Democrats versus Republicans

[PBzeer]

I know some arrests have been made over the past few years. The Fort Dix case was recently in the news. Of course, we can always assume Bush went overboard, and then when we get hit again, we can say oops.

It's rather hard to prove how effective Bush's efforts were. But when you look back at the years prior, especially from '92 until '01, logic argues his efforts have been positive, both here and abroad.

Perhaps others are more impacted by these "onerous" new laws, but nothing in my life has changed. From getting a passport, to a routine CG inspection boarding.

[chucklesR]

It's hard to prove the reason you didn't hit me in the face was the big black hole of the 10mm I had pointing at your head gave you cause for second thoughts... but I call the 10mm effective anyway.

[erps]

Originally Posted by AdamLein

So, I am asking this question totally sincerely, out of a desire to know the answer: What evidence is there that the Bush administration's security measures did in fact protect the U.S. against terrorist attacks?

Where there some attacks that were thwarted in the prep stages? Right before they were executed? It would be great to see some kind of report showing the DHS's successes.

This going to be important information for the incoming administration, to decide whether they want to keep the unpleasant new laws, add to them, revert back, or whatever.

Although we, the public, may never know, I would bet money that the new administration has been briefed on what attacks if any were thwarted.

[camaraderie]

Adam...we have testimony under oath from a CIA agent (who opposes waterboarding) that waterboarding saved lives:

Abu Zubayda lasted a little longer, said Kiriakou, but not much.
The former agent, who said he participated in the Abu Zubayda interrogation but not his waterboarding, said the CIA decided to waterboard the al Qaeda operative only after he was "wholly uncooperative" for weeks and refused to answer questions.
All that changed -- and Zubayda reportedly had a divine revelation -- after 30 to 35 seconds of waterboarding, Kiriakou said he learned from the CIA agents who performed the technique.
The terror suspect, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reportedly gave up information that indirectly led to the the 2003 raid in Pakistan yielding the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an alleged planner of the September 11, 2001, attacks, Kiriakou said.
The CIA was unaware of Mohammed's stature before the Abu Zubayda interrogation, the former agent said.
"Abu Zubayda's the one who told us that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was so important in the al Qaeda structure, and we didn't realize at the time how important he was," Kiriakou said.
Abu Zubayda also divulged information on "al Qaeda's leadership structure and mentioned people who we really didn't have any familiarization with [and] told us who we should be thinking about, who we should be looking at, and who was important in the organization so we were able to focus our investigation this way," Kiriakou said.
Abu Zubayda reportedly told the agent who waterboarded him that "Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate because it would make it easier on the other brothers who had been captured," Kiriakou said.
Though the information wrenched from Abu Zubayda "stopped terrorist attacks and saved lives," Kiriakou said he opposes waterboarding.

****************


I don't want to get into another "is waterboarding torture" discussion but you asked for verifiable results of Bush security steps and I believe the above constitutes one such disclosure. (The statement was also confirmed by several others). Full article: Ex-CIA agent: Waterboarding 'saved lives' - CNN.com


Here's another:09/10/2007

Font:

OPERATION ALBERICH

How the CIA Helped Germany Foil Terror Plot

By Simone Kaiser, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark
With the help of the CIA, German investigators foiled what would likely have been the most devastating terror attack of its kind in the country's history. The plans of a fanatical group of Islamists trained in Pakistan reveal just how great a risk Europe faces.
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DPA

Daniel S. is one of the three terror suspects arrested last week. *


It was early June at the G-8 summit in the German seaside resort of Heiligendamm, and climate protection and hedge funds were the key issues on the agenda. But then there came the moment when the news of a potential terrorist plot reached Chancellor Angela Merkel. Not a word of it was mentioned in the summit's official communiqués. Merkel and US President George W. Bush met alone to discuss what he called "the Pakistan matter." America felt threatened, and the threat, US intelligence agents told their president, was coming from Germany -- once again, just as it had on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush, who was well briefed about the plot, even knew the names of the suspects. He made it clear to Merkel that he was taking the matter very seriously. Her officials at the Chancellery were all too familiar with what the US president was talking about. "Operation Alberich," as the intelligence agencies called the case, had top priority.
More: Operation Alberich: How the CIA Helped Germany Foil Terror Plot - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

[CGMojo]

"The very continuation by Democrats of Bush's policies will be grudging, if silent, acknowledgement of how much he got right."

The folks in detention at Guantamo Bay are not nice people. A good number of them don't want to go home because the will be executed there for their crimes. A good number of those released have been capture again trying to kill US or NATO troops.

