Once you threaten someone’s children there’s pretty much nowhere else
to go in terms of building the kind of relationship where they at some
point tell you things that you really need to hear.
I’m not sure, actually, if the quotation is more powerful in context:
One of the dark moments in the so-called war on terror, as I disclosed
in the book, along with all the other stuff, is that we threatened
Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s children to get him to talk. According to those
involved in that incident, he pretty much looked them straight in the
eye and said, "Fine, they’ll be in a better place with Allah." Once you
threaten someone’s children there’s pretty much nowhere else to go in
terms of building the kind of relationship where they at some point
tell you things that you really need to hear.
Hat tip goes to Marty Lederman (aka "my anti-torture hero"; you’ll notice from the link that JB’s been none too shabby in that department, either).
Accidental Blogger 
3 responses to “Anti-torture QOTD (Joe)”
Hi Joe.
This is the sort of thing (threatening kids, CIA prisons, etc.) that Bush always denies. Then, once it becomes public knowledge, he immediately gives a speech talking about how important it is. It’s a tool of democracy. It saves innocent lives. If we don’t threaten children the Islamo-Arabic-super-extremo-fascists have won.
We suck.
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Hey Matt.
I keep hoping that one day the American public will stop being so accepting of his stories. Unlikely, though, so long as people keep parroting back everything the right-wing propaganda machine (i.e. corporate media) says, and the more times it’s said, the more true it must be.
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A cartoon in today’s Houston Chronicle has Bush saying the following:
“We’re moving the detainees from secret CIA prisons which don’t exist…
And holding them under the Geneva Conventions which don’t apply….
And asking congress for authority which we don’t need….
To do whatever we deem necessary in protecting American values … which we undermine…. “
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