Interrogation Techniques

MSNBC’s Krystal Ball, Guest Blame ISIS Waterboarding on Abu Ghraib, Gitmo
By Curtis Houck | August 29, 2014 | 4:30 PM EDT

MSNBC’s Krystal Ball substituted for Ronan Farrow as host of his MSNBC show on Friday and remarked with a guest during a segment on the Islamic terror group ISIS that their reported waterboarding of their captives, including the late James Foley, can be blamed on the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and what happened at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

After shifting gears from talking about the increased terror alert in the United Kingdom and fears across western Europe that hundreds of their citizens have joined ISIS and could return to commit terrorist attacks, Ball mentioned an article in The Washington Post that reported ISIS captives were waterboarded. She then asked MSNBC terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann what he thought about this news. [MP3 audio here; Video below]

WH CIA Interrogations Document 'Accidentally Emailed' to AP Potentially Exonerates Powell
By Tom Blumer | July 30, 2014 | 11:59 PM EDT

Gosh, how could this have happened?

Tonight at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, a dispatch by Ken Dilanian and Eileen Sullivan reports that "a document circulating among White House staff" about post-9/11 allegedly harsh and inhumane CIA interrogation techniques — a document which was "accidentally emailed to an Associated Press reporter" — claims that Former Secretary of State Colin Powell "may not have been informed when the techniques were first used in 2002." Given the wire service's unrequited lapdog love for all things Obama, it seems more likely, as posited by Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds, that the "AP reporter" in question is on the regular circulation list and was told to call this particular leak an accident. Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine):

Andrea Mitchell Urges Sen. Feinstein to Slam Fmr. CIA Chief as Sexist
By Kyle Drennen | April 9, 2014 | 10:35 AM EDT

On her 12 p.m. ET hour MSNBC show on Tuesday, host Andrea Mitchell kept pushing the left-wing talking point that former CIA director Michael Hayden was somehow being sexist when he criticized the biased report put out by Senator Dianne Feinstein about Bush-era interrogation tactics against terror suspects: "...Hayden suggested on Fox News Sunday this week that Intelligence chair Dianne Feinstein was somehow overreacting. Perhaps it's a woman thing?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Mitchell invited on Senator Feinstein and teed her up to condemn Hayden's supposedly anti-woman remarks: "I mean, where do we come down in this day and age where a woman who is chair of the Intelligence Committee...gets accused of being emotional in having worked on this report?" Feinstein declared: "I think that's an old male fallback position."

Andrea Mitchell: Criticizing Dem Senator's Biased Report is Sexist
By Kyle Drennen | April 7, 2014 | 4:11 PM EDT

On her 12 p.m. ET hour show on MSNBC Monday, host Andrea Mitchell accused former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden of being sexist simply for criticizing Senator Dianne Feinstein's slanted Intelligence Committee report condemning the interrogation of terror suspects under the Bush administration. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Mitchell played a clip of Hayden questioning the credibility of the report on Fox News Sunday, where he cited Washington Post columnist David Ignatius: "He said that Senator Feinstein wanted a report so scathing that it would 'ensure that an un-American brutal program of detention and interrogation would never again be considered or permitted.' Now that sentence, that motivation for the report...may show deep emotional feeling on the part of the Senator, but I don't think it leads you to an objective report."

NBC's Mitchell to CIA Lawyer Who Backed Waterboarding: 'How Can You Live With Yourself?'
By Kyle Drennen | January 10, 2014 | 5:43 PM EST

Introducing her interrogation of former CIA attorney John Rizzo about his new memoir, aired on Friday's NBC Today, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell proclaimed: "...this is an insider's account of the CIA – Company Man – and the key decisions that led to waterboarding and other controversial techniques that were later outlawed. All from this veteran CIA lawyer who offers no apologies and few regrets." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

After Rizzo explained that "extraordinary measures had to be taken" to prevent another terrorist attack after 9/11, Mitchell was aghast: "Extraordinary measures? You mean what was later decided to be torture?" Rizzo pushed back: "What if there had been a second attack? Frankly, how could I live with myself if that were the case?" Mitchell ranted: "How can you live with yourself knowing that what you did and what you got approved by the Justice Department was to many people, not only morally repugnant, but illegal?" Rizzo replied: "...my conscience is clear."

