John Yoo & Jay Bybee Deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom Not Presidential Disdain
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 5:59 AM
John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom for saving thousands of American lives.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is, along with the equivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress, the highest civilian award in the U.S. It recognizes those individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Yesterday, it was reported that the enhanced interrogation techniques (EIT) implemented during the Bush years and authorized by John Yoo and Jay Bybee thwarted the number of Al-Qaeda attacks and saved thousands of American lives.
Judicial Watch released the report based on CIA documents it had recently obtained:
According to a June 1, 2005, CIA report entitled, Detainee Reporting Pivotal for the War Against Al-Qa’ida, “Detainee reporting accounts for more than half of all HUMINT reporting on al-Qa’ida since the program began…” Interestingly, this fact was omitted in later versions of the report obtained by Judicial Watch. All versions, however, conclude: “One of the gains to detaining the additional terrorists has been the thwarting of a number of al-Qa’ida operations in the United States and overseas.”
Despite the apparent effectiveness of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the federal government suspended their use in 2005 by passing the Detainee Treatment Act. President Obama officially banned the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” during his first week in office in January 2009. Two months later, in March 2009, President Obama overruled objections from national security officials and released documents detailing the government’s enhanced interrogation program (the so-called “torture” memos). However, President Obama initially withheld information detailing the results of this program, including alleged terrorist plots that the program prevented.
Moreover, according to an April 2009 CNN report, President Obama’s Intelligence Director, retired Admiral Dennis Blair, told colleagues in an April 16 memo on the subject of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” that “High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country.” This sentence was omitted from a version of the memo released by Blair’s office to the press.
“It is unfortunate that it took a federal court order to force the Obama administration to release these documents,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents indicate that members of Congress approved of and were well aware of the use of these enhanced interrogation techniques and their lifesaving value. It is disturbing that we no longer use interrogation techniques that have demonstrably stopped terrorist attacks and saved American lives. The Obama administration has made this country less safe by its mishandling of the enhanced interrogation program.”
But there’s more…
Using EITon 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed helped the US disrupt “dozens” of planned al-Qaida attacks and save hundreds and thousands of lives. Waterboarding 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed led to information that prevented a similar attack on Los Angeles. According to a former intelligence agent, waterboarding of terrorist Abu Zubaydah got him to talk in less than 35 seconds.
So how were the authors of the EIT program treated by the Obama Adminstration? They were threatened with jail time and ridiculed. Uber Pig at BlackFive put it this way:
DOJ bureaucrats in general and the Obama administration in particular threw him as hard as they could, as often as they could, under that 1962 Volkswagen bus otherwise known as the anti-American and self-loathing Left. And he dodged and he dodged and he dodged, Eric Holder grinding the gears until the transmission slipped and the axle bent, and he could be pursued no more.
These heroes won’t get a medal from Team Obama… But they deserve one.
Today John Yoo wrote how leftist policies are working for our soldiers.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
In 2005, a Navy Seal team dropped into Afghanistan encountered goat herders who clearly intended to inform the Taliban of their whereabouts. The team leader ordered them released, against his better military judgment, because of his worries about the media and political attacks that would follow.
In less than an hour, more than 80 Taliban fighters attacked and killed all but one member of the Seal team and 16 Americans on a helicopter rescue mission. If a president cannot, or will not, protect the men and women who fight our nation’s wars, they will follow the same risk-averse attitudes that invited the 9/11 attacks in the first place.
The left must be very proud of the fact that they have the blood of our brave men and women on their hands. Do they even care?
More… Via Instapundit: “John Yoo is entitled to dance a jig on the grave of Eric Holder’s credibility. And he does.”
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Published May 23, 2012 at 11:51 pm - 69 Comments
bitterclinger commented:
Yoo and Bybee WILL get their Presidential Medal of Freedom, but it will be from President Palin and a grateful nation.
