Customer Reviews:
 Hope/Vote For Change March 7, 2010
Tony Pipia (Georgia)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
Hope/Vote For Change
"Bush Derangement Syndrome" (BDS) has become a study in comedy theater.
Yes, there was reason for concern when the inmates stormed the asylum in 2006.
Even-more-so after the last presidential election, when the plague of these histrionic heretics became more deeply entrenched and then infected the White House.
But here we are, more than five years after this tumor became critical, and over a year after "Clowning and Pimping" (i.e. similar to Cloward and Pivens, only different,) seized the helm of the asylum, and these jesters, like an army of Pierre Gringoire-type Lilliputians, led by the trickster, toady and turkey trinity (i.e. Obama, Pelosi and Reid,) has done nothing more than rile the ire of Quasimodo and awaken ole Gulliver to their ridiculous and (almost) benign threat.
But I digress.
Should using EITs be a choice between letting innocents die, or jumping on a grenade and sacrificing oneself?
Thiessen raises this specter.
After the presidential election, Obama and his incompetent administration were flushed with an effervescent and energetic exuberance that caused the true colors of their radical and anti-American stripes to come frothing to the surface immediately for all to see.
For example, the Jurist-for-Jihad-General, Eric Holder, let club-wielding Black Panthers go free while he persecuted the CIA and its administrative council for the way they were protecting and keeping the American people safe.
Is pursuing the CIA a means for placing Bush and Cheney on trial?
Thiessen exposes this peccant phantom as well.
Was the attempt to move KSM et.al. into civilian courts another strategy that, in their frothing foolishness, Obobble and his band of nefarious bumblers thought would enable them to place Bush/Cheney on trial in the public square?
This is another crooked chimera that Thiessen conjures in the mind.
How else does one explain scrapping the anti-terror apparatus that was painstakingly crafted by the Bush administration after 9/11?
According to Thiessen, that anti-terror apparatus thwarted at least eight large-scale terrorist attacks that were in their final stages of planning at the time that they were stopped.
Thiessen also reminds us that Bush kept us safe for the remainder of his administration after 9/11.
We didn't witness another terrorist attack until after the White House Hasan invited the Panty Bomber over for figs and futility.
And what of the untold damage inflicted on our national security and intelligence culture when Nicolae Hussein Carpathia, after shutting down the EIT program, began exposing our interrogation tactics to terrorists and unleashing the Jurist-for-Jihad-General, like Damien's dog, onto the CIA?
"With these actions, Barack Obama arguably did more damage to America's national security ... than any president in American history. ...These were ... the most dangerous and irresponsible acts an American president has ever committed in a time of war." (p.12)
But the most Mephistophelean demon of all, rising from the book like a genie from a bottle, is the notion that the purpose of the Obama drone strikes are to purge (as opposed to eliminate) operatives that have been compromised by the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.
With the EIT program scrapped; with those jihadists that were compromised purged, and with the teaming ranks of fresh jihadists now further case-hardened to our tactics, is the "Jurist-for-Jihad-General" - and his trickster boss - now in infiltrated, more clandestine and powerful positions for waging jihad from within?
The 9/11 terrorists used our own equipment, but it was only commercial equipment.
How much more effective will the jihadists be if they have unbridled access, by way of the White House Hasan, to all of our military wares?
But it is comedy theater indeed, because now we look toward November in confidence, when Quasimodo will dress-down poor Pierre Gringoire and crack him on the palatial polls, Gulliver will snap the fraying ties of the leftist Lilliputians and the peevish Nicolae pretender will face his Waterloo.
Are we on the cusp of a conservative ascendancy, or is this just hope for change?
An Eye Opener March 7, 2010
Fluffy (Houston, TX)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
He's partisan to be sure but does he have the facts on his side, or not? In some cases, it's hard to draw conclusions on some of the allegations. But the author makes a strong case on legal, ethical and moral grounds that enhanced techniques were both effective and justified (they are no longer used). Some people just cannot even allow for the possibility that the vast majority of our professional military personnel are both honorable and disciplined, and not the sadistic morons that brought us Abu Ghraib. Yet the author cites many independent investigations, testimonies and facts which bear this out. Intelligent and moral people can disagree on the tradeoffs between waterboarding and preventing terror attacks. Before reading this, my opinion was that enhanced techniques (which are manifestly NOT torture), are justified rarely. The book details convincingly that the controversial techniques were in fact applied rarely, under controlled and highly circumscribed conditions and produced intel which prevented attacks on the homeland. After reading the book my opinion remains that the techniques are justified, rarely. So this book and the many other independent studies and accounts absolves Bush administration officials of wrongdoing to the fairminded reader who is not an absolute pacifist or a committed left wing radical. It does not absolve certain members of congress who were informed of the techniques and programs and later lied about it, and who continue to lie for purely political reasons.
The real eye opener in the book involves the Center for Constitutional Rights and Michael Ratner, a self described "double agent" (ostensibly defending the constitution but actually seeking to destroy it), whose legions of progressive lawyers flock to the aid of the terrorists, tying our court system in knots and our intelligence agencies hands behind their backs. BUY THIS BOOK FOR THESE CHAPTERS ALONE. It's a chilling read, learning who these folks are and what their true intentions are, in their own words. They are lioninzed in the left wing books on this subject, of course.
I read the one star reviews (curious, only one star negative reviews, no 2 or 3 stars at all). It doesn't appear that these folks read the book and nary a fact nor an argument that's to the point. Just categorical dismissals - willfull blindness.
Wow! Fabulous book March 6, 2010
sherry gentry (Virginia, usa)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
Be warned, I could not put it down. I hope this book will be read by all currently in the white house though that is extremely doubtful. What are they thinking? Mr. Bush and his administration wholeheartedly put Americans safety first. It was refreshing to read about a president who really was Commander in Chief. Marc's facts cannot be denied.
A Must-Read March 4, 2010
Leslie
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Anyone who has followed the debate over waterboarding, torture, secret detentions, etc. MUST READ this book. Thiessen presents an insider's perspective, based on his access to many of the individuals involved in the CIA's interrogation program, as well as to the written records connected to the program. I realize this is an emotional issue for many, but it's worth trying to set feelings aside long enough to let Thiessen make his case. In particular:
-- the CIA program worked. Thiessen lists the documented cases in which terrorists revealed details of future operations or identities of other terrorists. That information was used to thwart attacks and arrest very dangerous actors. You should at least read what he has to say, even if you don't want to believe it.
-- the purpose of denying prisoner of war treatment to captured terrorists or terrorist suspects is to provide an incentive for countries to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Take away that incentive, and you've given away the last reason why terrorists, insurgents, militants or whatever you want to call them shouldn't hide among civilians, use civilians as human shields, and otherwise abuse the local population.
-- why is it better to kill terrorists by missile strikes from drones than to capture, interrogate and debrief them? If we just kill them, we'll never find out what they know.
-- and, although I've read this elsewhere, Thiessen repeats it: thousands of US servicemen have been subjected to waterboarding as part of their training. He explains why it was not classified as torture, and makes a very strong case. Again, I'm sure Thiessen won't convince any 'true believers' - but if you're at all openminded about the issue, then this is the book you must read.
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