what the CIA told you to believe so I totally understand.

  1. I think we are leaving out something that has been forgotten. The US was a part of training dictators and their police with torture tactics way back in the 70’s. Does anyone remember The School of The Americas?

    http://www.soaw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98

    All caught up as we are in this latest scandal, we too soon forget that SOA was in the torture business much longer than just recently. I suggest someone do an article about it before the competition suddenly realizes that torture training by the US has been an ongoing affair for much longer than we can remember.

  2. I need to archive this article to see the spin when Obamas droning is nitpicked in 10 years. “We killed women and children to be safe”. Nice spin, as if not one leftist hack didn’t approve this crap.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *