Ted, The CIA and the FBI have acted like big brother for years now. Now the Patriot Act gives them even more power......all they need and more. Besides, most of their work would be in the field......read ME, Asia and Europe.
Like I said before, when you consider that Abu Ghraib might be an illustration of some of the tactics used "in the field," you too will start wondering whether American security is worth breaching the "rights" of the terrorist suspects.
You are being simplistic. Abu Ghraib was a big deal because we invaded Iraq on the premise we were better than Saddam and then we turned around and used similar but lesser torture tactics on the Iraqis, 90% of whom were not even criminals.
Intel's work is much harder.......you study your potential target until you're sure he's the right one and then you bring him in with the help of the local gov't......or you take him out. However, before you do either, you've done enough intel to know they are the terrorist criminals for whom you're looking.
Therefore, you are subject to much less criticism if torture tactics are use and it becomes well known. In addition, we're talking ones and twos, not hundreds like Iraq. BTW this intel approach is not something new.....its been done for years. However, under Bush 1 and Clinton, apparently the CIA and the FBI became lax and sloppy. For an example, few agents are able to speak Arabic.
How quickly you forget.....PM Aznar lost his job over the issue. He argued with Spanish intel, stating that it was ETA, Basque terrorists, rather than al Qa'ida that did the job. Spanish intel stood its ground and argued otherwise....laying out its case. This is not new news.....do a google.
All of that was hindsight and second-guessing. None of that changes my opinion, though Aznar should have known even in hindsight that it was Al Qaeda instead of Basque terrorists.
One more time.........the day after the attack, Spanish intel said it was al Qa'ida. They were tracking the perpetrators before the incident. They just did not feel they had enough evidence to take them in.
Aznar tried to put it on ETA; Spanish intel balked. The nite before the election the truth came out....the Spaniards were outraged........Aznar lost the election.
Its not hindsight......its what happened at the time.
ted |
