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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Post goes pro-torture

Post goes pro-torture

by DougJ|  August 29, 20091:22 pm| 27 Comments

This post is in: Media

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Ben Smith has an interesting analysis of the Post’s pro-torture, pro-Cheney piece on KSM today:

The Washington Post leads today with an extraordinary story cutting against the conclusions of a series of recent government and media reports to cast as straight news — with a few hedges and qualifications — that waterboarding and sleep deprivation worked like a charm to turn Kalid Sheik Mohammed from an enemy into an “asset.”

The story — which seems sure to provoke an intense reaction from the many critics of President Bush’s interrogation policies, and to make an appearance in Dick Cheney’s appearance on Fox News Sunday tomorrow — bears all the marks of some complicated internal discussions over at the Post, which has been on the defensive since its reporting in the run up to the Iraq war. A sign of the internal focus on the piece: The story — appearing as the paper’s top story on an off day, a Saturday — has three major bylines and just a tagline from national security reporter Walter Pincus.

Does this mean that Pincus didn’t want his name on it? I don’t quite understand what Smith is alluding to, but it’s an interesting observation that (1) this seems to be Cheney talking points presented as straight news and (2) the strange byline is indicative of some internal turmoil.

Update. Commenter bayville has a pretty good possible explanation:

I don’t think it’s that complicated at all. WaPo set out to write a story on whether torture applied to KSM was helpful. They interviewed a lot of political and bureaucratic appointees from the Bush regime. Pincus contacted some a-political experts to add to the story. Editors probably stuck in what Pincus offered about 7-8 paragraphs in beginning with the:

Critics say waterboarding and other harsh methods are unacceptable regardless of their results, and those with detailed knowledge of the CIA’s program say the existing assessments offer no scientific basis to draw conclusions about effectiveness.

“Democratic societies don’t use torture under any circumstances. It is illegal and immoral,” said Tom Parker, policy director for counterterrorism and human rights at Amnesty International. “This is a fool’s argument in any event. There is no way to prove or disprove the counterfactual.”

It really is an astonishing story in that large part of the story totally dismantles the Cheneyist theory on Torture. Most of the supporting info is offered by unnamed, anonymous officials or political supporters.

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Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    burnspbesq

    August 29, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    Wanna guess who was the only living former Vice President that didn’t show up at Ted Kennedy’s funeral?

    Yup. Don Ricardo, the head of the Organized Crime Family that bears his name.

    Pure evil, that one.

  2. 2.

    bayville

    August 29, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    I don’t think it’s that complicated at all. WaPo set out to write a story on whether torture applied to KSM was helpful. They interviewed a lot of political and bureaucratic appointees from the Bush regime. Pincus contacted some a-political experts to add to the story. Editors probably stuck in what Pincus offered about 7-8 paragraphs in beginning with the:

    Critics say waterboarding and other harsh methods are unacceptable regardless of their results, and those with detailed knowledge of the CIA’s program say the existing assessments offer no scientific basis to draw conclusions about effectiveness.
    “Democratic societies don’t use torture under any circumstances. It is illegal and immoral,” said Tom Parker, policy director for counterterrorism and human rights at Amnesty International. “This is a fool’s argument in any event. There is no way to prove or disprove the counterfactual.”

    It really is an astonishing story in that large part of the story totally dismantles the Cheneyist theory on Torture. Most of the supporting info is offered by unnamed, anonymous officials or political supporters.

  3. 3.

    kay

    August 29, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    He was busy. Planting stories in the Washington Post. That newspaper is turning into the place truth goes to die.
    I’m glad Mr. Cheney got his cite, in time for the television interview rounds.

  4. 4.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    August 29, 2009 at 1:36 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Pure evil, that one.

    Can’t take any chances – the priest might sprinkle the audience with holy water. Whatwould happen next if he caught some, and being shown on live TV at that, that would be bad for business.

  5. 5.

    geg6

    August 29, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    I think you’re right, Doug. Pincus didn’t want his name on it. Or they froze him out. Cheney is the best proof out there that there is no god. He is the poster boy for the essential immorality of man. He is what happens when all social controls and personal struggles for accountability are shrugged off. Evil, evil, evil. And so is the WaPoo for validating him.

  6. 6.

    bayville

    August 29, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    Here’s my favorite part of the story, that supposedly “proves” how effective and essential KSM’s info was.

    One former agency official recalled that Mohammed was once asked to write a summary of his knowledge about al-Qaeda’s efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction. The terrorist group had explored buying either an intact nuclear weapon or key components such as enriched uranium, although there is no evidence of significant progress on that front.

    “He wrote us an essay” on al-Qaeda’s nuclear ambitions, the official said. “Not all of it was accurate, but it was quite extensive.”

  7. 7.

    JK

    August 29, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    Great essay by Walter Pincus
    Newspaper Narcissism http://www.cjr.org/essay/newspaper_narcissism_1.php?page=all

    Good interviews with Walter Pincus
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/interviews/pincus.html
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/22/interview-with-walter-pin_n_92887.html

  8. 8.

    kay

    August 29, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    @bayville:

    If it’s crucial the US torture, conservatives should rewrite the applicable law, using the process we have for that.
    I think a member of the legislature has to put up legislation, and if it passes, it goes to a court challenge.
    That’s the process.
    That Dick Cheney and allied conservatives are relying on the Washington Post and polling to litigate this in the media is itself an indictment. Why not use process? That way, there’s political accountability.
    Up or down, and then we go to court.

