|
2. MSNBC's Shuster: Water Boarding Equivalent to Shooting Off Legs
3. AP Sycophantically Relays Bill's Praise for Hillary's Intellect
4. Boston Legal: Iraq Spending Could 'Convert Every Car to Ethanol'
Lauer wanted to know: "Where was the permission given, in your opinion? The highest levels of the CIA? Was the White House involved in that decision?" Lauer soon played 2006 video of President Bush telling Lauer the U.S. doesn't employ torture and then prodded Kiriakou to disagree with Bush. Wrapping up the segment, Lauer wondered: "Can you think of any reason why the CIA would have destroyed the tapes of those interrogations other than to destroy valuable and incriminating evidence in a possible torture investigation?" When Kiriakou suggested a more innocent explanation that "somebody just wasn't thinking and they went ahead and did it without, without thought," Lauer countered: "That's somewhat naive." In contrast, on CBS's The Early Show, Harry Smith asked: "This technique was used on Zabayda to what result?" Kiriakou answered: "The result was that he opened up and cooperated fully." Smith added: "Right, he literally cracked like an egg." Smith soon pushed Kiriakou to elaborate: "So he's water boarded, he cracks like an egg, the next morning he gets up, he says he has a vision, what kind of information did he impart then?" Kiriakou: "He gave us detailed information on planned al Qaeda attacks." (In soundbites aired in a story from David Martin later on Tuesday's CBS Evening News, Kiriakou recalled that in 2002 "we were so worried that there was some major attack being prepared" and how "it was that information that he provided after the water boarding that allowed us to disrupt so many different terrorist operations...there was a truck loaded with explosives that we were able to intercept.") [This item was posted late Tuesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [1] ] In the September of 2006 Oval Office interview with Bush which Lauer highlighted with Kiriakou, Lauer had lectured the President about the type a facility used to hold Zubayda: "The head of Amnesty International says secret sites are against international law." The September 12, 2006 MRC CyberAlert item, "Lauer Worries With Hillary, Then Pounds Bush on Interrogations," recounted (with video):
The September 11 CyberAlert recounted: Friday's NBC Nightly News previewed an exchange between President Bush and Matt Lauer in the Oval Office, part of a longer session that will air on Monday's Today show, in which Lauer cited Amnesty International as the authority to undermine Bush's assertion that secret prisons to hold al-Qaeda operatives are legal. When Lauer indicted Bush, painting Bush as guilty of some kind of misdeed -- "You admitted that there were these CIA secret facilities" -- Bush scoffed: "So what? Why is that not within the law?" Lauer then retorted: "The head of Amnesty International says secret sites are against international law." Bush countered: "Most American people, if I said that we had who we think's the mastermind of the 9/11, they would say, 'Why don't you see if you can't get information out of him without torturing,' which is what we did." For the September 12, 2006 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org [2] For the September 11, 2006 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org [3] The MRC's Kyle Drennen corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the December 11 Early Show segment on CBS:
HARRY SMITH: The Director of the CIA testifies behind closed doors on Capitol Hill today about the controversial destruction of videotapes that recorded the interrogations of two terror suspects. John Kiriakou is a former CIA officer who led the raid which captured the Al Qaeda operative Abu Zabada. And he joins us this morning in New York. Good morning. The MRC's Geoffrey Dickens provided this transcript of the December 11 Today show session on NBC: MATT LAUER, TOP OF SHOW TEASE: Also members of Congress are gonna have some very tough questions for the head of the CIA this morning. Among them, why did the CIA destroy videotapes of the interrogation and water boarding of a top al Qaeda operative. This, as a former CIA agent, directly involved in the capture of that operative contradicts the White House and the Justice Department saying that, in fact, the United States used torture to get that al Qaeda operative to crack. We'll talk to that CIA agent in just a couple of minutes. LAUER, SETTING UP A STORY: Now to the CIA under fire today. Did it try to cover up the harsh tactics used to get al Qaeda suspects to talk? NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell has more on that. Andrea, good morning to you. [On screen headline: "CIA Under Fire, Former Agent Defends Torture"]
LAUER, AFTER THE MITCHELL PIECE: The former CIA agent, you just saw in Andrea's piece, John Kiriakou led the team that captured al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. Now he calls the water boarding that was used on Zubayda, torture. Mr. Kiriakou, good morning, nice to see you.