Having just retired from the intelligence community, I can assure you that our enemies are trying to kill Americans on a daily basis, and that the people on the front lines of this battle--both LE and DOD---are doing a fantastic job with the resources they have been given. Most of the success stories cannot be publicized because it would reveal sources and methods. Someday, when the records are unclassified, you will know.

[sck5]

Hey there you rightwing nut cases! It is WAY more fun sailing around the offshore cays in Belize than reading your nonsense. But all things come to an end eventually and now I am back on the beach enjoying weather reports of single digit temps back in the US while I spend the last few days of the Bush administration trying to feel sorry for you shivering rightwingers back there. Belize is great and everyone here is enthusiastic about our new Prez. But even if you are regrettably conservative, the sailing is fantastic though you do have to pick your way around a few reefs here and there.

But here is the question. What are YOU going to do to celebrate the return of Bush to Crawford and the inauguration of a President we should all be proud of?

[erps]

Sounds like a great vacation Sck. I was kind of wondering where you were. I thought you might be having buyer's remorse already with our new president. Enjoy the rest of your vacation and come back home with a nice tan to show everyone.

[sck5]

Buyers remorse? Nah, not yet. He hasnt even gotten in yet. All he has done so far is nominate people most of whom seem sane to me. All the speculation about what he will do I am ignoring. We will actually know what he will do soon enough. But before that we get to see who if anyone Bush will pardon. The left wing sites are speculating that it will be thousands. I tend to think it wont be too many. But all that will take care of itself while I try to figure out whether to go diving tomorrow or just stare out at the ocean. Went to see howler monkeys today - Now THEY have an easy life - Hang out in treetops eating leaves and howling. Maybe Bush could try it if he gets bored in Crawford.

[sailaway21]

....it gets worse.

David Miliband, Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary, has said that we are not engaged in a war on terror and that the construct is misleading and incorrect. 'War on terror' was a mistake, says Miliband | Politics | The Guardian

Hillary Clinton, the President-elect's candidate for Secretary of State, claims that the US will now use "smart power" to combat our enemies, presumably the terrorists.

Both of these incompetents have neither paid attention to events nor appear to be much in the way of students of history. The British toff makes the common leftist mistake that we're dealing with more of a criminal problem than a national security problem. His next predictable stop involves our search for a deeper understanding of what makes Ahmed tick. The blithering idiot seems impervious to the idea that Ahmed and his brethren consider the western world as inhabited with infidels requiring eradication. He goes so far as to regret the British involvement and subsequent deaths in Afghanistan with the facile observation that the Taliban wasn't facilitating attacks upon Britain. One can only wonder how he'd have viewed Hitler's invasion of Poland and France.

Then we have, on our side of the pond, Madame Clinton who is apparently able to decipher a difference between talking with Hamas and talking with Hamas' Iranian masters. The latter she is willing to do regarding their nuclear programme while the former the former threatens the Jewish vote in New York. Actually the latter was a joke but I'm just searching for a way to reconcile Madame Clinton's two positions. I am sure that, if the application of smart power and the art of negotiation fail, there will be no aspirin factory safe in the remote mountains north of Tehran.

We confront an enemy, multiple enemies actually, whose been emboldened by past allied passivity, particularly US in origin. We sit upon the cusp of victory in Iraq where every knowledgeable observer said the US would cut and run. The out-going President has spent his political capital to ensure just one thing; that the world fully understands, "Don't Tread on Me!" Much of the mindset that made it possible to seemingly attack the US and her interests with impunity now returns in these two personages. Is everyone so euphoric that Mr. Bush is finished that they're willing to accept the notions that made the world ripe for an 11th of September? It may never be the 10th of September again, given the anarchist's habit of imitating success. It may always be, for the foreseeable future, the 12th of September. At least we should plan that way.

Trans-Atlantic Anglo idiocy is no way to ensure either Britain's nor America's safety. It's likely that Mr. Miliband will be swept out with Mr. Brown shortly, returning to his ecological fantasies. Not so with the pending Secretary of State. Madame Clinton belongs in New York, as much as she belongs anywhere. Is it possible that saner heads will prevail? Certainly Madame Clinton, noted author of, It Takes a Village, could better serve the administration at Health and Human Services or, perhaps, the Rural Electrification Authority. Between she and her husband, they should be able to separate the LILCO from much of it's available capital while in the latter position.

[AdamLein]

Those links are useful, but in response to comments of chuckles et al.: you know as well as I that the liberal response is, "Maybe the reason you didn't get hit in the face is that nobody was particularly interested in punching you to begin with."