ksm had become key in the al u.s. understanding of al qaeda plots and personalities. by that account, it worked. yeah. and i think it s important to understand a couple things. one is that waterboarding is one method of, one enhanced interrogation methods. there s a lot of other ones. the real question is, did we use any methods, or do we only ask politely for cooperation? i think it s important we use some enhanced interrogation methods. only three individuals, exactly three, were ever waterboarded. one of them, as you say, was khalid sheikh mohammed, who became our most important source on al qaeda after he was waterboarded, including among other things a plot called the second wave, meant to knock down the largest building in los angeles, and so i think the evidence there suggests that had we not used enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding on khalid sheikh mohammed, there would be a hole in los angeles the size of new york city. the other go ask is one of common
in los angeles the size of new york city. the other go ask is one of common sense. you have a terrorist. you try to persuade him to cooperate. he won t. can fear and pain at all help persuade him to become cooperative? not torture, but fear of pain, which is what enhanced interrogation are meant for. common sense, that could probably make someone more cooperative. professor alan dershowitz is the most effective advocate for the ticking timebomb example. in that case, where you have someone who you believe actionable intelligence and no method short of waterboarding is working, you d still say no? absolutely. i mean, why can t we do that in, locally inside the united states in criminal cases? if you had a kidnapping, you think somebody s life s in danger and have certain suspects, why not run them through the same waterboarding and everything else? if you go by the logic, why not where does it stop?
the other go ask is one of common sense. you have a terrorist. you try to persuade him to cooperate. he won t. can fear and pain at all help him persuade limb to become cooperative? not torture, but pain which is what enhanced interrogation are meant for. common sense, that could probably make someone more cooperative. professor alan dershowitz is the add vvocate for this. you believe actionable intelligence and no plethds short of waterboarding is working, you d still say no? absolutely. i mean, why can t we do that in, locally, inside it s united states in criminal cases? if you had a kidnapping, you think somebody s life s in danger and have certain suspects, wee not run them through the same waterboarding and erg eggs? if you go by the logic, why not jt i served oversea, carried a weapon and was considered an
look, i think the case you saw it with i think what you see with rick perry and mitchell bachmann and mitt romney now. you re going to have a choice between going forward or going back to a lot of the problems that got us in to this mess. i think if you think we re a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires away from a great economy, you have three perfect candidates to pick from. and michelle bachmann, mitt romney, and rick perry. i think there s going to be a very clear choice in this election in 2012. robert, good morning. how are you? excellent. i want to ask you about two things that rick perry said. the reaction to the substance and the appropriateness of what he said. one, when asked if the president loved america, he refused to answer he said, go ask the president. two, he suggested that he would be a better commander in chief because the people in the military would be more inclined to someone who served like he
change this week? who knows. an outlier poll. it s statistics, there s always an outlier. okay. beyond the polls, what barack obama did this week, this isn t why he did it, he took that old republican playing card, the weak on defense card. they played it in the 2008 campaign. they were going to play it all the way to 2012 campaign, gop. they can t do it anymore. are you weak on defense? i don t know, go ask i was going back in my brain on this today, thinking franklin roosevelt was a great war president. he picked the great generals, right front, europe first and then asia. he made the tough calls. truman comes in, drops two atom bombs on the japanese, ends the war, saves the lives of a lot of american servicemen. it was a brutal call but he calls it. then went to korea, which a lot of people wouldn t have done, because it was tough. johnson fought maybe not