U.S. Senator Dick Durbin reports he can't bring himself to support AG candidate Michael Mukasey in tomorrow's Judiciary Committee's confirmation vote because Mukasey refuses to take a strong stand against the CIA's use of waterboarding.
Maybe I've watched too many 24 episodes, but who cares what it takes to get non-uniformed vicious terrorist to spill his guts? Shouldn't the saving of innocents be more important than coddling mass murderers who have no problem hiding behind women and children? We should be concerned about it being used on our soldiers in retaliation, but frankly, it's not waterboarding these extremists most often use on their enemies. It's public decapitation.
One Scripps Howard News Service writer Deroy Murdock lists a number of terrorists who've been caught because waterboarding was used as a last resort to glean life-saving information:
— Ohio trucker Iyman Faris pleaded guilty May 1, 2003, to providing material support to terrorists. He also conspired to derail a train near Washington, D.C., and use acetylene torches to sever the Brooklyn Bridge's cables, plunging it into the East River.
— Jemaah Islamiya (JI) agent Rusman "Gun Gun" Gunawan was convicted of transferring money to bomb Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, killing 12 and injuring 150.
— Hambali, Gunawan's brother and ringleader of JI's October 2002 Bali nightclub blasts, killed 202 and wounded 209.
— Suspected al-Qaida agent Majid Khan, officials say, provided money to JI terrorists and plotted to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, detonate U.S. gas stations, and poison American water reservoirs.
— Jose Padilla, who trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan, was convicted of providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to kidnap, maim, and murder people overseas.
— Malaysian Yazid Sufaat, an American-educated biochemist and JI member, reportedly provided hijackers Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi housing in Kuala Lumpur during a January 2000 9/11 planning summit. He also is suspected of employing "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui.
Link: Three cheers for waterboarding al-Qaida leaders! : Opinion : Ventura County Star.
Seems like good enough reasons to push these cold-blooded murderers 'til just short of the breaking point, doesn't it? Waterboarding is carefully monitored torture -- something they can avoid if they tell what they know.
And because these radical extremists decapitate innocent journalists and strap bombs to children, we know they will not fight according to traditional war decorum, they choose to operate outside the protection of the Geneva Convention Rules.
