Arguing From Scratch

by digby
 
Is Susan Collins being blackmailed by a teabagger or something? How else to explain her suddenly rabid pro-torture, unconstitutional position on terrorist suspects? I suppose this could be the Republican leadership putting the screws to her to make the face of torture more moderate, but whatever it is, she’s become some kind of zealot on this subject.

Dday wrote up her appearance on Andrea Mitchell today, in the wake of the news that the FBI has gotten excellent intelligence and cooperation using legal, humane methods:

Mitchell started by asking Collins if this approach to interrogation wasn’t more favorable than declaring Abdulmutallab an enemy combatant and using torture. Collins claimed that she received testimony from the Director of National Intelligence, Homeland Security Director and the head of the National Counter-Terrorism Center that they were not consulted on the Miranda decision. She also said that there was a long six-week gap between when Abdulmutallab returned to cooperate and provide intelligence, and we lost time-sensitive information.

And Mitchell, who was actually prepared, oddly enough, responded that DNI, DHS and the NCTC all participated in a national security briefing on Abdulmutallab and did know about the Miranda rights decision. She noted that the Nigerian family members would not have helped earn cooperation from Abdulmutallab if he did not have access to a lawyer and was being treated well (ensuring that the intelligence is actually decent instead of a way to get captors to stop torturing him). She said that the Bush Administration proceeded in exactly the same fashion with respect to Richard Reid. And she said that even under military procedures, Abdulmutallab would have had a lawyer.

Collins, shocked that she actually had to defend her moronic talking points, evaded the questions she didn’t want to answer, and replied that the military detainee system provides “more flexibility” – yeah, I’ll bet it does – and that, in fact, Jose Padilla was held as enemy combatant (what a model case!).

Eventually, Collins resignedly said that yes, she’s glad Abdulmutallab is cooperating now, but 5-6 weeks of “time-sensitive information” was lost because the intel wasn’t provided immediately. And the security officials may have known about the Miranda decision, but weren’t consulted enough. Or something.

After the intense debate over torture in the last few years, you’d think we would have finally gotten beyond this argument, but evidently it’s going to be as if it never happened and you have to start all over again educating the “24” addled public about the principles behind the fourth amendment and our constitution, not to mention the sick immorality of torture. (What do these people tell the children, anyway?)

If you need some refreshing on the bullet points, here’s a good start.

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