Department of Justice, John Yoo, Politics, Quote of the Day, Torture, War on Terror

Quotes of the Day: Did 'Torture' Contribute to the Finding of Osama Bin Laden?

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Imagine what would have happened if the Obama administration had been running things immediately following 9/11. After their “arrest,” we would have read [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] and [Abu Faraj al-Libi] their Miranda rights, provided them legal counsel, sent them to the U.S. for detention, and granted them all the rights provided a U.S. citizen in criminal proceedings.

If this had happened, the CIA could not have built the intelligence mosaic that pinpointed bin Laden’s location. Without the intelligence produced by Bush policies, the SEAL helicopters would be idling their engines at their Afghanistan base even now. In the war on terror, it is easy to pull the trigger — it is hard to figure out where to aim.

— Professor John Yoo, in an opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal. While serving as a Justice Department official in the Bush Administration, Professor Yoo provided legal analysis supporting the application of enhanced interrogation techniques to terror detainees — techniques that may have yielded information used in locating Osama bin Laden.

(A counterpoint to Professor Yoo — we believe in presenting both sides here at Above the Law — appears after the jump.)

[Harsh interrogation] didn’t provide useful, meaningful, trustworthy information…. [E]veryone was deeply concerned and most felt it was un-American and did not work.

— Glenn L. Carle, a retired CIA agent who oversaw the interrogation of a high-level detainee.

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