Looks like Tom Ridge has joined the ranks of terrorist-sympathizers.
In a throwaway comment in this interview with ABC News earlier today, the former homeland security chief said he thought the decision to waterboard was âwrong.â While Ridge also strongly took issue with Attorney General Eric Holderâs decision to probe rogue CIA interrogators, Ridgeâs declaration about waterboarding is significant, and hereâs why:
Ridgeâs claim comes after all the proof weâve supposedly seen that waterboarding works.
Asked on ABC for a reaction to Dick Cheneyâs claim yesterday that it was âoutrageousâ for Obamaâs Justice Department to probe the rogue interrogators, Ridge said this:
I think heâs right. Pure and simple. I think the whole question of water boarding, Iâve said it a long time ago, I think that was wrong. It wasnât the appropriate way for America to be conducting itself. Some of the other techniques donât bother me as much.
But what really bothers me is that attorney general now after water boarding was prohibited and the CIA and other interrogators have made obvious changes in how they interrogate to go back and investigate, criminally investigate what these men were asked to do believing at the time that they were in power to do it and that it was consistent with the rule of law. I think itâs wrong, itâs chilling and itâs inappropriate.
No question, thatâs a strong denunciation of Holderâs decision. But itâs at least as newsworthy â and perhaps more so, since Ridge was a Bushie â that he also denounced waterboarding as morally wrong and not âthe appropriate way for America to be conducting itself.â
Hereâs why: Ridge is implictly saying that the current debate over whether waterboarding âworksâ is a sideshow â one that should have no impact on whether America should have done it. This position routinely gets torture opponents branded as terrorist sympathizers. Yet hereâs the top Bush/Cheney homeland security official saying the same thing.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/p...ding-was-wrong-america-shouldnt-have-done-it/
In a throwaway comment in this interview with ABC News earlier today, the former homeland security chief said he thought the decision to waterboard was âwrong.â While Ridge also strongly took issue with Attorney General Eric Holderâs decision to probe rogue CIA interrogators, Ridgeâs declaration about waterboarding is significant, and hereâs why:
Ridgeâs claim comes after all the proof weâve supposedly seen that waterboarding works.
Asked on ABC for a reaction to Dick Cheneyâs claim yesterday that it was âoutrageousâ for Obamaâs Justice Department to probe the rogue interrogators, Ridge said this:
I think heâs right. Pure and simple. I think the whole question of water boarding, Iâve said it a long time ago, I think that was wrong. It wasnât the appropriate way for America to be conducting itself. Some of the other techniques donât bother me as much.
But what really bothers me is that attorney general now after water boarding was prohibited and the CIA and other interrogators have made obvious changes in how they interrogate to go back and investigate, criminally investigate what these men were asked to do believing at the time that they were in power to do it and that it was consistent with the rule of law. I think itâs wrong, itâs chilling and itâs inappropriate.
No question, thatâs a strong denunciation of Holderâs decision. But itâs at least as newsworthy â and perhaps more so, since Ridge was a Bushie â that he also denounced waterboarding as morally wrong and not âthe appropriate way for America to be conducting itself.â
Hereâs why: Ridge is implictly saying that the current debate over whether waterboarding âworksâ is a sideshow â one that should have no impact on whether America should have done it. This position routinely gets torture opponents branded as terrorist sympathizers. Yet hereâs the top Bush/Cheney homeland security official saying the same thing.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/p...ding-was-wrong-america-shouldnt-have-done-it/