The Big Lie - Torture got bin Laden
This is a great post by Andrew Sullivan because it catalogs what are likely to be the GOP talking points about the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, namely that “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” (known to the sane as “torture”) caused detainees to give up the name of the courier who would lead us to bin Laden. All of the links within the post are worthy of a read, especially the New York Times article which details what happened.
Dave Weigel predicts Republican spin:
Expect to hear more about this report that the information that led to the tailing of bin Laden’s courier, and eventually to his death, was acquired in interrogations that Obama ended once he took office. It may not be Republican candidates pointing this out. They don’t need to. George W. Bush has a considerable amen chorus in the press, with former staffers like Marc Thiessen, Michael Gerson, and John Yoo writing regular columns about how the 43rd president was right.
Predict it? It’s already become a meme. Last night, O’Reilly simply said “What about the waterboarding?” before moving on to other issues. A military reader writes how Fox is leading with the torture lie:
Driving right now - flipped on Fox News Channel out of curiosity on Sirius. Since 07h30, they have been openly encouraging waterboarding and have at least 6 times that I’ve noticed said that the reason we got OBL is directly attributable to what had been revealed during waterboarding sessions. I am, in two words, fucking disgusted.
Here’s Andrew Malcolm:
That previous president authorized enhanced interrogation techniques which convinced folks like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to give up, among many other things, the name of their top-secret courier, now deceased.
Leave aside the horrifying fact that Republicans, seeking to score some ownership of this triumph, would look to torture as their contribution. Why not the beefed up on-the-ground intelligence from 2005 on? That’s Bush’s legacy that Obama built on.
Read the whole thing.