KIRIAKOU: He was in terrible physical condition when we first captured him. He had been shot in the operation to capture him and he was in a coma for, for much of the first several days. He finally came out of it and at first was just speaking nonsensically. He wanted a glass of red wine, for example. Then he asked me if I would smother him with a pillow. But once he really came out of it and began talking he expressed regret for the, for the attacks and things like that.
[BEGIN CLIP FROM SEPTEMBER 2006 INTERVIEW]
LAUER: You disagree.
Later in the segment, Shuster began wildly comparing water boarding to violent acts: "If you believe that America should torture, fine! Water board them! Drill them in the kneecaps. Shoot, shoot their legs off! Whatever you want to do." Scarborough responded by laughing and, in a nod to the 24 TV show, announced: "I'm not Jack Bauer." [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Tuesday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [4] ] Shuster, a regular correspondent for Hardball and other MSNBC programs, repeatedly sparred with Scarborough over whether water boarding, which amounts to simulated drowning, is torture. Showing frustration with both Shuster and his "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough wondered: "David, what would you have us do? My God....I am at this point getting very frustrated because you two are in the distinct minority in America. What would you have our CIA agents, what would you have our interrogators do?" Scarborough's guest also saw nefarious motives to the revelation that videotapes showing CIA interrogations of detainees have been destroyed. He heatedly asked: "Why did somebody feel it was necessary to destroy the tapes?...If it's in such a controlled environment, if it's so successful and if it's something we can all be proud of, let's show the tapes, let's show the American people, here's what we're doing." A transcript of the segment, which aired at 6:40am EST on December 11:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Let's go to Des Moines, Iowa right now and David Shuster. He's an NBC political correspondent. How are you doing, David Shuster?
In his Tuesday "Best of the Web Today" posting/e-mail for OpinionJournal.com, James Taranto mocked an AP dispatch by Mike Glover in Ames, Iowa which sycophantically relayed Bill Clinton's praise for his wife's intellect and how she's "the most gifted person of our generation." Taranto's December 11 item: Accountability Journalism Strikes Again! From Ames, Iowa, the Associated Press brings us the latest in hard-hitting campaign coverage: Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was so struck by her intellect and ability he once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. That didn't happen, of course, and on Monday he gave an Iowa crowd his version of why it didn't. "I thought it would be wrong for me to rob her of the chance to be what I thought she should be," said [Mr.] Clinton. "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run for anything, I'm too hardheaded.'"... "She has spent a lifetime as a change agent when she had the option to do other things," he said. "I thought she was the most gifted person of our generation," said Clinton, who said he told her, "You know, you really should dump me and go back home to Chicago or go to New York and take one of those offers you've got and run for office." END of Excerpt of AP story As we noted in June, the Associated Press has adopted a new journalistic ethos called "accountability journalism," whose goal, according to an internal newsletter, is "to report whether government officials are doing the job for which they were elected and keeping the promises they make." If the AP's coverage of Mrs. Clinton's campaign isn't an example of bravely speaking truth to power, we don't know what is. END of Taranto's item For the AP article in full: www.breitbart.com [5] For the December 11 "Best of the Web Today," go to: www.opinionjournal.com [6]
For this, Hollywood needs writers? [This item was posted Wednesday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [7] ] This is hardly the first time David Kelley, Executive Producer of the show, has used it to promote liberal causes and ridicule conservatives. An episode last season was packed full of political jabs at congressional Republicans and Vice President Cheney and in a show the season before that Shore railed against the bias on the Fox News Channel ("You need to change the channel. The awful things you speak of never happen on the 'fair and balanced' newscasts") and the war on terrorism: "When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up....And, now it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens -- you and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, FINALLY, the American people will have had enough. Evidently, we haven't." Shore soon compared the current climate to that of the McCarthy era. Last season ended on a bit of an embarrassing note: Nearly eight weeks before six medical doctors were arrested for their involvement in the late June terrorist attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, ABC aired an episode which derided the idea a doctor could be a terrorist. ABC's page for Boston Legal: abc.go.com [8] The bio of the "Shore" character: abc.go.com [9] IMDb's page on Kelley: www.imdb.com [10] The September 25 CyberAlert item, "ABC's Boston Legal Ridiculed Idea Doctor Could Be a Terrorist," recounted:
