CIA Tapes: Manufactured Outrage

It's not really that shocking that the issue over the destruction of the tapes of interrogation processes is manufactured by the left. Please Michelle Malkin's excellent post in regards to what the Democrats knew and WHEN they knew it. Basically, they knew the tapes existed and were destroyed long before this story became the big rage among leftist media. If the issue is over waterboarding, it has also been long since revealed that waterboarding was only used on three suspects since the War on Terror began and has not been used since 2003. Ed, over at Captain's Quarters has another great post on this issue, in which this information is disclosed. However, an article by David Frum that is being overlooked is available at National Review and relays information and very intriguing possibility put forth by Gerald Posner. Here's a sample:

Zubaydah, wounded when he was captured in Pakistan, was fooled in a fake flag operation to believe that the Saudis held him. Instead of being afraid of the ‘Saudis,’ he demanded to talk to three Saudi princes (one, the nephew of the King, who happened to be in the U.S. on 9/11). He gave his interrogators the private cell phone numbers of all 3. He did the same regarding the chief of Pakistan's air force.

After the U.S. told the Saudis and Pakistanis of Zubaydah's finger pointing, all four men had tragic 'accidents.' The King's nephew died of complications from liposuction at the age of 43. A day later, the 41 year old Prince named by Zubaydah died in a one-car accident on his way to the funeral of the King’s nephew. The third named prince, age 25, died a week later of "thirst," according to the Saudi Royal Court. And shortly after that, the chief of Pakistan’s air force died when his plane exploded with his wife and 15 of his top aides on board.

Very interesting read and one definitely worth a full read. So what he have is a situation where even the idea of destroying the tapes was presented to top Democrats in Congress and were kept in the loop on the happenings of the tapes. The outrage now is purely political in regards not only to the issue, but of the timing. However, if Posner is right, it opens a Pandora's Box of issues in regards to just who our allies are in the Middle East.

-Caomhin

The Very Peaceful and Religious Saudis

The Saudis have always ducked alot of criticism from the Left and the Right for purely strategic and political purposes. The House of Saud is immune from criticisms here at home for a variety of reasons, chiefly because the Saudi rulers are the lesser of some evils over there; one that we can somewhat manage. This of course is in contrast the even more extreme elements that reside in the country. I thought I'd point out some articles of note of what our friendly neighborhood Saudis have been up to for you to contemplate:

Gang-Rape Victim Sentenced to 200 Lashes. Read the whole thing. Here's an excerpt:

According to the Arab News newspaper, the woman was gang-raped 14 times.

Her offence was in meeting a former boyfriend, whom she had asked to return pictures he had of her because she was about to marry another man.

The couple was sitting in a car when a group of seven Sunni men kidnapped them and raped them both, lawyers in the case told Arab News.

The former boyfriend was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being with her in private.

136 Government Sponsored Beheadings so far in 2007.

So what's the "good news" coming from our great allies today? Well, the release of 1,500 Al-Qaeda prisoners they were holding after they "promised" (wink, wink, nod, nod) that their eternal bloodlust for murdering all people not Muslim and lopping their heads off or strapping explosives to their chest blowing innocent men, women, and children, into numerous pieces.

Our friends...the Saudis.

-Caomhin