"Waterboarding Was Effective in Tracking Down Bin Laden Narrative" Pressed by Don Rumsfeld and One Other Guy

CIA Director Leon Panetta, who I'm referring to from now on as "Pushy Leon." (video below the fold)

The basic left/right narrative on waterboarding went something like this:

The left: "Waterboarding is torture, and we as Americans should not torture."

The right: "Waterboarding is not torture, blowtorches and pliers are torture. Dropping a brick on a big toe is torture. The subject is not in danger of being killed or harmed with waterboarding, but they are mightily freaked out (and we're not really bothered about that with lives at stake)."

The left: "Well, it is too torture. Also waterboarding doesn’t work. It isn’t effective. They tell you stuff you want to hear."

The right: "What they tell us and what they don't tell us is used to validate other sources and information. It’s very effective. As recent events have shown."

Nancy Pelosi: "The CIA lied to me about torture."

The left: "Leon Panetta was part of Dick Cheney’s illegal death squads."

I might not have that timeline exactly right, but that's the gist of it anyway.

via Jim Treacher, who has the round up and Rumsfeld video too.

posted by Dave In Texas at 10:50 PM

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