Telling the Truth about Torture

Happy birthday to the FOX News Channel. We are 11 years old and number 1 for six consecutive years. Now that's directly because of you. And so you are included in our celebration this evening. Thank you all very much.

Telling the truth about torture is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

It is every politician's duty to protect you and your family. And it's the media's responsibility to tell the truth about who's doing that and who isn't.

For example, before Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York City, David Dinkins held that job. Mayor Dinkins didn't protect the folks. Criminals ran wild in the city. And Dinkins did little about it.

Because he was a liberal Democrat, the left wing press in New York rarely criticized Dinkins, but New Yorkers knew there was danger everywhere.

Giuliani stopped the chaos by imposing aggressive police tactics and strict adherence to the law. The left wing press didn't like Giuliani's tactics at all. And to this day, The New York Times and others are down on him.

Thus, when The Times once again editorialized against so-called torture of captured terrorists, like Al Qaeda big shot Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, it was no surprise. But the dishonesty of their position is annoying to say the least, quote: "Truly banning the use of torture would not jeopardize American lives; experts in these matters generally agree that torture produces false confessions."

Nonsense! and The Times knows it. On this broadcast, I recently interviewed former CIA Chief George Tenet and the CIA official in charge of the Bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: The "Bush-lied" crowd, the far left says that you never get any information using coerced interrogation techniques. Your response?

GEORGE TENET, MAY 3: My response is that we learned an enormous amount that saved lives, gave us great transparency into this organization. And it was all corroborated. We can corroborate it in other ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SCHEUER, MAY 3: I would say that personally, I think you have to be very careful with the information you gather through this means. But it has indeed saved lives. And it has indeed, as Mr. Tenet said, provided some vision into Al Qaeda's organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So despite firsthand testimony about this controversial subject, the left refuses to acknowledge that in this very dangerous world. Tough interrogation methods have saved lives and are needed to further protect us.

But, and this is a big qualifier, we Americans should know the rules. Because remember, this War on Terror is being fought in our name. I put that to President Bush:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Is waterboarding torture?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, OCTOBER 6, 2006 I don't want to talk about techniques. And -- but I do assure the American people that we're within the law and we don't torture. We -- I've said all along to the American people we won't torture, but we need to be in a position where we can interrogate these people.

O'REILLY: But if the public doesn't know what torture is or is not as defined by the Bush administration, how can the public make a decision on whether your policy is right or wrong?

BUSH: Well, one thing is is that you can rest assured, we're not going to talk about the techniques we use in a public forum, no matter how hard you try, because I don't want the enemy to be able to adjust their tactics if we capture them on the battlefield.

But what the American people need to know is we've got a program in place that is able to get intelligence from these people. And we've used it to stop attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now I believe that, but I also believe that the government must generally define what torture is so we can all know what is in play.

In addition, the president alone should be making decisions about tough interrogation methods. The responsibility should lie with him or her.

Finally, it is beyond depressing, beyond depressing, that the mainstream elite media continues to mislead you the way they do. It is just awful.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads and Patriots

Tomorrow my bestselling book ever, "Culture Warrior", will be out in paperback with a brand-new chapter that you might want to check out.

"Culture Warrior" is a million seller because it lays out the war between traditional Americans and secular-progressives and names names. So I think everybody who buys or has bought "Culture Warrior" is a patriot. Even the S-Ps who have done that.

Now, I may not be objective here, but this is an opinion program.

On the pinhead front, an easy call. -- Reports say Britney Spears missed the first supervised visit with her two babies because of the usual chaos in her life. There's no question Ms. Spears is a pinhead, but there's a larger issue here.

Let me be blunt: Kids are not ornaments. If you don't want to pay close attention to them, don't have them. OK? Enough is enough with this one.