Torture And The Patriotic American Christian

When I see photos and video of innocent people being beheaded I understand what Evil is, and the Marine in me wants to bring all guns to bear to destroy it with extreme prejudice, using whatever means necessary; going all Jack Bauer if need be in order to protect innocent life. The Christian in me says I must temper my righteous anger so that my actions reflect the Judeo-Christian values I hold and endorse.

"Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord."

So I've been torn on the subject of "torture," particularly when innocent lives are at stake. I remember watching an episode of "24," where Jack Bauer had a man with critical information tied to a chair. This man was a hardened jihadi, time was running out, and Jack set up a video feed that showed the terrorist's family also tied to chairs - with guns to their heads. The man's child was among them.

The man still refused to talk, so Jack ordered his partner to execute the terrorist's wife. A shot rang out and the wife fell back in her chair, out of frame. Jack made it plain that the boy was next to die if the terrorist didn't talk.

He talked and millions of people were saved.

After he spilled the beans though, it was revealed that the wife had not been hurt at all, that her "execution" was a bluff, thereby preserving Jack's status with the audience as a Patriotic hero rather than as an amoral merc.

Was that "torture?" A similar scenario in the recently released report on Enhanced Interrogations says that it is, and that the technique was actually used on a detainee. I don't think that it was torture, nor do I think that the force-feeding of a hunger-striking Kahlid Sheik Mohammed via peanut butter enema was torture.

Some of the EI techniques however, like waterboarding, are torture, having been recognized and implemented as such since the Inquisition.

Having given it some thought and prayer, I have come to the decision that we as a People are better than that, that Christ wouldn't be very happy with us were we to use some of the techniques used by the CIA; techniques that broke down not just the victim, but even those who were implementing them.

We must also consider two other aspects:

1. If any of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, or Marines are captured by the enemy, we won't be able to justifiably complain about their treatment if the US condones true torture. As we found out after WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, our enemies don't always play by the rules. Stories about the torture of American prisoners by State actors, despite the fact that they were signatories to the Geneva Convention, are commonplace and well documented, so we can't guarantee how our prisoners are treated in the future either.

Non-state actors like ISIS and al-Qaeda will never conform to international law as it relates to the treatment of prisoners. Nevertheless, we must maintain the moral high ground or we forfeit our right to complain at all when our sons, and possibly daughters, are being held by a hostile force.

Army veteran Cpt. Terry Michael Hestilow talks about the horrific possibility of one of our pilots, possibly a female in today's Air Force, being taken captive by ISIS in this episode of The Truth Is Viral.

2. As Christians, and simply for being Christians, we are considered possible "domestic terrorists" ourselves. Those Christians who "bitterly cling to their guns and Bibles" are of particular interest to the Dept. of Homeland Security, having been classified a greater threat than Islamic extremists. Do we want to have these techniques applied to us as they might be under Executive Order 13603?

That absolutely frightening scenario is laid out in the following episode of The Truth Is Viral by TTiV Publisher Bobby Powell and Pete Santilli, Publisher of the Guerrilla Media Network and brother Marine.



Further, the Obama administration has claimed the "legal" authority to kill any American citizen they choose, without any type of Congressional oversight or judicial review - without so much as a charge of wrongdoing in a court of law - far away from any battlefield. Even the ACLU has called Obama "Judge, jury, and executioner." Attorney General Eric Holder even claims that Obama has the authority to kill American citizens inside the United States, as documented in this episode of The Truth Is Viral:


Back to the subject of torture, I'd like to share an article I read this morning titled, "7 Things Christians Should Know About Torture," from "Cannon and Culture." I know nothing about this website, but this particular article is a good read and should help you understand more about the subject of torture as it relates to our behavior as Children of the Most High God.

Whether you, dear reader, are faithful to a Judeo-Christian belief or not, I think that nearly all Americans share an innate sense of fair play. Despite what ultra-liberal politicians would have us believe as they push the demonstrably false "Hands up, don't shoot" narrative in Ferguson Mo. and across the country, the end does not justify the means.

