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kpete

(71,898 posts)
Tue Apr 29, 2014, 10:47 PM Apr 2014

Ms. Palin: "Imagine our beloved troops hooked to electrodes, handcuffed naked and tormented by dogs"

In June 2008, then-Gov. Palin described America's war in Iraq as "a task that is from God." Just three months later, John McCain's new running mate spoke at the deployment ceremony for her 19-year old son and the Alaska-based 25th Infantry Division's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, known as the "Arctic Wolves." Mercifully, PFC Palin safely completed his tour and returned home.

But imagine the horror if a different scenario played out. Imagine if in early March 2009, Private Palin and two other U.S. soldiers were captured by Al Qaeda militants on the outskirts of Diyala, Iraq. Imagine our beloved troops hooked to electrodes, handcuffed naked and tormented by dogs, tactics Americans learned were applied at Abu Ghraib 10 years ago this week. And imagine Private Palin gasping for air as AQI terrorists simulated drowning him, just like American interrogators did when they waterboarded Abu Zabaydah, torture that produced no actionable intelligence. As the Washington Post reported in 2009:


The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.


That doesn't sound like "a task that is from God." And if it had been performed on her own son, Sarah Palin probably would not have referred to his near-suffocation and drowning as a "baptism."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/29/1295640/-The-Baptism-of-Private-Palin
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