Think Progress

Fox News Defends Bush Administration’s Use Of Torture

Yesterday, the Obama administration released four Bush-era memos that provide legal justifications for the use of torture on al-Qaeda suspects. “We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history,” President Obama said in a statement on the memos. “The United States is a nation of laws…that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within [the memos] never take place again.”

As if on cue, Fox News hosts and personalities attacked Obama for releasing the memos while at the same time, defended the use of torture. “It’s not a dark chapter in our history. It’s a successful one,” Charles Krauthammer proclaimed. Conceding that waterboarding is torture, Krauthammer said that it should be used anyway in the so-called “ticking time-bomb” scenario and against “high-level al-Qaeda.” Many of his Fox colleagues have since piled on:

BILL KRISTOL: This is a pander to the left. I think it’s really pathetic for an American president to do that, and to disavow, in effect, the good faith efforts of a previous administration to protect us in ways that I think were entirely appropriate.

MEGYN KELLY: Will the release of these documents hurt our troops on the ground now, or could they put our national security in jeopardy?

GRETCHEN CARLSON: You don’t go into these techniques just willy-nilly. … There was a reason behind all of this. There was a philosophy in the way that they handled these things.

The Fox and Friends had fun with the release this morning as well. Steve Doocy claimed that torture “worked” and “saved lives.” Watch a compilation:

The so-called “ticking time-bomb” scenario Krauthammer cites is a canard. In fact, one former FBI agent who has interrogated terrorists said it has never happened. It’s a “red herring,” he said. “In the real world it doesn’t happen.” And torture doesn’t “protect” anyone, as Kristol claimed. In fact, it has been directly linked to increased casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the interrogator who got Abu Musab al-Zarqawi noted:

It’s no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

Moreover, torture doesn’t “work.” The Washington Post reported that “not a single significant plot was foiled as a result” of the torture of Abu Zubaydah and that any useful information he had “was obtained before waterboarding was introduced.” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, another detainee known to have been waterboarded, “produced no actionable intelligence,” according to a former CIA official.



115 Responses to “Fox News Defends Bush Administration’s Use Of Torture”

  1. raynman says:

    But but but… Torture works!! I saw it on “24″!!!


  2. ralph the wonder locust says:

    You don’t go into these techniques just willy-nilly. … There was a reason behind all of this. There was a philosophy in the way that they handled these things.

    True.

    The philosophy was totally fu(ked up, but there WAS a philosophy in the way they tortured people. They really thought that torturing people was the way to go.


  3. MapleStreet says:

    “it’s really pathetic for an American president to do that, and to disavow, in effect, the good faith efforts of a previous administration”

    So present day Germany shouldn’t criticize Hitler. And Russia shouldn’t criticize Stalin.


  4. Perry logan says:

    One has only to imagine the howls of execration if a Democrat had been caught doing a tenth of what Bush II did.


  5. Hoodathunktick says:

    Can we please shut this fascist propaganda machine down? There is no ‘news’. It is nothing but seditious lies.


  6. stateofthedivision says:

    Is that Dana Perino? She’s now working for Burson-Marsteller, headed by Mark Penn and owned by global power player WPP. Who is Dana’s client on this piece? Who is she working for, whose position is she pushing for money?

    http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2009/04/state-of-risk-management-consulting.html


  7. Jackie says:

    One of the many Legacy’s Bush has and has put in US History books. THE US DOES TORTURE AND WE TORTURE CHILDREN TOO. Now for years the Foreign Press spoke of the US torture done by the US but few knew we also tortured innoocent woman and children. Bush showed the World what US values and morals we had during his 8 year crime spree. I wonder how Americans would feel if any Country tortured an American child?


  8. MarkD says:

    When Nazis tortured people, it was a war crime.

    When the Japanese waterboarded prisoners, it was a war crime.

    When the Vietnamese beat their captives to death, it was a war crime.

    When Pol Pot used waterboarding and electrocution, it was a war crime.

    But when Bush authorizes all of these, it’s just dandy because it was “to protect us” and there was “a reason behind all of [it].”

    I bet all of the people we prosecuted for the vary same actions said the same thing. But they were, you know, not us, and when we do it, it’s justified.

    Wow … just … damn. I really don’t even know how to respond to such evil, immoral, disgusting rationalizations.


  9. hellinabucket says:

    Fox is spineless. Bush himself said we do not torture and Fox loudly stood by him. Now the evidence points to torture they forget they said it wasn’t and claim it was needed.

