"The United States was, and still is, at war with al Qaeda," Mr. Bharara argued. "And because the group does not control territory as a sovereign nation does, the war effort relies less on deterrence than on disruption—on preventing attacks before they can occur. At the core of such disruption efforts is obtaining accurate intelligence about al Qaeda's plans, leaders and capabilities."

"[The suspect was] a rare find, and his then-recent interactions with top-level al Qaeda terrorists made him a potentially rich source of information that was both urgent and crucial to our nation's war efforts."

"The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . . . naturally resulted in a heightened focus on intelligence gathering to preempt another attack. When the United States took custody of the [suspect] . . . and it justifiably believed that he had actionable intelligence that could be used to save lives, [the administration could have] opted to treat him initially as an intelligence asset."

"the interest in national security plainly justified holding the defendant in this case as an enemy combatant, interrogating him, and prosecuting him for violations of the laws of war, even if that meant delaying his criminal trial."


WSJ op-ed

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warmongerer. No compassion

no arguement here...........

the admin really has blundered greatly in this criminal trial stuff....

their ideology blinded them.........

I really don't have a problem with torture as far is terrorists are concerned. I think that if you put yourself in that position, you deserve what you get. Guilty by association.

It may shock you Spivol, that I do not support torture. I just do not think waterboarding is torture.

Just for the record, this argument was made by the Obama administration's justice department on December 18, 2009 in a case in the Southern District of New York.

Blade, it doesn't shock me at all. Why would it? I agree that "waterboarding" isn't torture, though. I would say cutting off a thumb would be torture.

Fascinating. Why do you think waterboarding isn't torture?

You might read Waterboarding is Torture… Period , written by Malcolm Nance, a former Master Instructor and Chief of Training at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE).

Any further discussion probably belongs in a separate thread since it is a significant departure from the thread title.

I don't have problem with interrogation. I have a problem with torture, or for you Cheney fans "enhanced interrogation."

::snark detector activated::

I prefer enhanced torture (no ball gag though)

The family of the underwear bomber has been brought to the US by the FBI to convince him to talk...I wonder if his father and mother beating the living daylights out of him for his stupidity would be considered torture

It’s true that as an investigative technique “convince the guy’s family to convince him to cooperate” isn’t quite as bad-ass as “use Khmer Rouge torture tactics against him.” On the other hand, the non-torture way actually produces reliable information. And note that these are really inconsistent ideas. A family that has confidence in the basic fairness of the US criminal justice system is prepared to help the FBI secure cooperation from their son. A family that believes the US government holds suspects in “black sites” where they’re tortured and/or tries them in kangaroo courts is much less likely to cooperate. - Matt Yglesias

"Cocaine is like really evil coffee." - Courtney Love

So the administration argues that it was the right thing to do with this terrorist, excuse me, suspect, to interrogate, no miranda, no lawyer, but it was also the right thing to do with the latest terrorist, excuse me, suspect, to be miradized 50 minutes after he was captured, excuse me, arrested?

[good thing we don't have an administration that flip-flops. Lord only knows what the implications could be]

Who is the suspect in question for the Dec. 18 2009 filing? Where was he picked up? That changes a few things.

And with Abdulmutallabh he was mirandized after it was determined there were no other threats or coordinating actions.

And you know this how?

Was on the news this morning.

source por favor

E! News?

George Nouri reporting from the high desert?

Will post later (firewall here)

!!!

MTV news?

Human Rights Watch blog