MyThomsonGitmo commented:
Watch The Confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: “From A to Z” if you want to see a chilling list of some of the war crimes and atrocities that EIT saved us from.
gus commented:
Maybe this absolutely clueless and incompetant Justice Department could look into possible charges against those who have given The Kenyan dimwit bad advice on climate and non-warming of the globe. Their actions have been willfully criminal and dishonest.
Yoo and Bybee gave a legal opionion LIBTARDS don’t agree with it. I don’t agree with any of Holder’s legal opinions, he’s and effing idiot.
Valerie commented:
I really hate that characterization “dance a jig.” Mainly, it’s because I agree with his opening summary,
“Barack Obama may not realize it, but I may have just helped save his presidency. How? By winning a drawn-out fight to protect his powers as commander in chief to wage war and keep Americans safe.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704188104575083473537079844.html
That is a deeply serious statement, and it is one which which I agree.
The “dance a jig” characterization gives the false impression that John Yoo’s skilled, elegant, effective work is simply part of some partisan squabble. It belittles him.
brooklyn commented:
Well done Mr. Hoft, so true…
Outstanding and well deserved.
Many in the Bush Administration deserve great thanks and acclaim.
jim commented:
What should have never even been a news story produced years worth of posturing and lying for liberal politicians and journalists.
Hey, America. Do you feel safer with all those affirmative-action jackasses and tenured radicals in the White House? How do you like that dope now running homeland security? Do you sleep better at night knowing that she’s in charge?
jj commented:
It bothers me that there’s going to be a lot of blood on this administrations hand, all in the name of political correctness.
Major Kong commented:
John Yoo and Jay Bybee” American Treasures.
Joanne commented:
“Do they even care?”
They don’t give a rat’s ass, and as soon as people wake up to this fact, the better.
Sanpete commented:
What an exercise in selective gullibility. I’m pretty sure you don’t take every biased report based on documents with a high probability of smudging facts to cover butt at face value like this. I have the same sensation I used to have listening to Rush Limbaugh: this is all a bad joke, right?
Shameful, especially at a site with what appears to be Christian pretensions. If nothing else, Christian principles would require an exceptionally high standard of proof for such glorying in violence, not uncritical acceptance of stories about the virtues of inhumane treatment. Such gullibility among those who should know better is inexcusable. Why not take into account the analyses in anti-torture reports that question the reliability of the CIA claims? I think you owe the principles of intellectual honesty and Christian teaching that much.
Sojourner commented:
When I think of what these two men have personally endured to protect and defend us from terror I’m truly in awe of their courage..I hope to see the day when, with Dick Cheney, seated in the front row at our WH, they receive their reward from a grateful nation… American treasures, indeed.
Alex commented:
The fact that these arguments are being made on a purportedly Catholic website is disgusting.
Corporal Vere commented:
Sanpete and Alex:
Does that commentary ease your consciences for voting for Obama? If I had done that, I would need to make a good Confession and my penance would be 46,000,000 (number of US dead babies since 1973) Rosaries.
I would not be defaming my fellow man.
Catholicism abandoned its primary function: the salvation of souls and replaced with human dignity, justice, peace, and material support for abortion, artificial contraception, class warfare, ESCR, gay marriage, and socialism. The Church is little more than a bunch of sanctimonious Dr. Phil’s and social workers in funny clothes working on their post doctorate degrees in hypocrisy and moral superiority.
Lessee: 46,000,000 dead babies versus 3 wet mass murderers.
You probably won’t get into Heaven if you vote Democratic.
Sojourner commented:
corporal vere/#15.. I’m glad you’re on our side.
Sanpete commented:
Corporal Vere, I’m not Catholic, but I appreciate your effort to change the subject. I take it you have no response that’s to the point.
Solaratov commented:
Sanpete
February 24th, 2010 | 12:38 pm | #12
Alex
February 24th, 2010 | 3:43 pm | #14
Blow it out your bungholes, trolls.
You’re both idiots.
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.The only good communist is a dead communist.