    We are a nation of laws you pinheads. (pointed at Fox of course).


  10. Ape-Man says:

    FOX news personel are really, really slow learners. Thank god for that because they are sinister as hell.


  11. Hope says:

    What else is new with Fake News. They will everytime be the opposite of Pres. Obama. It’s getting old.


  12. Bilbo Hussein Baggins says:

    MEGYN KELLY: Will the release of these documents hurt our troops on the ground now, or could they put our national security in jeopardy?

    And they don’t think that having the world know that we torture our prisoners isn’t a threat to our troops on the ground? That is a much bigger threat than releasing memos about how we tortured and saying that this is wrong and will never happen again.


  13. stateofthedivision says:

    Correlation or cause and effect? This bunch of political talking heads wouldn’t know the difference. Each one is paid to spin. Sad.



  14. JoeBridgeman says:

    is there anything to do to these people on fox … short of torturing them?


  15. SKdeAnt says:

    Unfortunately, they are still getting paid to do this.


  16. Hoodathunktick says:

    The Constitution guarantees rights of free speech and free press. It does not guarantee the right to lie. There are many laws and precedents on the books over the past two hundred plus years that say so.

    Fox may have won a lawsuit that says they don’t have to report news but they do not have the right to lie. Someone needs to challenge this.


  17. Bob says:

    How, specifically, was it successful? If torture is such a good tool, where is the long list of examples of ‘plots foiled’? How about just one example?

    I’m sure they’d see things differently (totally opposite) if a democratic president had been the previous administration they’re talking about.

    The other side of the coin is also conveniently forgotten by these sympathizers of terrorism: they’ve never been tortured or had family tortured. They’ll advocate torture up until it’s them being tortured.


  18. tombaker says:

    newsflash to Fox:

    You don’t make the Laws.

    You don’t interpret the Laws.

    You don’t judge those brought before the Law.

    You don’t represent anyone under the Law.

    You’d best be ready, when the Law comes after you.


  19. Art says:

    KRISTOL: “to protect us in ways that I think were entirely appropriate”…
    Even if those ways are illegal.


  20. upside99 says:

    Can Faux NoNooz get any more right-winged and BushCo-apologetic?

    Oh, wait, they now have the power(?) of Dana (Puppy Chow) Purina on their side.

    Donch’ya feel so much better now?


  21. Hoodathunktick says:

    Megyn, our national security is in jeopardy every time you open your mouth with a lie. Face it, sweetheart, you are propagating the very things you screech about.

    Have fun cashing your check.


  22. StratRat says:

    I don’t think Fox News has America’s best interests at heart. Fox seems to support all the fascist, communist, and tyranical despots history has shown to be war criminals (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Lenin, Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Bradbury, Bybee, etc…),

    Hmm, why doesn’t Fox News like America?


  23. Greytdog says:

    Well of course torture works. Didn’t McCain spill his guts when he was tortured? So there’s a real live precedent for Fox News to parade around.


  24. Xisithrus says:

    There is nothing ‘new’ about torture just read about some of the methods used during the inquisition.

    Just watch 24, you know, that show that gives out those techniques willy nilly.


  25. Hoodathunktick says:

    Fox News defends the idea that the US use of torture is a necessary thing. Did they also defend Saddam Hussein when he used it? Pol Pot? Pinochet?

    Where is the difference?


  26. Dru Phlea says:

    FLASHBACK: Ex-State Dept. official: Hundreds of detainees died in U.S. custody, at least 25 murdered.

    NADLER: Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?

    WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108.

    Prosecute


  27. dbadass says:

  28. KateWords says:

    JoeBridgeman Says: is there anything to do to these people on fox … short of torturing them?

    The only thing that will stop Fox is if people stop watching them.

    I don’t see that happening. They’ve addicted millions to their daily feedings of paranoia and conspiracy excitement.


  29. herecomestheangst says:

    The Republicans love this fascination with the Jack Bauer “ticking time bomb” crap as a defense for torture.

    But the ultimate failing of the Bauer defense is that nukes, weaponized biological agents have been used against the populous time after time, even with the terrorists hemorrhaging the needed info on the show.

    But if Charles Krauthammer wants to marry himself to this belief, I’m all for his man-crush. It’s very gay of him to express his thoughts this way.


  30. patachon says:

    …could they put our national security in jeopardy?

    The scare-mongering! It burns.


  31. Xisithrus says:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_torture_methods_and_devices

    Do these BOX folks think that people, all around the world, cant find torture techniques very easily?

