Papantonio: KBR Committing Fraud All Over The Planet

[GoLeft TV]

Mike Papantonio talks with Thom Hartmann about KBR’s criminal enterprises in Iraq, and how the company is now trying to make American taxpayers pay for the fraud that the company has been found guilty of.

[Tigress DEM]

1. Let them pay for it themselves!!!

Send them Dick Cheney and let them water board him repeatedly if it will help.

[onthefence1]

2. waterboarding

if my child or husband was killed in the 911 attack, I would beg anyone to use whatever means necessary to find the terrorist that was responsible. 911 was a terrorist attack...America had to respond, there was no alternative. so many innocent lives affected and their loved ones will be affected forever. instead of shooting bid laden, they should have put him in a high-rise and blown up the building so that he could have the true experience of what so many others had to endure.

[Unknown Beatle]

5. Torture doesn't work, period!

The one being tortured will say anything to get out from being tortured. They will say they killed Lincoln and Kennedy if it will stop the torture.

The U.S. executed Japanese war criminals for waterboarding.

[Tigress DEM]

6. Look, you can't GET much more responsible for terror than Cheney.

There ilk thinks water boarding is a legitimate technique and he's got more secrets than most.

KBR was hired by Haliburton - Cheney's company - and he's gotten money from their illegal and irresponsible behavior, so whatever means are required to punish him or make him talk would be fine by me.

Just reward is all I'm talking about.

[Tigress DEM]

7. But we'd be outsourcing the torture AND giving them an American to boot.

I'm not really advocating water boarding in general, just like to see Cheney get SOME of his karma back for all the horrible things he's done.

HE put KBR in the picture via Haliburton and I'm sure he's made money off of KBR's atrocities, so he should pay in EVERY way possible for his part in it.

[ljm2002]

14. That is, of course, a natural reaction...

...and it therefore is a very effective argument for torture.

It is also an excellent illustration of why we cannot base our laws on gut reactions, however widely shared.

First and foremost it is a moral issue. Torture is wrong, period. We risk becoming that which we hate by engaging in it.

Second, torture is ineffective. The person undergoing torture is likely to say what the torturer wants to hear, in order to make it stop. Even if the torture victim is someone who really knows something, interrogation experts have told us they have more effective means than torture for extracting useful information.

Third, because there are more effective means of extracting information than torture, that shows that the true intent of torture is punishment. Now this may provide a certain satisfaction to the torturers and by proxy, to you and me, as a sop to our grieved souls. But then again, we do not see the actual torture being performed. We do not think about the fact that innocent people, or people without useful knowledge, are also tortured in our names. We do not understand that the torturer enjoys his craft, and that we create monsters among us in order to carry out these methods.

That is why our laws must proscribe certain things, such as vigilante justice that people might find satisfying in the moment, and then later it turns out they got the wrong guy -- even though the vigilantes might regret it later, he's still dead. In the case of torture, there are few arguments for it other than it is satisfying to get even with the perpetrators of horrific acts. It is known by expert interrogators to be less effective than other methods. It is morally wrong. Our laws MUST continue to always and unequivocally proscribe torture.

[rhett o rick]

3. kick

[Unknown Beatle]

4. cheney is a heartless asshole!

Starting illegal wars to enrich himself and his buddies. Who cares if millions of people are affected. Who cares if tens of thousands of people lose their lives. Who cares if millions more people are displaced. All for the sake of greed.

The bush white house was full of war criminals, yet, let's look forward and not back.

Two sets of laws, one for the rich and powerful and one for the rest of us. Steal trillions of dollars from the average Joe's and Jane's from Main Street, Anytown, USA, no jail time but you get a bailout from the taxpayer. Smoke a joint, go to jail.

[kitt6]

8. I get a kick out of Pap when he says:

"The usual suspects." The lawyer in him. This B.S. was going on before 2005.

[Overseas]

9. K&R. Hope this will hasten De-Privatizing the Military. Privatization breeds corruption.

The argument in favor of privatization was that it would be cheaper and more efficient and more accountable.

Instead, it brought in major war profiteering that has been much more expensive, less efficient and less accountable.

[benld74]

10. Bush administration will go down in the history of the US as the most corrupt EVER

[kitt6]

11. Kellog, Br

Sorry I'm on the wrong stage

[JEB]

12. More proof

that some Corporations deserve the death penalty.

[Overseas]

13. K&R again for the many details about KBR's war profiteering

Mike reminds us of the many things they have done and how things escalated once they were given immunity in 2005.