Because heaven knows, we just haven’t been tortured enough.
Asked about his views of waterboarding this weekend, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said that as President he would support the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques. In an interview with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt, Giuliani claimed such techniques are effective and that he used "intensive questioning" as a federal prosecutor in New York to elicit information from the mafia:
“I do know a lot about intensive questioning and intensive questioning techniques. … Now, intensive questioning works. If I didn’t use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of mafia guys running around New York right now and crime would be a lot higher in New York than it is. Intensive question has to be used.”
“A lot of mafia guys running around New York”? You mean like your mobbed-up cop pal Bernie Kerik, Rudy? The same who is now facing tax evasion and corruption charges, along with the embarrassment of having an undocumented nanny, and with having schtupped not one but two mistresses in an apartment near Ground Zero which had been set aside as a sleeping place for first responders digging through the wreckage of 9-11? The one who profiteered from Taser stock? That Bernie Kerik?
Oh, but as long as he’s not Cosa Nostra himself, he doesn’t count. Just as it doesn’t count as torture if you don’t suffer organ failure or death.
So glad we cleared that up. Because heaven knows, the nauseous repetition of the “9-11, 9-11, 9-11” refrain isn’t torture either.