    This has to be the lamest defense, that these techniques are secret, I have seen.


  32. Hoodathunktick says:

    Proud, we already know you are proud of the US being the equivalent of a third world dictatorship who believes in torture, minimal civil rights and maximal surveillance. We got that part.


  33. had enough says:

    Time for Fatz to appear on Fox again and gives those idiots an education.

    What a bunch of crap and empty conversation. And to dare bring to the table Bush kept US safe after 9/11 when he did absolutely nothing except run away on vacation when the over whelming facts were presented.

    Torturing did two things:

    1. Put US soldiers at risk of being tortured

    2. Gave the ones giving the orders to torture a thrill.


  34. pastcaring says:

    The attacks and revisionist history won’t end unless there are transparent public prosecutions.


  35. Hoodathunktick says:

    Lets try this…the most powerful country in the world is afraid that a ragtag bunch of terrorists is going to bring it down?

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

    Did I miss something in the question?


  36. tombaker says:

    Proud doesn’t realize Fox News gets given away to cable companies for free,

    therefore he doesn’t understand why his “ratings” numbers are

    utterly meaningless.

    Poor, ignorant man.


  37. rmwarnick says:

    Actually, military interrogators in Iraq dealt with the “ticking time bomb” scenario in the form of IEDs. I have not seen one of them quoted as saying torture worked– quite the opposite, in fact.


  38. ralph the wonder locust says:

    Hi proud. I noticed you posted a list of cable news show ratings.

    Can you explain what point you were trying to make and/or support with that information?


  39. Rufus J Squirrel says:

    You need to reword how you refer to the interrogator in charge of getting Zarqawi. He didn’t interrogate him – no one did. We killed him before that could have happened.


  40. fletc3her says:

    At first when I read “Proud” I thought they were lamenting the number of people who get their information from the propaganda outlet Fox. Unfortunately, they seem to rather be reveling in the fact that so many Americans are woefully misinformed because they choose to get their news from such a poor source.

    When the history of this time is written the people at Fox will be remembered as the cheerleaders who actually defended the indefensible. The rest of us will be remembered as the numbed citizenry who sat on our hands while crimes against humanity were committed in our names. And Obama will be remembered as the successor who put the last nail in the coffin of America’s respectability rather than restoring its honor.


  41. Xisithrus says:

    Proud also doesnt understand how ‘cume’ works when figuring ratings.

    And, really, did BOX Snooze create wins in 2006 and 2008?

    I didnt think so.


  42. barfly says:

    Proud Says:

    Chew on these numbers. America chooses FOX for the truth, pitiful the few nutjobs that watch the Bambi Propoganda Channels.

    Why didn’t you include the broadcast networks?


  43. dbadass says:

    The group’s report also discusses the “ticking time bomb” scenario, in which a terrorist who knows the location of a bomb is tortured in a race to save lives. According to interrogators in the group, a terrorist would know that he only has to keep his secret until the bomb detonates—a time period known to him but not to the interrogators. Moreover, the torture would offer the terrorist a prime opportunity to deceive interrogators by falsely naming bomb locations of difficult access.


    Once again the experts on the subject disagree….


  44. Bobwurst says:

    proud sides with torturers. is anyone surprized


  45. Art says:

    Welcome Proud.
    Just want to point out that if 24% of the country thought that there was absolutely nothing wrong with armed robbery…
    IT WOULD STILL BE ILLEGAL.

    If all the people in the world watched FOX…
    It would still be a biased, racist, puppet voice of reactionary conservatism.


  46. herecomestheangst says:

    Hoodathunktick Says:

    Lets try this…the most powerful country in the world is afraid that a ragtag bunch of terrorists is going to bring it down?

    Soon the GOP will get wind of a “ragtag fleet of ships searching for a place called Earth”, then we’ll be forever screwed.


  47. Pennsylvanianne says:

    Torture does not work. Numerous op-ed pieces in American newspapers, written by actual U.S. military interrogators, make this very telling conclusion. So that completely wipes out the “end justifies the means” philosophy of the Bush administration. Secondly, the torture issue was neither “in good faith,” as Mr. Kristol so laughably puts it, nor “entirely appropriate.” The United States signed the Geneva accords that outlaw waterboarding and other procedures, making them part of our laws. Basically, Kristol is saying we should break the laws regarding torture anytime the U.S. wants. Are we then a nation of men, and not laws? If so, that completely goes against what the Founding Fathers intended. Torture under the Bush administration appears to have been an illegal, dishonorable and sadistic response to 9/11 perpetrated by an administration headed by sick, aberrant people. But what can you expect from people who stole one and possibly two elections?