Pressed by the Massachusetts state court judge about jurisdictional questions, Shore launched into a political diatribe: "Okay. I realize the jurisdictional barriers are prohibitive but, your honor, we don't let the little things like the law stand in our way in this great country. The law, for example, recognizes the Geneva Convention but we say, 'the Hell with it.' The law has very strict regulations on domestic wiretapping and we say, 'the Hell with it.' The law says if you shoot somebody with a shotgun mistaking him for a quail you really should call the police." For the rundown in full: www.mrc.org [11] The January 18 MRC CyberAlert posting, "ABC's 'Boston Legal' Takes Cheap Shots at GOP and Dick Cheney," began: Tuesday's Boston Legal prime time drama on ABC was packed full of political jabs at congressional Republicans and Vice President Cheney. Buffoonish conservative lawyer "Denny Crane" (played by William Shatner) was placed on the "No Fly List" and when liberal lawyer "Alan Shore" (played by James Spader) asked if Crane had called for help, he responded: "Well, I can't get anybody. I called Tom DeLay, his number's disconnected. Foley has got his hands full, Frist said, "Don't take it personally." I called Clarence Thomas; his office said he was indisposed." Shore then asked, "Have you tried going right to the top?" Crane replied: "Cheney?" Shore also linked being "red, white and blue" with not reading newspapers and got in a slap at Cheney in a quip about avoiding "the rich friend who will take you to his quail ranch and let you shoot him." For the entire posting: www.mrc.org [12] The March 21, 2006 MRC CyberAlert article, "ABC's Boston Legal Airs Anti-Bush Tirade that Raises McCarthy Era," reported (with video): Another episode of ABC's prime time drama Boston Legal will air tonight (Tuesday). Last week's episode featured a plot line with over-the-top lawyer "Alan Shore," played by James Spader, delivering a five-minute-long closing argument, in defense of a woman who wouldn't pay income taxes, railing against the war on terrorism. Earlier, explaining to Shore her reasoning, the woman, "Melissa Hughes," cited how her grandfather, who fought in World War I, would be "embarrassed" by "what's happening today." She listed "us torturing people, spying on our own people, squashing everybody's civil liberties. My grandfather would weep." To which Shore got in an obvious slap at FNC: "You need to change the channel. The awful things you speak of never happen on the 'fair and balanced' newscasts." In his closing, Shore cited a litany of misdeeds, including: "When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up....And, now it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens -- you and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, FINALLY, the American people will have had enough. Evidently, we haven't." Shore soon compared the current climate to that of the McCarthy era, recalling what he read in a book by Adlai Stevenson: "Too often, sinister threats to the bill of rights, to freedom of the mind, 'are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism.' Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism." For the complete CyberAlert article: www.mrc.org [13] Now back to the December 11 episode, the exchange between "Shore," an attorney at an imaginary Boston law firm full of quirky characters, and a judge irritated by Shore's ridiculous case against the National Guard, which somehow has made it into court:
ALAN SHORE: My point: We're not getting services at home. The people in New Orleans didn't after Katrina, my client didn't here. And by the way, I don't think I'm that much of a complainer given all there is to complain about: education, Social Security, inflation, unemployment, health care, homeland security, the war, the fact that Osama and Britney keep pumping out new videos, there's global warming. Nothing, nothing is going right, judge, and you simply cannot put a positive spin on it no matter how many times you say "General Petraeus." -- Brent Baker
|
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who was part of the team which interrogated captured al Qaeda leader Abu Zubayda, appeared Tuesday on the CBS and NBC morning shows, but while CBS's Harry Smith was most interested in how water boarding led Zubayda to reveal future attack plans, on NBC's Today show Matt Lauer focused on fueling political scandal over the use of torture: He zeroed in on getting Kiriakou to confirm the authority to water board came from the White House and to contradict President Bush's insistence the U.S. does not use torture while Lauer contended the videos were destroyed to eliminate "incriminating evidence." 
