2 Responses to “Torture Fail”

1. steve Says:
   March 30th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

   LOL. I just read a post about this article written by Paul over at Powerline. Paul does a fine job of illustrating how the Post jumps through hoops to downplay the importance of torture. He notes that the post use the term ’significant’ but then fails to define it.

   “Detainee’s Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots.” That’s the front-page headline at the top of today’s Washington Post. But the article itself (by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick) suggests that the headline is false. For in the third paragraph we read that, as a result of the harsh interrogation of the one detainee in question (Abu Zubaida) “not a single significant plot was foiled.” (emphasis added)

   It follows, I assume, that (according to the Post’s sources) at least one “insignificant plot” was stopped. And if that is true, then it follows that the interrogations techniques produced at least some reliable information about real plots.

   The Post does not define “significant plot.” There is, to be sure, such a thing as an insignificant plot. For example, our own CIA is said to have plotted to cause Fidel Castro’s beard to fall out. Islamic jihadists, however, are more serious and more bloodthristy than that. Thus, it’s difficult to imagine them hatching a terrorist plot that did not involve, as its intended end product, some loss of innocent life.

   Much of the Post’s article is dedicated to advancing the view that Abu Zubaida was not the important terrorist the U.S. initially thought he was. However, Finn and Warrick have trouble keeping their story straight. At one point, they tell us that Abu Zubaida was merely “a fixer” for “radical Muslim ideologues” (whatever that means) who “ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 — and that was because the U.S. stood ready to invade Afghanistan.” Later in the story, however, the authors state that “until the attacks on New York and Wahington, Abu Zubaida was a committed jihadist who regarded the United States as an enemy principally because of its support of Israel.” Indeed, he allegedly was linked to the “Millennium Bomber,” an al Qaeda member. And whether or not Abu Zubaida worked “directly” with al Qaeda, the Post concedes that he “helped move people in and out of military training camps in Afghanistan, including some men who were or became members of al Qaeda.”

   Michael, for the second time inadvertently jumped into propaganda masquerading as news in regards to torture. In this process he shows again why the MSM can be problematic.

2. Michael Says:
   April 1st, 2009 at 10:31 am

   I’m still waiting to hear about a plot we stopped using intel from torture. Really. Go ahead. I’m listening.

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