  48. Bozo The Neocootiebug says:

    “it’s really pathetic for an American president to do that, and to disavow, in effect, the good faith efforts of a previous administration”

    this wasn’t done “in good faith”. this was done to show the utter disdain whackjob rightwing christians have for anyone who doesn’t praise jeebus.


  49. misscoleopteramolly says:

    MEGYN KELLY: Will the release of these documents hurt our troops on the ground now, or could they put our national security in jeopardy?
    ___________________________________________________________

    You mean — this information comes as a complete surprise to our enemies? Or to anyone?


  50. Dru Phlea says:

    barfly Says:

    Proud Says:

    Chew on these numbers. America chooses FOX for the truth, pitiful the few nutjobs that watch the Bambi Propoganda Channels.

    Why didn’t you include the broadcast networks?

    or Spongebob


  51. Hoodathunktick says:

    “it’s really pathetic for an American president to do that, and to disavow, in effect, the good faith efforts of a previous administration”

    I would challenge any rational human being to come up with a single thing the previous administration did that could be classified as good faith.


  52. Bobwurst says:

    Proud Says:

    Chew on these numbers. America chooses FOX for the truth,

    the flaw in proud’s argument is that it doesn’t explain the republican ass-whipping last november, or President Obama’s huge poll numbers, or the fact that bush’s numbers were in the low twenties.

    What does explain those tremendous fox numbers is that the same people who hate obama and who can’t read, get their news from fox.


  53. Xisithrus says:

    Chew on these numbers. America chooses FOX for the truth, pitiful the few nutjobs that watch the Bambi Propoganda Channels. FOXNEWS 3,390,000

    Oh noes! 3 million out of a nation with 300 million people!!

    So, Proud, if BOX Snooze tells the truth why did they go to court to be able to distort what they broadcast?

    In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.
    http://digg.com/d1XcKo


  54. Zimzone says:

    Fox tortures me every time I mistakenly tune in.


  55. herecomestheangst says:

    misscoleopteramolly Says:

    MEGYN KELLY: Will the release of these documents hurt our troops on the ground now, or could they put our national security in jeopardy?
    ___________________________________________________________

    You mean — this information comes as a complete surprise to our enemies? Or to anyone?

    If I have my GOP-to-stupid translation right, I think the news actress was inferring that because this news is out, that Faux News is now putting the military front and center as pawns in their little one man game of five-bullet Russian roulette with the Obama administration.


  56. pops7154 says:

    Proud says look at the numbers, Well most are the lazy type who collect welfare, food stamps, cant keep a job take drugs and what else, suck the sysyem dry so when your in that group that is the kind of people fake news prays on weak minds Fox ahould call it hillbilly news,low IQ news.


  57. Bozo The Neocootiebug says:

    everybody, please take it easy on PROUD
    afterall, his teabagging parties were a flop, piss poorly attended eventhough they were sponsored and promoted by “the best cable news network”. you’d think they’d at least be competent enought to apply for the appropriate permits to be allowed to toss their crummy teabags in lafayette park,


  58. mary lacewing says:

    BILL KRISTOL: I think it’s really pathetic for an American president to do that, and to disavow, in effect, the good faith efforts of a previous administration

    Sorry Billy, the majority of the American people don’t agree with you or they’d have voted for McCain. Obama was very much against torture from the beginning.

    This clip is from Counterpunch, February 2008:

    To his (Obama’s) credit, he has promised he will restore habeas corpus and declares that it is “never OK” to torture. He has called for closing Guantanamo (all the leading candidates have, in fact, with the exception of the recently departed Mitt Romney, who would have famously “doubled” it). For anyone opposed to the Bush administration’s stampede on human rights, such promises are reassuring. But they are also a sad indication how dismally low our political standards have become. Opposition to torture is not a brave stance. You’re supposed to be against it.


  59. Bob says:

    When US citizens, military or not, are taken hostage, isn’t the first concern for their safety and whether or not they are treated humanely? So that is no longer a valid concern?

    Why all the concern for freeing the captain held by pirates? His health was never at risk?


  60. Xisithrus says:

    Know whats funny Proud?

