National intelligence director in a private memo: torture yielded "high value information."

[Occam Bandage]

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

Admiral Blair sent his memo on the same day the administration publicly released secret Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of interrogation methods that the Obama White House has deemed to be illegal torture. Among other things, the Bush administration memos revealed that two captured Qaeda operatives were subjected to a form of near-drowning known as waterboarding a total of 266 times.

Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

More at link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22blair.html?_r=3

So it seems we're learning more about the torture battle within the Obama administration: who's for it, and who's against it. The fact that our current intelligence director is pro-torture casts a rather dark shadow over any hopes for a quick and clean investigation. I am deeply disturbed at the inhumane and counterfactual nature of Mr. Blair's comments.

[Thrill]

1. Obama got on his ass. He backtracked with a statement

[uponit7771]

2. Good, I'd be lookin to fire the guy..there's no way I'd have someone like that in my admin

...the torture thing is getting loud

[annabanana]

3. and the REST of his statement was ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5510891

So here’s the question: Will the media clearly report Blair’s actual views about torture?

Blair released a statement late yesterday in which he clearly stated that there is no way of knowing whether means other than torture would have obtained the same info. More important, he said the damage done to us by torture “far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.” Blair has outlined these views elsewhere.

CNN managed to run an entire article about the Blair memo that didn’t even mention his statement. The Associated Press falsely claimed that Blair’s statement “backed away from what appeared to be an endorsement of the techniques’ effectiveness.”

This is really not complicated: Blair believes that some valuable info was collected via torture, but that torture is not essential to our security and has done far more harm than good. The Washington Post got Blair’s views right in its headline: “Intelligence Chief Says Methods Hurt U.S.”

That’s what Blair believes. The effort to obscure and twist this plain fact is going to be very intense today.

[phleshdef]

4. I have no doubt that out of all the people they tortured, a handful turned up something useful.

That doesn't make it any less illegal, regardless.

[aceofspades]

5. He said that the costs of torture outweighed the benefits

http://mediamatters.org/items/200904220012?f=h_latest

[babylonsister]

6. What Obama’s Intel Chief Really Believes About Torture…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5510891&mesg_id=5510891

Also...

"The Second Half Of The Article"

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_04/017854.php

[ThirdWorldJohn]

7. How can you trust him?

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/9/did_obama_aide_admiral_dennis_blair