This is a follow up to my late-night diary from a couple of days ago.
Brit Hume and the writers of 24:
"Three shopping centers near major U.S. cities have been hit by suicide bombers. Hundreds are dead, thousands injured. A fourth attack has been averted when the attackers were captured off the Florida coast and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they are being questioned. U.S. intelligence believes that another larger attack is planned and could come at any time.... How aggressively would you interrogate those being held at Guantanamo Bay for information about where the next attack might be?"
Follow-up with me.
HUME: Mayor Giuliani, the former Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, the current head of the CIA have both said that the most valuable intelligence tool they have had has been the information gained from what are called "enhanced interrogation techniques," to include, presumably, waterboarding. What is your view whether such techniques should be applied in a scenario like the one I described?
GIULIANI: In the hypothetical that you gave me, which assumes that we know there is going to be another attack and these people know about it, I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they can think of. Shouldn’t be torture, but every method they can think of.
HUME: Water boarding?
GIULIANI: I would say every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that because I have seen — [applause] — I have seen what can happen when you make a mistake about this and I don’t want to see another 3,000 people dead in New York or any place else.
HUME: Would you lick the terrorist’s nuts?
GUILIANI: Excuse me?
HUME: Well you indicated the interrogators should utilize every method they could think of, so if they thought they could get information from a terrorist by having you lick his nuts, would you?
GUILIANI: Of course not, that’s a ridiculous question.
HUME: So you’d let hundreds, maybe thousands of people die just so you wouldn’t have to lick a terrorist’s nuts?
GUILIANI: There’s nothing to be gained by licking terrorists’ nuts. What makes you think a terrorist would give up information just because I licked his nuts?
HUME: He might be appreciative.
GUILIANI: The answer is no.
HUME: So you’re taking a stand on principle?
GUILIANI: Yes.
HUME: Even though people might die?
GUILIANI: Yes.
HUME: But you’ll still torture, right?
GUILIANI: Absolutely.
Fin
Hat tip to Rex Manning.