    Winfrey’s reach extends far beyond the shores of the U.S.; her show airs in 140 countries around the world.[107] In the U.S. alone her show is viewed by an estimated 30 million people a week[108][109] though her U.S. audience has fallen by half over the past 10 years. In 1998, her show had an estimated 14 million daily viewers,[1

    Heh


  61. misscoleopteramolly says:

    Proud Says
    April 17th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    Chew on these numbers. America chooses FOX for the truth, pitiful the few nutjobs that watch the Bambi Propoganda Channels.
    __________________________________________________________

    There you go again with the ratings numbers — as if they make some sort of relevant point. You keep doing this, no matter how tiresome it’s become.

    In the first place, why do you think that FNC, CNN, and MSNBC are the only places people get their news?

    And in the second place, why do you think that a news source is more accurate or reliable just because they have the most people watching?

    Lots of people listened to Hitler bloviate, too. It didn’t make him right.


  62. Xisithrus says:

    Hey Proud, 297 million Americans DONT watch FOX!


  63. chibeardan says:

    I think Fox News should explain why they hate George Washington. After all Washington said, “Treat them with humanity, and Let them have no reason to Complain of our Copying the brutal example of the British army in their Treatment of our unfortunate brethren. … Provide everything necessary for them on the road.”

    Had we only listened to Washington, we would have been much better off. If Fox News is so upset with this philosphy why did they just party like it was colonial times?


  64. ElBruce says:

    Proud Says:

    Chew on these numbers. America chooses FOX for the truth…

    What does this have to do with the fact that the people on FAUX are lying? We don’t get to vote on what 2 + 2 is.

    And how exactly does O’Reilly have more viewers than the channel he’s on? Oops. Better go edit those again.

    You know, I’m starting to get a much clearer picture of what’s “real America” and what’s “fake America” the more these traitors keep opening their pie holes.


  65. Hoodathunktick says:

    I’m a little confused. I saw a map that showed 50+ sites for tea parties across the US. I heard a lot of hooraw that proclaimed the grass roots nature of this movement.

    It is now April 17th. Why haven’t I heard the bragging on the success of the well funded effort of Fox and its toadies?


  66. Buckie Boy says:

    “good faith efforts of a previous administration to protect us in ways that I think were entirely appropriate.”…..no, made it much more dangerous for us.

    “these documents hurt our troops on the ground”…the rest of the world has known about our illegal torture for years…they were alread in jeopardy because of that.

    “There was a reason behind all of this.”….yeah, a sadistic mindset.

    Steve Doocy claimed that torture “worked” and “saved lives.”…prove it, GW Bush couldn’t.

    Fcuk the sicko Republicans


  67. artmann11 says:

    God, I hate republicans.


  68. Keith H. says:

    Fox News Defends Bush Administration’s Use Of Torture

    It was only a matter of time.
    It will be interesting to see whether or not they are forced into continuing the defense and if they are, to what extent.


  69. Bobwurst says:

    One percent of the population religiously watches fox news:

    1/3 of one percent of the population believes in public teabagging.

    three percent of the population believes Elvis is alive.

    ten perccent of the population believes in alien life.

    twenty three percent of the population believes bush did a good job…

    We report-You decide.


  70. barracks9 says:

    OK, the only way I’ve ever known torture to work is like this:

    You grind enough lit cigarettes into my skin, I will call you whatever you tell me to call you…


  71. upside99 says:

    Poor proud, just had enough sack to do a drive-by and throw out a partial list of viewer demographics, forgetting that most Faux sheep all watch the same Faux shows AND that most progressive and more intelligent folks get much of their information from the Internet.

    Why didn’t he include the number of folks who watch ‘24′ and pro wrestlin’? That would give a great cross-section of the Faux followers as well.

    Must suck to show where his intelligence level measures, huh?


  72. Hoodathunktick says:

    Short memories, I guess. Move forward like the President says.

    People, Fox touted the tea parties, big thing on Tuesday! Remember? So we just move on and let them forget they lost their collective butts on it?

    No wonder the President figures it is ok to let torture slide.


  73. StratRat says:

    Fox News: The last bastion of frightened, confused, gullible, uninformed, racist, and unhappy Amerikkkans. They really do hate our black president, don’t they?


  74. Whenwillthisnightmareend says:

    I was in Haiti years ago and I woke to the horrible sound of their roostrs crowing. I believe that if I can envision them as a flock of those obnoxious chickens, I can go on with my life without so much more than an acknowledgement of their obnoxious cock sounds as they beg for more tea bags and excrement to eat. They are outdoing themselves in the utter change of their message into nothing more than loud noise, no intelligence.


