CIA Memo footnotes: There was unnecessary waterboarding

By GottaLaff

We've been told ad nauseam by the Rushpublics that waterboarding was necessary. It was necessary because it produced results, they insist. It produced results, so it was justified, they claim. America is safer because of all that torture, they aver. Oh, and did I mention how necessary they say it was?

Oh, um, except for that (at least) one time when....

We spotted one in footnote #28 on page 31 of a May 30, 2005, memo from the Department of Justice, where the DOJ admits that waterboarding of a detainee may have been used unnecessarily “on at least one occasion.”

The CIA’s inability to figure out which detainees had useful information “may have resulted in what might be deemed in retrospect to have been the unnecessary use of enhanced techniques,” the partially redacted footnote states.

Don'tcha hate when that happens?

In this case, the CIA “reasonably believed” Mr. Zubaydah was withholding important information that might help protect the U.S. against terror attacks, says the memo, so it was acceptable to waterboard him even though the belief was later proved false. The memo is signed by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury.

I believe I had to kill that guy because I believed it was in self defense because I believed he was carrying a gun and I believed he was thinking about killing me. Never mind that the guy was 7 and didn't have a gun.

I don't believe in BushCo's belief systems. And I don't want my country using their belief system to justify torture.

I believe torturing people is wrong, self-defeating, unreliable, illegal, and immoral. That's what I believe.