Run time: 15:09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LORmBjc84gk
Posted on YouTube: May 04, 2011
By YouTube Member: PresidentObama3
Views on YouTube: 5
Posted on DU: May 04, 2011
By DU Member: Hissyspit
Views on DU: 1769 |
MSNBC The Ed Show w/ ED SCHULTZ - May 3, 2011: Ed does intro segment, but the important part is after 7:20, the interview with former military interrogator, Matthew Alexander, who tracked down al Qaeda in Iraq, who trashes Rep. King dishonest and disgusting statements.
ED: "Are the conservatives correct about waterboarding?"
ALEXANDER: "No. They're not correct. What a lot of people are forgetting and leaving out of this conversation is what professional interrogators have been saying all along...
- snip -
ED: "But of course the conservatives are out there saying that K.S.M. served up the key name, and now the New York Times is reporting that is not the case, it came from the courier who is identified as Hassan Ghul. ... Who do we believe?"
ALEXANDER: "If waterboarding that happened seven or eight years ago just now led to bin Laden and that's our measure of success, we're in a lot of trouble. That's not an effective technique."
ED: "How do you counter this soundbite? This is Congressman Peter King. He says that waterboarding is a moral imperative... Does that argument hold up?"
- snip -
ALEXANDER: "It doesn't for me, and it goes directly against my oath... My oath of office was to defend the Constitution of the United States, like everybody else in the service. There's nothing in there about saving lives. When did America go from a country that stands for principles like liberty, freedom and justice, to a country that stands for security above all else? Numerous leaders going back to the Revolutionary War - George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, World War II leaders, Presidents and generals - all said that we cannot use torture because it violates American principles REGARDLESS of whether it would or would not keep us safe."
ED: "Let me ask you to be very clear here - what Congressman Peter King said there, is that fact or is it his opinion that waterboarding saves lives?"
ALEXANDER:
"Well, it's neither fact nor his opinion, it's fiction. To say that waterboarding saved lives also excludes any inclusion of the long-term negative effects of using torture and abuse. As I saw in Iraq, first-hand, the NO. 1 reason foreign fighters gave for coming there to fight was because of our torture and abuse of Muslim prisoners and detainees, which had led them there, and those foreign fighters made up the majority of suicide bombers. They killed hundreds if not thousands of American soldiers. So you cannot in any way say waterboarding has kept us safe.
- snip -
...that's not an opinion. Department of Defense tracked those statistics. I saw them. That's a fact, that waterboarding and torture was al Qaeda's No. 1 recruiting tool.
- snip -
What you can say is that it violates the core principles this country was founded on. Our country is safer now than it has ever been because we have started to regain that moral high ground that you talked about."
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