Midweek Politics with David Pakman - 04.22.2009 - Sea Change Radio, Miss USA, much more...

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This Week on Midweek Politics with David Pakman

April 22nd, 2009

Produced by:

David Pakman, WXOJ, Northampton, MA
Louis Motamedi, WXOJ, Northampton, MA

Total Running Time: 56:41

--Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon from Sea Change Radio are live in studio.

--Recently released memos reveal that it turns out the Bush administration did torture, including waterboard KSM 183 times.

--Many conservatives say the problem is not the torture, but the fact that the memos were released.

--The idea that torture by the US is a recruiting tool for terrorists isn't subscribed to by all.

--John McCain says waterboarding is torture, but also thinks the memos should not have been released.

--Miss USA might have been decided by a question about gay marriage, and we discuss whether Miss California's answer should have affected the results of the contest.

--Barack Obama addresses assault weapons and gun control a few weeks after a man who was very afraid Obama would take his guns killed three police officers.

--The tea-baggers are credited with the jum in the Dow over a few day period.

--Fox News uses a study from Spain to suggest green jobs could hurt more than they help, but they don't mention the study was done by a member of a group that seeks to counter alarm about global warming.

--A very bizarre script for an ad a Republican group wanted to produce that ended up on the cutting room floor.

--Controversy over the Department of Homeland Security report that said right wing extremists might seek to recruit veterans, among others, including reaction from Neil Cavuto and Pat Robertson.

--Much more

Listen to Midweek Politics with David Pakman 04-22-2009

[JaJae]

I downloaded your show to my cell phone today and listened to the first half hour. You were talking mostly about waterboarding and the memos.

I'm not too sure if you guys fully understood what was revealed in those memos. The reason Bush claims we don't torture is because he had his lawyers draw up guidelines for waterboarding that would not be defined as torture, but rather coerced interrogation. Of course, that is the interpretation of his lawyers.

KSM was waterboarded 183 times. But that includes every instance of which a drop of water was placed on him. In a single session he could have been doused with water 40-60 times. The memos outline exactly how far our interrogators could go when waterboarding.

Originally Posted by Declassified Memo

You have informed us that the waterboard may be approved for use with a given detainee only during, at most, one single 30-day period, and that during that period, the waterboard technique may be used on no more than five days. We further understand that in any 24-hour period, interrogators may use no more than two "sessions" of the waterboard on the subject - and that no session may last more than two hours. Moreover, during any session, the number of individual applications of water lasting 10 seconds or longer may not exceed six. The maximum length of any application of water is 40 seconds (you have informed us that this maximum has rarely been reached). Finally the total cumulative time of all applications of whatever length in a 24-hour period may not exceed 12 minutes.

You can take this for what it's worth. I'm not posting it to say what we did was justified or that it wasn't. I just got the impression after listening your show that you and Louis were under the impression that kSM was taken out of his cell and waterboarded hours on end every other day of the week.