  75. dasm says:

    Of course they defend it– they promoted it!


  76. kasinca says:

    I find it amusing that all the chichenhawks who supported an unnecessary war in Iraq and torture are all cowardly weiners who have never served in the military but always support illegalities of the Bush Crime Family. Bloody Billy Kristol is always of that slant and I would like for someone to tell me one thing this coward has been right about in his life. The guy is always wrong and always lied in his column at the NYT. He always had to come back with corrections. Wingnut chickenhawks are worthless cowards.


  77. pete says:

    The top ten shows in Bill0’s time slot have between 13,000,000 and 23,000,000 viewers. Some of those shows air at the same time so, at least 30,000,000 people who watch T.V. during that hour are not watching FAUX “News”.


  78. nanlichi says:

    I watched less than two minutes of Fox News last night, two fat white maggots were jacking each other off, Hannity and Morris. In that short span I was told that Obama was un-American (black), Muslim, Socialist and associated with Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright.

    Is it any wonder the ignorant 25%ers are violently upset? The inbred fcks get their “reality” from Fox News and Hate Radio.


  79. Del Capslock says:

    Somehow I commented on the wrong post. Anyway, reposting…

    I don’t know. I agree that the Fox News personalities in this post are loathsome cretins, but on the lesser point of whether torture “works”, I’m not clear. In every interview I’ve seen of American POWs, they describe some point at which they were “broken”, and told their captors everything they knew. In that sense, I’d say it works. Whether that is what torture is really trying to accomplish is a different issue altogether (I think it’s really a way of sending a message to the enemy of what’s going to happen to them if they’re captured).


  80. chiroptera toasterhead says:

    barracks9 Says:

    OK, the only way I’ve ever known torture to work is like this:

    You grind enough lit cigarettes into my skin, I will call you whatever you tell me to call you…

    April 17th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
    ____________

    And considering how many conservative pundits probably got similar services rendered to them from the DC Madam’s escorts, it’s probably how they understand torture to work, too.


  81. jjm says:

    Torture is not a right/left issue. Would Republican President Eisenhower have believed we could and should use torture? I sincerely doubt it. To say it’s a ‘leftist’ issue is completely absurd. No regular Americans have ever believed in torture and the tyranny that is necessary to implement it. Only these latter day tyrants, turned from Trotskyites to neo-cons, would imagine that ‘most’ Americans would think torturing an enemy, holding him or her without habeas corpus and without legal representation or recourse would be just fine. It’s not, whether you are Democrat or Republican no American should go for this way to enthrone tyranny.


  82. ralph the wonder locust says:

    So Prod was unable to elaborate on his reasons for posting Faux News numbers?

    Big surprise.

    (By the way, I’ve searched that list before. It comes from a right-wing source, and doesn’t link back to the Neisen report it supposedly reflects. Since many faux News shows, O’Lielly included, are aired more than once per day, it’s not clear whether the numbers reported are aggregate numbers or simply the prime-time viewership.

    And of course, Prod fails to include a link that would enable us to verify those numbers. None of the trolls ever do. I wonder why?)


  83. Ape-Man says:

    It’s amazing how similar the right wing in America is becoming to the right wing in Afghanistan. The list of differences is getting shorter all the time.


  84. Helen Rainier says:

    Interesting the difference in reactions between “people” who are yellow bellied chickenhawks and military veterans.

    The chickenhawk military experts who fancy themselves experts approve of torture.

    A long-term friend, retired after 25 years of service, Viet vet, career Special Forces (3 Purple Hearts) and Delta Force operator told me “You don’t torture prisoners. You just don’t do that s*it.”

    Who knows best? Krauthammer, Kristol, a birdbrain former Miss America or someone who was there and did that for 25 years?


  85. www.fikrinne.blogspot.com says:

    Fox is spineless. Bush himself said we do not torture and Fox loudly stood by him. Now the evidence points to torture they forget they said it wasn’t and claim it was needed.


  86. Ape-Man says:

    BTW – President Palin’ is on TV again. …shudder…


  87. RUCeriousMaggot! says:

    So we had a failed policy, based on incorrect assumptions, resulting in unforseen casualties.
    This is why we fragged our officers in Nam.


  88. spring heeled jack says:

    fikrinne blogspot #88, you stole hellinabucket’s #10 comment?

    What the devil?


  89. MarkD says:

    Proud once again shows us the ratings, which only prove that most people get their news somewhere other than Fox.

    So what was his point? That, thankfully, a vast majority don’t watch the network?

