Red Hot Torture

Thursday, Sep 14, 2006

Thanks to the New York Times, we now know the dreaded torture methods the sadistic CIA used on captured al-Qaeda big shots shortly after the 9/11 attack. I warn you: Reading this column any further will subject you to unvarnished brutality.

According to a front page article in the Times on Sunday, September 10th, Pakistani authorities captured Abu Zubaydah, al-Qaeda's personnel director, a few months after the terror attack five years ago. Zubaydah, wounded in the confrontation, was turned over to American authorities and whisked away to Bangkok, Thailand, where FBI interrogators began questioning him.

According to unnamed sources in the Times article, the FBI and CIA clashed over whether to use soft or tough questioning methods on the captured terrorist. Because it had jurisdiction, the CIA took over, and the inquisition began. Agency interrogators stripped Zubaydah, put him in a freezing room, and subjected him to Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Not the vegetables, the rock group.

Apparently, the CIA sadists cranked up the volume on some Red Hot Chili Peppers recordings and Zubaydah broke. Wouldn't you?

Now, I am not making this up. The dreaded torture machine that is the Bush administration unleashed the Red Hot Chili Peppers on an al-Qaeda big shot. How could they?

According to the article, Zubaydah gave up a number of his fellow killers, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. But come on, the ends do not justify the means. Using the Chili Peppers is beyond the pale.

Somewhere, Attila the Hun is weeping with laughter.

But this whole thing is deadly serious. Thanks to the American thugs at Abu Ghraib and the hysterical left-wing press, the entire world thinks the USA is a nation of brutes who torture for pleasure. Human rights groups can't condemn us fast enough for our terrible treatment of people captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. Guantanamo Bay is a Gulag, Dick Cheney is Henrich Himmler. And the beat goes on.

But amidst all the hew and cry, there are few specifics. As far as I can determine, waterboarding—that is, submerging a suspect in water—was used a couple of times, but is now banned. Stress positions and sleep deprivation have been used in limited situations. And now we know the Peppers were in play.

Of course, in reporting the interrogation story, the Times played up the conflict between the FBI and the CIA big, but buried the lead. In the final two paragraphs of the lengthy report, the importance of the Chili Pepper story emerges. Times reporter David Johnston quotes yet another anonymous "government official" as saying, "The fact of the matter is that Abu Zubaydah was defiant and evasive until the approved procedures were used. He soon began to provide information on key Al Qaeda operators to help us find and capture those responsible for the 9/11 attacks."

That sounds like a good thing to me, but I do have some advice for the CIA the next time around: Use Ludacris, and you'll get bin Laden.





By: Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com

Reminds me of the Al Capp character, Fearless Fosdick who would tie up Anyface and make him listen to the Wildroot jingle over and over and over.

"GET WILDROOT CREAM OIL CHARLEY."

I'm not a fan of the Chili Peppers, though I'm sure I've built up a tolerance to them over the years. Even so, I would probably confess to any crime imaginable or invent any information I could think of if I were made to listen to them for more than three or four hours. I have to wonder why, if this technique is so effective, it has not been applied to all the detainees at Guantanamo. Surely every last iota of valuable intelligence would have been squeezed from them by now. Similarly, why is the Bush administration so adamant about retroactively making legal acts of torture if those acts have never been committed and there is no intention to commit them in the future?

Somewhere, Attila the Hun is weeping with laughter.

I find it very revealing that you would make an oblique comparison of how Attila the Hun might treat prisoners with the way that the Bushistas are suggesting we treat them.

You seem to be implying --"Hey!...the interrogation methods the USA is using on prisoners is NOTHING compared to what somone like Attila the Hun would have done!

As John McCain has tried to tell the pro-torture contingent of Reichwingers in Washington, if the US Government is going to sanction the torture of people we are holding, it will leave this nation NO leg to stand on ---in demanding humane treatment for captured prisoners--- in some future situation when a foreign power possibly captures a soldier from THIS country.

John McCain and a small handful of others in Washington apparently want this nation to stand up and be BETTER than other countries are in regards to torturing people who they capture..........while little fucking armchair warriors --like Rumfled and Bush-- who have never undergone anything 1/1000th as horrific as what McCain has been subjected to, are apparently determined to keep pushing the notion that , --"Oh well, the barbaric Arabs treat people who they capture very badly so why shouldn't WE in the U.S. feel free to act in the same way?!?!"

Sickening.

McCain is addicted to his supposed "maverick" status. What that word means is you are a Republican disagreeing with your party. Why isn't Joe Lieberman regularly called a maverick?

This publicity hound gave himself away the other day when he said he doesn't care if this stand ruins his chances of getting elected president.
Who brought that up in the first place? Him.

This is nothing but maverick-maintenance meant to help his chances of mainstream appeal. The fact that he links it to his potential presidency shows that he wants it thus linked.

The freezing room would have got me.
Although I must admit. It would be better than the old bamboo shoots under the fingernails, electric testical shock, thumb screws, and a few other goodies that were available.

McCain is addicted to his supposed "maverick" status. What that word means is you are a Republican disagreeing with your party. Why isn't Joe Lieberman regularly called a maverick?

Maybe Joe has an incompetent PR agent.


This publicity hound gave himself away the other day when he said he doesn't care if this stand ruins his chances of getting elected president.
Who brought that up in the first place? Him.

I guess I never thought of McCain as a publicity hound, at least, not moreso than any other politician.


This is nothing but maverick-maintenance meant to help his chances of mainstream appeal. The fact that he links it to his potential presidency shows that he wants it thus linked.

If that's true I don't see it as a problem in any way, and I would also add that I think it's at least likely that Mr. McCain has some personal feelings about torture that might have affected his decision in this matter.

I wonder how long he was in there before he cracked. That's kinda funny using the Chili Peppers - I don't think I would have minded so much, I like a lot of their music.

The story sounds a little shady though, quoting 'anonymous government officials'? But if this is all the government did, I don't have many qualms against it.