While NBC's Matt Lauer baited Senator Hillary Clinton on Monday's Today to admonish the administration and to say we're not safer, he attacked the President for, in fact, trying to make the nation safer. Lauer prompted Clinton: "Are you comfortable that the United States did not break the law in conducting that kind of interrogations in those secret sites?" Then later in the program, Lauer repeatedly pressed Bush over interrogation methods used on terrorists: "The head of Amnesty International says secret sites are against international law." Lauer worried: "Are you at all concerned that at some point, even if you get results, there is a blurring the lines of, between ourselves and the people we're trying to protect us against?" 
SMITH: Let's talk about this a little bit, because we have done segments on water boarding before on this show, shown what it's about. Many, even former CIA officials, say that this is in fact torture. This technique was used on Zabayda to what result? 
LAUER: Fast forward and Zubayda is sent to one of these secret locations somewhere. You will not disclose that and I understand why and he was questioned using these so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques." 
GEORGE W. BUSH: Matt, I'm not gonna talk about techniques and I'm not gonna explain to the enemy what we're doing. All I'm telling you is that you've asked me whether or not we're doing things to protect the American people and I want the American people to know we are doing so. [edit jump] I told our people get information without torture and was assured by our Justice Department that we were not torturing. 
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and reporter David Shuster squared off in a heated battle on Tuesday over whether waterboarding constitutes torture. Scarborough appeared exasperated with his left-leaning guest and, at one point, derided him: "Are you an expert? When did you decide and when did the liberal media decide and when did all of us in Manhattan, Georgetown and West Hollywood decide that water boarding was torture?" 
Tuesday night on ABC's farcical drama, Boston Legal, the firm represented a client suing the National Guard for failing to protect his pizza shop from a flood because the soldiers were deployed in Iraq, providing a chance for lawyer "Alan Shore," played by James Spader, to launch into a courtroom rant about "what the $450 billion dollars we spent on Iraq could buy us." He offered a litany of left-wing talking points, from "free health care" to ending hunger to -- seriously -- converting every car to run on ethanol: "How about free health insurance for every uninsured family, $124 billion. Convert every single car to run on ethanol, $68 billion. Primary education for every child on the planet -- all of them -- $30 billion. Hey, end hunger in America, $7 billion....We have to talk about the cost of this war in terms of human lives." 
Nearly eight weeks before six medical doctors were arrested for their involvement in the late June terrorist attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, ABC's Boston Legal drama -- which has its 90-minute season premiere tonight (Tuesday) -- aired an episode which ridiculed the idea a doctor could be a terrorist. In the May 8 episode, titled "Guantanamo by the Bay," attorney "Alan Shore," played by James Spader, takes up the case of British citizen "Benyam Kallah" suing the government, oddly in state court, over Kallah's torture at the Guantanamo Bay facility after he was picked up in Afghanistan where he claims he was doing "humanitarian" work. On the witness stand, Kallah describes the torture and how a friend detained with him couldn't take the torture any longer and so committed suicide. Concluding the scene meant to show the silliness and incompetence of the military for detaining such obviously innocent men, Shore asked: "Was your friend a terrorist?" Kallah replied: "No, he was a doctor." 
SHORE: Let's just consider what the $450 billion dollars we spent on Iraq could buy us. How about free health insurance for every uninsured family, $124 billion. Convert every single car to run on ethanol, $68 billion. Primary education for every child on the planet -- all of them -- $30 billion. Hey, end hunger in America, $7 billion.