(CBS/AP)President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney engaged in a vigorous debate from separate corners over how to protect America from terrorists. In his speech at National Archives in Washington, Mr. Obama laid out his logic for opposing enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding and closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
It was a precise and reasoned articulation of his position, somewhat like an answer from Mr. Spock of Star Trek legend, a half-human, half-Vulcan commander of Starfleet who battles with his human side to be perfectly logical and impervious to emotion. (Mr. Obama has been compared to Spock, an outsider of mixed heritage and cool in the face of adversity.)
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Like Jack Bauer, the main character in the Fox television show "24," Mr. Cheney believes that the enhanced interrogation methods that Mr. Obama considers torture, like waterboarding (which Mr. Cheney maintains is legal based on what many now believe are flawed legal rulings), save American lives. The success of the enhanced interrogation methods is an "inconvenient truth" that the Obama administration prefers to ignore, according to Mr. Cheney.
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Mr. Cheney noted that President Obama's Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged that "high value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country."
He didn't mention that Mr. Blair also said, "there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/05/21/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5031591.shtml
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