Vince Flynn, author of the NYT listed best selling novel, “Protect and Defend” [1], in the Washington Times, [2] today:
Question: In the real world, how effective do you think torture is with Islamic terrorists?
A: Far more effective than liberals would have you believe. Congress really upset me with how they treated Attorney General Michael Mukasey and how the media pushed this question. Why aren’t reporters forcing senators and Congress to answer the same questions about torture? What do you think we should have done? Given them a lawyer, three square meals a day and let planes get hijacked?
[1]I think it should be done in the rarest of situations. Anybody who says torture doesn’t work hasn’t studied the history of torture. Torture, or aggressive interrogation, is only as good as the interrogators. Take Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, for instance. He got waterboarded and he sang like a canary … he ended up naming operatives and giving up a treasure trove of financial secrets as well as plans for future attacks. This was not Uday and Qusai Hussein at work. This was done with clinical precision, not brute force. There are multiple interrogators, lie detectors, doctors and a group of analysts in the next room connected to every friendly western intelligence agency to check everything the subject says.
Correct. Right on the button.
That’s a far cry from what Senator [John] McCain experienced, and he says that torture does not work. I have a lot of respect for the man, but when he was in the Hanoi Hilton, he was brutally tortured to give up names, so he gave them the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers. Back then, it would have been difficult to verify; but today, it’s called “Google.”
Well, I guess there’s the difference between us. I have NO respect for John McCain, anymore.
I know Amnesty International would disagree with me, but every American needs to ask themselves, “If you could turn back the clock one week [before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks] would you want Zacarias Moussaoui to have been interrogated by waterboarding?”
My answer? Hell, yes. And I suspect once you strip away all the posturing.. (Which Flynn goes to great lengths to describe).. most Americans will agree. He also touched on a topic I spent some time on here a few days ago… Preachy anti-war movies [3] coming out of Hollywood…
Q: This year has seen a surge of antiwar films, which are flopping like dominoes, while “Protect and Defend” is the No. 1 book this week. Is Hollywood ready for Mitch Rapp yet?
A: I don’t think we are quite there. Hollywood is now saying people don’t want to watch movies about war. No, Americans don’t want to watch [bad] anti-American movies about war. Americans would love to watch a great movie where Mitch Rapp is meting out punishment to these crazy zealots, but I don’t know if Hollywood has the guts to do it. If Democrats take the White House, Hollywood will make a movie like that in a heartbeat.
Telling, that. I’ll be getting the book shortly.