  9. 9.

    wilfred

    August 29, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    Success has a hundred fathers, failure is an orphan. Maybe the presence of 3 names means they all want to be in on the big kill, same with Pincus.

    Anyone who didn’t could easily get out of it.

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    August 29, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    I’m impressed and troubled in equal measure at the residual power still held by the GWB administration. They didn’t aggregate all that power and influence just to hand it over last January.

    Astrophysicists should study the dark matter that is Cheney’s soul. There are some new particles lurking in there.

  11. 11.

    bayville

    August 29, 2009 at 1:47 pm

    @kay

    Why not use process?

    That would require governing and effort — Republicans don’t like that stuff.

    Besides, why worry about that stuff when the opposition party keeps preaching “look ahead, not backward”.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    August 29, 2009 at 1:47 pm

    Cheney understands that power in Washington belongs to the person who sets the agenda. As long as everyone is arguing about “harsh interrogation”, there won’t be any fundamental debate about foreign policy.

  13. 13.

    kay

    August 29, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    @bayville:

    I agree, to a certain extent, but that’s what already happened. Conservatives are arguing that torture is essential for national security. Current law forbids torture. You see the tension, I’m sure.
    They can’t say that it was essential once, but is no longer essential, because that doesn’t make any sense.
    Okay. Change the law. Problem solved. It won’t be retroactive, but they cannot continue to promote torture while it remains unlawful. They’re demanding immunity WHILE insisting these acts weren’t unlawful, WHILE promoting the same unlawful acts as essential to national security.
    This is just gibberish, which is why they’re litigating it in the pages of the Washington Post, and terrified to enter a more rigorous forum.

  14. 14.

    Kryptik

    August 29, 2009 at 2:04 pm

    Between this and the puff piece for the NOM leader, do we finally have enough ammo to put to rest that WaPo is in any way liberal outside of Eugene Robinson and Dionne (who are likely candidates for the chopping block next)?

  15. 15.

    Doctor Science

    August 29, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    Glenzilla eviscerates the Post article. You’ll note that Ben Smith seems to notice none of this. Was it Glenn or someone else who said Politico wants to be the web’s equivalent of the Washington Post? Whoever said it, they’re right.

  16. 16.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    August 29, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    @Kryptik:

    Between this and the puff piece for the NOM leader, do we finally have enough ammo to put to rest that WaPo is in any way liberal outside of Eugene Robinson and Dionne

    Maybe they can compare notes with Norm Ornstein about what it feels like to share the same building with a bunch of bloodthirsty neocon lunatics. Personally, I can’t tell the difference between the WaPo and the AEI any more.

  17. 17.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    August 29, 2009 at 2:17 pm

    @Doctor Science:

    Glenzilla eviscerates the Post article.

    Glenn is the Minotaur in our media labyrinth.

  18. 18.

    Demo Woman

    August 29, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    FOX news must have known that this piece of rubbish was going to be released. The timing of the piece coming before Cheney’s appearance is too coincidental.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 29, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    Serious question: Do you think just possibly Cheney stayed away not so much b/c of Kennedys or Obamas or Clintons, but b/c he would be breathing the same air as W for a couple of hours. I think the enmity between those two now makes Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter look like BFF.

  20. 20.

    Donald G

    August 29, 2009 at 3:38 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Nah. Cheney’s under the delusion that he’s still President… er, Vice President, and that he has to stay in his undisclosed location while W is out and about… and vice-versa.

    “If he had been a NICE president, then he wouldn’t have been the VICE president.” :-)

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 29, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    @Donald G

    You are probably right, but I’m still thinking Dickwad Cheney loathes, hates and detests Dubya because of his not pardoning Scooter before leaving office in January. And DwC seems like the kind of person (I use the term loosely) who could and would allow that resentment from 8 months ago boil up into full-bore fury.

    But your explanation is more plausible :-)

  22. 22.

    burnspbesq

    August 29, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    Sigh. I’m arguably just over-reacting to style, but it is at time like this, when Greenwald is obviously correct but seems incapable of dialing back the rhetoric, that he drives me most nuts.

    Dude, the facts speak for themselves. Let them.

  23. 23.

    Funkhauser

    August 29, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    And this is why I don’t give the WaPo any pageviews.

  24. 24.

    Chris Baldwin

    August 29, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    Astonishing what happened to America under Bush-Cheney, truly astonishing. Thank God Obama got elected.

  25. 25.

    Troy Goss

    August 30, 2009 at 9:28 am

    The anti torture absolutists cannot reasonably believe (and if you do you are incredibly stupid or intellectually dishonest) that having MORE restrictions on interrogations will produce more and better evidence on anti American plots than having LESS restrictive interrogations.

    There are TWO arguments here that absolutists intellectually can’t or won’t handle due to hyperpartisanship in many instances.

    One: Do the techniques work?
    Two: SHOULD we use those techniques?

    One is certainly related to the other but the intellectual inability to separate the two arguments shows some seriously feeble minds.

  26. 26.

    T. O'Hara

    August 30, 2009 at 11:19 am

    this seems to be Cheney talking points presented as straight news

    Why? Because it truthfully reported the CIA’s conclusions? Are you still pretending KSM wasn’t helpful after being waterboarded? Do you think it was unrelated? Are you still claiming it is conservatives who are blinded by ideology?

  27. 27.

    mutt

    August 30, 2009 at 12:50 pm

    One: Do the techniques work?
    Two: SHOULD we use those techniques?

    One: No.
    Two: No.

    Next…….

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