    Methinks that wasn’t quite what he wanted to prove, but … ya know … ignorance, bliss, etc. etc. etc.


  90. Ape-Man says:

    Do these individuals really want to make torture fair play in the USA, or are they just feeling bad right now about something else? seriously, it’s all very hard to believe these three people want torture to become a tool of the people.


  91. WAYNEBRO says:

    Before Bush, we used to learn in classrooms and on educational television how the Nazi party was able to coerce an entire nation into abandoning their human decency and turning to the evils of torture, preemptive war, racial persecution, etc.

    In fact, anyone visiting the Holocaust Museum will see above the doorway the inscription “lest we ever forget”.

    For decades we were taught by those who survived, of the signs to look for, and the lessons learned about how foolish pride and ignorance led an entire nation into the horror that was the Holocaust, lest we ever forget.

    Well, we forgot.

    And now the people of America no longer need to ask “how could this happen?” when referring to the rise of evil in pre war Nazi Germany.

    Because now we know.


  92. Ape-Man says:

    @94 WAYNEBRO:

    Ya, how can such a well learned lesson go over the heads of FOX news personel?


  93. ElBruce says:

    jjm Says:

    Torture is not a right/left issue. Would Republican President Eisenhower have believed we could and should use torture?

    Even Reagan would kick their asses for saying that. Nixon might joke about it off the record, but he’d know better as well.


  94. WAYNEBRO says:

    Considering Dana Perino, the so called former White House Press Secretary is so embarrassingly ignorant and uneducated that she didn’t even know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was, it’s no wonder she can’t correlate the lessons of the Holocaust.

    Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the Holocaust would easily be able to tie the rise of torture, the Patriot ACT(Enabling Act), domestic spying and turning in your fellow citizens (happened under Bush, he even called for it if you recall right after 911), preemptive war, and the singling out of a large religious group for persecution.

    History is repeating itself because Fox and the idiots who watch it are just too damned stupid to learn.


  95. labman57 says:

    The extensive torture program designed and approved by the Bush regime exemplifies the extend of their Machiavellian mentality. Their rationale: “We must take a collective crap on the Constitution in order to preserve it”.

    Likewise, FOX News has made a practice of crapping on journalistic integrity in order to promote an agenda consisting of right-wing propaganda.


  96. Wayne Ant Schneider says:

    The so-called “ticking time-bomb” scenario Krauthammer cites is a canard. In fact, one former FBI agent who has interrogated terrorists said it has never happened. It’s a “red herring,” he said. “In the real world it doesn’t happen.”

    And no matter what the Charles Krauthammers of the world imagine might be happening, we know that there were no “ticking time bomb”-scenarios after 9/11 because nothing happened! Their entire defense of leaving torture as an option is the ticking time bomb, but since we know there were never any ticking time bombs (because they didn’t go off), then why did they use torture in the first place?


  97. ElBruce says:

    Krauthammer keeps talking about a ticking time bomb. Why does he keep mentioning those? He must know where one is. We’d better torture him so we can find the ticking time bomb that he’s always talking about. I’m sure he can lead us right to it.


  98. ElBruce says:

    Look, I can do wingnut!


  99. Max Anax junius -1 says:

    .

    Gen. Taguba: Accountability for torture does not stop at White House dooor
    Andrew Kalloch
    Issue date: 4/16/09

    http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2009/04/16/News/Gen-Taguba.Accountability.For.Torture.Does.Not.Stop.At.White.House.Dooor-3712773.shtml

    Major General Antonio Taguba called for an independent commission to investigate war crimes committed by senior members of the Bush Administration in remarks in Ames Courtroom on Tuesday, April 14. The event was sponsored by Physicians for Human Rights and the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.

    Taguba, who was pressured to resign by the Bush Administration in 2007 following the 2004 leak of his report detailing abuses by U.S. armed forces in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, declared in the preface of the 2008 Physicians for Human Rights publication “Broken Laws, Broken Lives,” that, “there is no longer any doubt as to whether the [Bush] administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

    “Abu Ghraib emerged from a structure developed by senior officials in the Bush White House and by those who thought it was necessary to blindly advance the Bush administration’s goals,” the General declared. “Abu Ghraib was not just happenstance. It was a morbid consequence of a policy that emanated from the Office of Legal Counsel and the Justice Department.”

    Ultimately, Taguba concluded, investigation of the Bush Administration is needed if “accountability is not to be just a hollow term.” “In my opinion accountability is a condition of employment. Government leaders who chose to accept high level positions of influence ought to hold firm and be accountable.”