NYT Hypes 'Nonpartisan' Report on Torture Under Bush -- From 'Ardent Democrat' Who Avoided His Inaugural
By Clay Waters | April 16, 2013 | 5:42 PM EDT

On the day after terrorism struck the Boston Marathon, the New York Times chose a different kind of terror-related story to join it on the front page, from intelligence reporter Scott Shane: "U.S. Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes."

Shane and his headline writer harped on the "nonpartisan" nature of the Constitution Project, despite the fact that it clearly leans left, as a scan of the group's priorities (not to mention the personal remarks of its very own president in the Times itself) reveals.

George Will: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Should Win As 'Rebuke To Senators Levin, Feinstein and McCain'
By Noel Sheppard | February 24, 2013 | 12:55 PM EST

Syndicated columnist George Will on ABC's This Week Sunday made a marvelous observation about the upcoming Academy Awards.

In his view, “Zero Dark Thirty” should win as best picture as a “rebuke to Senators Levin, Feinstein, and McCain who have enough to do without being movie critics and falsely accusing that movie of taking a stand on torture it does not take” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Bush CIA Director: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Portrayal of Interrogations 'Not Factually True'
By Noel Sheppard | February 23, 2013 | 6:03 PM EST

On the eve of Sunday's Academy Awards presentation, former George W. Bush CIA Director Michael Hayden has made a strong statement about the hunt for Osama bin Laden film "Zero Dark Thirty."

In an interview to be aired on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS Sunday, Hayden said, "If you look at the movie, it was artistically true, not factually true. Artistically, it portrayed the CIA interrogation program, but factually it was overwrought and inaccurate" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Brennan Won't Confirm Panetta’s Claim Enhanced Interrogations Led U.S. To Bin Laden
By Noel Sheppard | February 7, 2013 | 6:09 PM EST

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made news last Sunday when he once again claimed that enhanced interrogation techniques aka torture led to the United States assassinating Osama bin Laden.

During his confirmation hearing Thursday, CIA Director nominee John Brennan appeared to dodge a question from Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) about this claiming he didn’t have enough information to comment on whether Panetta was right or wrong.

MSNBC's Wagner Fails to Detail Al-Awlaki's Al-Qaeda Ties
By Matt Vespa | February 7, 2013 | 5:11 PM EST

With this afternoon's Senate confirmation hearings for CIA director nominee John Brennan in view, the February 7 broadcast of Now with Alex Wagner devoted significant attention to the Obama administration's use of armed drones and the recently-leaked DOJ White Paper defending the legitimacy of drone strikes that explicitly targeted American civilians overseas. 

For her part, host Alex Wagner failed to mention Anwar al-Awlaki’s activities as a terrorist operative affiliated with al-Qaeda.  The Now host merely tagged al-Awlaki as an American-born cleric, even though he served as a talent recruiter within the organization and inspired Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hassan.  Al-Awlaki also had contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who attempted to blow up a passenger airliner on Christmas Day of 2009.  None of that was mentioned on the show. 

The New York Times and National Security Secrets: Obama vs. Bush
By Clay Waters | February 7, 2013 | 3:38 PM EST

News that the New York Times and Washington Post kept secret until recently the secret U.S. drone base in Saudi Arabia is once again raising questions on the paper's politicized double standards on keeping state secrets related to the war on terror.

Contrast the deference paid to the Obama administration's request for secrecy, going along with the national security arguments advanced by Obama (until Wednesday's expose of White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, Obama's choice to head the CIA) with how the paper routinely leaked secrets during the Bush administration that may have hurt anti-terrorist programs. Here are just some of the national security low-lights and double standards Times Watch has documented at the Times over the years.

PBS NewsHour Notes Concerns Over Drone Killings; Fails to Mention Liberal Rage Over Waterboarding
By Matt Vespa | February 6, 2013 | 6:33 PM EST

In the wake of the leaked Department of Justice memo detailing the legality of targeted killings by drones on American citizens, the PBS NewsHour found it fitting to have the ACLU defend its position in why these strikes are troubling, and why American-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki should’ve been kept alive to plan acts of terror against the United States.

Of course, this is maddening to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.  Liberal publications, like The Nation, detail the dark future of drone warfare, and some anti-drone journalists, like Conor Fierdorsdorff of The Atlantic, have compared Obama to Bush.  However, even with the media either criticizing, or ignoring, this development, last night’s broadcast of the PBS NewsHour didn’t take into account the hypocrisy of liberals who were on the warpath a few years prior after release of Bush memos related to enhanced interrogation techniques.