Bush "Knows More (ABOUT TORTURE) Than He Lets On"-Ron Suskind

[kpete]

October 27, 2006
INTERVIEW WITH TERROR EXPERT RON SUSKIND
"The President Knows more than He Lets on"

One hundred suspected terrorists from all over the world are still being held in secret American prisons. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, CIA expert Ron Suskind accuses Washington of "running like a headless chicken" in its war against al-Qaida. He reserves special criticism for the CIA's torture methods, which he argues are unproductive.


............

SPIEGEL ONLINE: With all your access to high-level sources, have you come across anyone who still thinks it is a good idea for the US to torture people?

Suskind: No. Most of the folks involved say that we made mistakes at the start. The president wants to keep all options open because he never wants his hands tied in any fashion, as he says, because he doesn't know what's ahead. But those involved in the interrogation protocol, I think are more or less in concert in saying that, in our panic in the early days, we made some mistakes.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Because they could have gotten information through normal interrogations ...

Suskind: ... yes, and without paying this terrific price, namely: America's moral standing. We poured plenteous gasoline on the fires of jihadist recruitment.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So the average interrogator at a Black Site understands more about the mistakes made than the president?

Suskind: The president understands more about the mistakes than he lets on. He knows what the most-skilled interrogators know too. He gets briefed, and he was deeply involved in this process from the beginning. The president loves to talk to operators.

more at:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,445117,00.html

[fooj]

1. I BET her LOVES to talk to operators...

Little treasonous, rat bastard.

[Disturbed]

3. The Busholini Regime supported this.

They did learn from Nixon's mistakes. No evidence on tape or in documents exists that will implicate the Pres. with Torture, Abuse, Rendition.

[MrSlayer]

4. I wouldn't be shocked to hear he actually participated.

He seems like the kind of guy who would get off on torturing people. Probably thinks it makes him big and bad.

[deminks]

10. At the very least, he likes to watch

Someone in this administration has a jones for torture. Who better than the decider.

[aquart]

8. Maybe. But I'd check his ranch for souvenirs.

[Jim Sagle]

13. Wallowing in his own Nazi filth.

[williesgirl]

2. * is one sick, m-f'er - like a bully watching an animal in pain. recommended

[sabra]

5. Suskind also describes KSM's torture...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2495546&mesg_id=2495546

[Double T]

6. It is THAT knowing smirk that tells 'YOU' that he thinks HE has.......

got one up on 'YOU', that he does know more.

[gaspee]

7. I bet

I bet he jerks off to torture tapes. Some people say...

Hasn't he always loved torture? Didn't he brand pledges asses when he was a drunken coked-up fratboy? At least that's what some people say.

[Nostradammit]

9. Time for the obligatory Bush photo -

It's in his eyes.

He a sick man...

[bigmonkey]

12. It isn't just what some people say.

Garry Trudeau was a classmate at Yale, and he's kept the Yale newspaper articles about it. In those documents GWB confirms the branding, but says it's harmless.

[Lisa]

14. yes. his first run-in with the New York Times ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072799.htm

In the fall of 1967, when huge numbers of college students were marching on Washington to protest the Vietnam War, Bush was quoted in the New York Times defending the branding of fraternity pledges with a hot coat hanger, saying the resulting wounds resembled "only a cigarette burn."

***I have to say that I know a lot of smokers, and not one of them has been so klutzy as to end up with a burn scar just from carelessly dropping a butt! I wonder where he saw that kind of "cigarette burn"?

[The Count]

11. I knew it! After seeing all the Abu Grahib pic he said "fabulous job, Rummy"

Publicly. Obviously, he had a pleasant time researching!