    .


  100. wiley says:

    When Rumsfeld was tossing around the photos from Abu Graib, he was blaming that for Iraqi opposition, as if Iraqis really welcomed us before that.


  101. Eugene atrax robustus Debs says:

    Proud Says:

    You are the stupidest most pathetic creature on the internet. Those numbers are of course DWARFED by network news shows you insufferable moron why dont YOU go suck on the ELECTION RESULTS. I cant believe what a brainwashed punk you are


  102. Eugene atrax robustus Debs says:

    Greytdog Says:

    Well of course torture works. Didn’t McCain spill his guts when he was tortured? So there’s a real live precedent for Fox News to parade around.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    Actually no he gave them false information. He CLAIMED at least when they asked for names he gave them the offensive line from some pro football team.


  103. Jackie says:

    Let’s see if the same people of Fox News support the terrorist using the Bush Torture Policy on innocent American men/woman/children. So easy to justify doing this to others but different story when it’s done to Americans.


  104. Ape-Man says:

    @106

    I have a feeling the FOX people will say:

    no, but they’ll torture us either way

    Not me! But that’s as far ahead as they can think.


  105. AlexLawyer says:

    Dickens couldn’t have come up with a better name for Charles Krauthammer than his ancestors did.


  106. mk3872 says:

    Hey, what a GREAT week it was for Fox News, eh?

    First, they gave away $500k in free advertising to the tea baggers.

    Second, they support Texas seceding the union.

    Now they’re defending torture.

    Wow, what a week it was for the fringe right loons!


  107. wiley says:

    Three million viewers. Wow. I just found some other information about three million Americans

    3 million Americans:

    are allergic to peanuts

    struggle with stuttering

    could have Barret’s esophagus

    are affected by panic disorders

    suffer from schizophrenia

    have now been out of work for six months

    are of Arab descent

    are wearing the white band

    have glaucoma

    will seek medical care in the next 24 hours

    have at least partial Lebanese ancestry

    have an unintended pregnancy each year

    are employed within the justice system

    work for firms owned by foreign companies

    suffer with Grave’s disease


  108. stateofthedivision says:

    Burson-Marsteller Press Release:

    Burson-Marsteller, a leading global strategic communications consultancy, today announced that Dana Perino has joined the firm as Chief Issues Counselor for the U.S. She will be based in Washington, D.C.

    Perino, a skilled media relations expert, was White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush from 2007- 2009 and prior to that she had been the Deputy Press Secretary.

    Perino will be in the firm’s Issues and Crisis Group where she will use her experience in managing our country’s most pressing issues and crises, including the economic downturn, energy and health care reform, immigration and defense transformation.

    Perino managed the economic crisis? That’s as laughable as Fran Townsend’s Katrina Whitewash. Bush hacks garner the big money yet again.

    http://www.burson-marsteller.com/newsroom/lists/PressReleases/DispForm.aspx?ID=721&nodename=Press%20Releases%20Archive&subTitle=Dana%20Perino%20Joins%20Burson-Marsteller%20as%20Chief%20Issues%20Counselor

    http://www.bakerbotts.com/infocenter/newsroom/detail.aspx?id=6f8ac38a-1cb5-4bc1-8ea9-03e4d891f837


  109. ElBruce says:

    Proud: “FAUX gets good ratings (only as compared to other basic-cable news networks) therefore torture is OK.”

    Wingnut logic.


  110. guzide says:

    OK Pat obviously senile dementia has set in. Time to see the nice young men that will need to take care of you soon.burun estetigi rent a car arac kiralama
    sac ekimi


  111. Rodeskawler says:

    That is correct. Only Republicans have the capability to use tyranny appropriately. Non-Republican presidents that inherit anti-American, anti-consitutional, fascistic, oppressive violations of our Founding Fathers original intent will only use them to punitively punish heterosexual, Bible-banging, gun-toting Fox viewers and must be impeached to restore a Republican to the monarchy.


  112. oexpress says:

    RUN FOX NEWS, NOISE, OUT OF TOWN!

    http://alice.bigbig.com/


  113. mehmetel says:

    Obama comes istanbul, thank you


  114. dog canyon says:

    It would appear that Rupert Murdoch has engaged in a campaign to legitimize torture in the US. He sews the seed through Fox Broadcasting and spreads the fertilizer with Fox News, both subsidiaries of News Corp.



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