It was with some disappointment that I read today’s new column from Marc Thiessen, the former George W. Bush speechwriter, new Washington Post columnist, and noted waterboarding enthusiast. After all, the previous day had seen the arrests of nine people in connection with a terrorist plot against law enforcement officers in Michigan. According to the New York Times, the nine “planned to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer and then bomb the funeral caravan using improvised explosive devices based on designs used against American troops by insurgents in Iraq.†While there was no word about whether there were any accomplices still at large, media reports noted that the nine were part of a larger militant group, leaving open the possibility that some of their comrades might still be hatching similar designs.
Surely, I thought, Thiessen would take the lead in demanding that the government “get tough†with the would-be terrorists, declare them enemy combatants, and have them waterboarded to get all the details about their group. Recall his reaction to the last major terror attempt in Michigan–the failed Christmas Day airline bombing plot by the “underwear bomber†Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Thiessen excoriated the Obama administration repeatedly for treating Abdulmutallab as a criminal, reading him his Miranda rights, and failing to waterboard him for information. Given all this, how could Thiessen fail to be outraged by the government’s intolerably lax response to the Michigan bombing plot?
Yet today’s Thiessen column brings no mention of the terror plot; instead, it is a rather dry piece on the Nevada Senate race lacking all of the passion that Thiessen brings to his praises of torture. What caused him to suddenly lose interest in Keeping America Safe from terrorists?
The simplest explanation for the discrepancy is this: Abdulmutallab is a dark-skinned Muslim with an “Arab-sounding†name, while the Michigan Nine are right-wing white Christian militants with Anglo-Saxon names. (Before anyone claims that the difference is that the Michigan Nine are U.S. citizens and Abdulmutallab isn’t, recall that Thiessen and his allies also supported declaring U.S. citizen Jose Padilla an enemy combatant and holding him indefinitely without charges.) It appears that Thiessen’s enthusiasm for “enhanced interrogation techniques†only lasts as long as the suspects in question are Muslims.
I’ve often suspected that a great deal of right-wing support for torture is based on a (perhaps-unconscious) assurance that its victims will always be people with funny names who look and talk different from “real Americansâ€. Even in the case of an undeniably repulsive mass murderer like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, I suspect much of the enthusiasm for torturing and denying judicial process to KSM would dissipate if he had a nice American name like “Timothy McVeighâ€. Thiessen’s inconsistencies are just another piece of evidence for this theory.
This is pretty spot on. But I especially want to draw attention to one of your last comments, "right-wing support for torture is based on assurance that its victims" are not like them. This was how we were taught to unconditionally hate the Soviets as non-humans. In case we were ever presented with a human portrayal in Soviet Union, they were intended to draw our empathy in order to hate the Soviet government. Either way, dolts like Thiessen are just self-inflated blowbags. Thiessen has Zero military experience, interrogation experience, or any other field work. He's a speech writer pretending to be a terrorism expert.
I think you've hit the nail squarely on its head.
this brings to mind the bombing in Oaklahoma city.Quickly and without waiting for any proof,middle -east looking(Arabs,and Muslims) were accused of master-minding it.To this day some people keep insisting that Iraq was behind it.Can we expect the same with this too?
. According to the New York Times, the nine “planned to kill an unidentified law enforcement officer and then bomb the funeral caravan using improvised explosive devices based on designs used against American troops by insurgents in Iraq.”
I completely agree with you, Luban.
Hardly limited to 'right wing support for torture.' Bush's torture chambers and other war crimes were widespread public knowledge BEFORE the American people rewarded Bush with a second term in power, back in 2004, a foul act which required the support of the MAJORITY of Americans, not just some slavering pack of neocons. And no, claims that Americans are brainwashed by their media does not cover their war-crime apologist behinds.
God Bless America.
"Ignorance is strength" applies to most Americans. It has no political, racial, or any other type of societal limitations
Also note that these right-wingers have not been convicted of anything. They do seem nuts. But this "plot" could very well be another government informant-inspired fantasy like so many others that have (mostly) Black and Muslim dupes rotting in prison for just sitting and nodding while an informant suggested violence.
The police state is real, whoever it's targets are in a particular case.
Of course they haven’t been convicted of anything. That happens AFTER the arrest DUH.
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