February 8, 2016, - 1:53 pm
What Ted Cruz Said @ GOP Debate That PO’d Me – VIDEO
*** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ***
Watching Saturday night’s GOP Presidential Debate, I noted something Ted Cruz said that really disappointed me–something he said that showed me he’s really one of the GOP RINO Senators, not a rebel and maverick. Here’s the video . . .
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Ted Cruz lost me when he said he agrees with RINO John McCain & opposes waterboarding terrorists #tcot #gop #GOPDebate #RINOAlert
— Debbie Schlussel (@DebbieSchlussel) February 7, 2016
@DebbieSchlussel I am a Cruz supporter and was also very disappointed with that statement.
— John M (@Johnny_NY) February 7, 2016
Related to this, I don’t have a problem with Cruz being “hated” in the Senate, a criticism often leveled against him by critics, mostly loudly Donald Trump. Being hated by liberal Republican establishment types is a badge of honor. But Cruz has shown that, in fact, he’s a lot more chummy with the those RINO establishment Senators than he’s given credit for. He campaigned for many of them against Tea Party challengers (including for RINO Pat Roberts against a conservative in Kansas, as reader Little Al has pointed out), and, now, he’s bragging, “I joined with Senator McCain in legislation that would prohibit line officers from employing it because I think bad things happen when enhanced interrogation is employed at lower levels.” As you’ll notice, there is an audible gasp from many Republican audience members when he says that.
Cruz tries to rescue himself by saying that in an emergency he would allow enhanced interrogations to prevent destruction of cities, etc. But that’s ridiculous. There is no way of knowing if there is an imminent terrorist attack that can be prevented, until after you know it’s being planned and about to be implemented. Until then, it’s an unknown–information that can only be gleaned from interrogating the terrorists. And, in general, it’s the “line officers” Cruz wants to prohibit from waterboarding, who conduct those interrogations. By the time it’s determined that we must go to someone at the “higher levels,” it’s far too late. That’s the same problem with the warrants and so on that Cruz voted for, which now make it harder for the feds to look at phone records of terrorists. Cruz adds layers of bureaucratic BS to things that–when they are needed–are needed immediately to prevent imminent attack. Edward Snowden national security isn’t national security.
Donald Trump has it exactly right on torture. But I don’t believe he’ll do anything close to what he’s saying he will. Again, as I’ve been saying on this site for months, Trump will say anything–and everything–that he knows we conservatives want to hear. The question is, whether we will get that Trump in the White House. I don’t believe we will, but if we get even a fraction of this current Trump, I’ll take it. I don’t like pals of John McCain. On the other hand, I don’t like pals of Nancy PelosticSurgery, Harry Reid, and Chuck Schumer–which Trump bragged that he is–either. It’s two equally annoying sides of the same coin that we’re being give here as a choice (the rest are wholly unacceptable choices to me).
By the way, note that lightweight JEB! Bush a/k/a John Ellis Bush Bush is essentially dissing his brother–you know, his former Prez bro who has put away the cheesy paintings for a spell in order to campaign for his brother in New Hampshire. Who was the one who used waterboarding against Islamic terrorists (with a good deal of success in extracting info)? Who was the one against whom the “legislation” JEB! is praising, was aimed at stopping? His brother, George W. Bringing mommy to New Hampshire to be his attack dog didn’t work, so now he’s throwing his brother and his Presidency under the bus for the 427th time. Whatta putz.
We know that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods do, in fact, work, despite what Ted Cruz said about “bad things happen[ing].” Just ask Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was waterboarded. Repeatedly. And that’s why he gave up information. From CBS News’ “60 Minutes”:
Jose Rodriguez has no regrets about using the “enhanced interrogation techniques” – methods that some consider torture — on al Qaeda detainees questioned after 9/11 and denies charges they didn’t work. The former head of the CIA’s Clandestine Service talks to Lesley Stahl about those methods, including waterboarding, for the first time and defends their use – even comparing them to the current policy of killing al Qaeda leaders with drone strikes. . . .
Rodriguez says everything his interrogators did to top-level terrorists like Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah was legal and effective. “We made some al Qaeda terrorists with American blood on their hands uncomfortable for a few days,” he tells Stahl. “I am very secure in what we did and am very confident that what we did saved American lives,” says Rodriguez, who has written a book on the subject called “Hard Measures.”
Pressed by Stahl about charges that Zubaydah, who was waterboarded and sleep deprived, gave false information that wasted U.S. resources, Rodriguez replies, “Bull****!, He gave us a roadmap that allowed us to capture a bunch of al Qaeda senior leaders,” says the ex-spy.
Rodriguez says the interrogation program, which also included stress positions, nudity and “insult slaps,” was “about instilling a sense of hopelessness…despair…so that he [the detainee] would conclude on his own that he was better off cooperating with us.” He says that even Khalid Sheik Mohammed, whom he termed “the toughest detainee we had,” eventually gave up information.
KSM, as the mastermind of 9/11 was known, would not cooperate at first. “He eventually told us, ‘I will talk once I get to New York and I get my lawyer,'” Rodriguez recalls. But KSM was subjected to the enhanced techniques, including waterboarding and sleep deprivation, and Rodriguez believes, “it was the cumulative effect of waterboarding and sleep deprivation and everything else that was done that eventually got to him.”
Rodriguez maintains he got information from the interrogations of KSM and others that enabled the CIA to disrupt at least 10 large-scale terrorist plots. But when Stahl reminds him the CIA’s own inspector general said that his enhanced interrogation program did not stop any imminent attack, Rodriguez says, “We don’t know. …if, for example, al Qaeda would have been able to continue on with their anthrax program or nuclear program…or sleeper agents …working with Khalid Sheik Mohammed to take down the Brooklyn Bridge, for example.”
I think I’ll trust Jose Rodriguez’s expertise on whether waterboarding works over the claims of Ted Cruz (and his newly-claimed ally Juan McCain).
Again, when terrorists have planned an imminent attack on Chicago, we won’t know about it until it’s too late because Ted Cruz, like the liberals, won’t allow “line officers” in the federal law enforcement and the CIA to do what needs to be done.
This bothers me . . . a lot.
Edward Snowden’s and Anwar Awlaki’s ghost’s fave GOP candidate, Rand Paul, is already out of the race. For a reason. We don’t need another Paulistinian as the GOP nominee.
And we don’t need someone who is on the same page as Bernie Sanders when it comes to Islamic terrorists.
**** UPDATE: Reader Worry01 sends this video, in which Trump further elaborates:
Again, he’s spot on, but the question remains: will he do as he says he will?
Yup.
Part of the problem is as the Democrats are moving left, the GOP is moving to occupying their territory.
As a conservative, I expected Cruz to stand athwart against it. Instead he thinks waterboarding to terrorists is cruel.
Even though Trump doesn’t believe a word he says and won’t do what he promised, he has the right instincts on what we should do.
Americans prefer someone who has the right instinct rather than someone who tries to be politically correct.
If you want to know why Cruz is getting only 16% of the vote in NH tomorrow, you can thank his opposition to waterboarding terrorists in part for it.
I wish we had we had someone more principled than Trump in the race – but as it is, he’ll have to do. No one else, Cruz included, can beat Hillary.
And no doubt NH voters will see that too, tomorrow when they go to the polls to vote.
NormanF on February 8, 2016 at 2:39 pm