Senior Active-Duty General Says Positive Things About Waterboarding; Will Media Demand Clarification

[babylonsister]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/11/top_onduty_gene.php

Senior Active-Duty General Says Positive Things About Waterboarding; Will Media Demand Clarification?
November 5, 2007 -- 4:43 PM EST


It'll be very, very interesting indeed to see if this gets any media play.

A senior active-duty U.S. Army general has just come out and made some positive comments about waterboarding that come pretty close to an endorsement of the technique.

Via Editor and Publisher, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a surprising interview with three-star Army General Russel Honore in which he responds to questions about waterboarding by saying that "we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done."

Some of you may have heard Honore's name before. That's because he was widely lauded by the media in 2005 after he took control of the government's sluggish response to Gulf Coast residents after Hurricane Katrina. He's a high-profile military figure.

Should a highly-visible active-duty Army general really be saying anything that even approaches an endorsement of waterboarding? This technique is against Army regulations. The Army field manual on interrogations, which was revised in 2006, explicitly says that waterboarding is forbidden. Indeed, according to Spencer Ackerman, who is TPM's resident expert on such matters, if a soldier or an officer is found to have used an interrogation technique outside the field manual, he or she will have an appointment with a court martial board.

But here's what General Honore has to say about waterboarding in his interview with AJC:

"I don't know much about it, but I know we're dealing with terrorists who do some very awful things to people," he said after Friday morning's speech to about 900 students at Flat Rock Middle School in Tyrone. "I know enough about that the intent is not to kill anybody. We know that terrorists that we deal with, they have no law that they abide by. They have no code, they kill indiscriminately, like they did on 9/11."

And this:

Honore, however, said the military will always remain within the limits of the law, but warned that stiffer interrogation methods may sometimes be necessary in the war on terror.

"If we picked up a prisoner that could tell us where the next 9/11 plot was, we could sit there and treat him nice, and that may not work," he said. "We could sit there and give him water and we could be politically correct.

"But if we have to use sources and methods that get information that not only save American lives, but save other people's lives or could prevent a major catastrophe from happening, I think the American people can decide {whether to allow waterboarding}."

Then came something that sounded very close to an endorsement of the technique:

"As long as we're responsible for hunting those SOBs down, finding them and preventing them from killing our sons and daughters," Honore said, "I think we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done."

So a high-profile active-duty U.S. Army general is basically giving a thumbs-up of sorts to a technique that the U.S. Army's own interrogation manual -- which was revised specifically to prevent future abuses similar to Abu Ghraib -- says is forbidden. One that is internationally regarded as a war crime.

That seems like it should be a story. Is any enterprising reporter gonna call up General Honore and seek clarification of his views?

Any takers?

[babylonsister]

1. So, any word on Honore yet? nt