How we fight the battle - whatever that particular battle may be - will be taken into account on Judgment Day. I, for one, want to be able to tell my Judge that I protected the innocent, defended the weak, and fought with Honor.

God bless and Semper Fi,
Bob Powell
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Predator Rising: Obama To Use Drone Strikes On Americans In US

In what must be a first for American politics, Republican Senator Rand Paul and the ACLU agree on something: Barack Hussein Obama is a murderer.

Obama has given himself, and those he designates, the power to order the deaths of American citizens without ever having charged them with a crime in a court of law. Obama exercised this power when he ordered the drone strikes on Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.

Two weeks later al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Abdulrahman was also killed in a drone strike in Yemen. When the boy went out looking for his father, not knowing that he had already been killed, he and several friends were blown apart by a Hellfire missile as they sat next to a campfire eating their dinner.

The Obama administration says Abdulrahman’s death was a mistake.

Now that Obama has successfully murdered three American citizens with barely a peep from Congress - and has successfully installed the author of his legal justification for the extra-judicial killings of American citizens onto the federal appeal's bench - it is not a stretch to believe that he will eventually use this power domestically. One reason is because Attorney General Eric Holder and CIA director John Brennan have both refused to assure the American people that drones will not be used to kill American citizens without charges inside the United States.

Over the next few minutes I’m going to prove how this is the most frightening concept in modern politics, an issue that affects every American citizen equally, regardless of their political beliefs. If you don’t watch another video today you must watch this one, and share it with your friends, because this is the most important issue affecting American citizens today. This is an issue that has been brought together critically thinking individuals from both sides of the aisle, uniting Tea Party favorite Rand Paul and the ACLU among others in an effort to save the Fifth Amendment and preserve the rule of law.

Out of all of the scandals currently confronting the Obama administration one might think ordering the death of an American citizen who has not been charged or convicted in a court of law, with no congressional oversight or judicial review whatsoever, might be at the top of the list of impeachable offenses committed by Barack Obama. When the merciless savages of Ansar al-Sharia attacked the CIA outpost in Benghazi four American citizens lost their lives due to enemy action, the government’s response - or lack thereof - became a cause célèbre for congressional investigators; but when the president actually orders the extrajudicial deaths of American citizens who have never even been charged with a crime nobody cares. Why is this?

It is because the Republicans want to preserve that power for themselves. They don’t want to charge Obama with a crime for killing the al-Awlaki’s and Kahn because when he is out of office they hope to be able to do the same thing. Who needs pesky little things like the Fifth Amendment, trials, and representation by a lawyer before the government can just snuff out your life?

The Fifth Amendment states: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

One does not have to be a lawyer to understand the meaning of the words “No person.” That is very unambiguous language and it was written that way by the Founders because they had just fought a bloody conflict to free themselves from the yoke of a tyrant king who, just like Barack Hussein Obama, thought that it is within his purview to hold the power over life and death with nobody but himself for counsel.

Writing as "Publius" in Federalist Paper #47, James Madison observed that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

On September 30th 2011, Barack Obama became a Tyrant when he ordered the deaths of American citizens Anwar al-Alawki, Abdulrahman al-Alawki, and Samir Kahn. On September 30, 2011 the Republic of the United States fell and was replaced with what Madison correctly defined as a tyranny – and the ACLU agrees.

After al-Awlaki was killed ACLU lawyer Nate Wessler, who at the time was working for the ACLU’s National Security Project which handles the question of targeted assassinations by the United States government, appeared on The Truth Is Viral and said that the Obama administration was lawless. He said that Obama and his minions were acting as “judge, jury, and executioner” by denying these American citizens the right to a trial - any kind of trial – and taking their lives without any apparent due process whatsoever.

Rand Paul and the ACLU don’t normally have much in common, but in this interview with CNN’s Erin Andrews the senator said that the very idea of using a drone to strike an American citizen without first going through the courts is “appalling.”

On Wednesday, May 21^st, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul gave an impassioned plea decrying the use of drones to murder American citizens without any sort of due process whatsoever in advance of a Senate vote to confirm David J. Barron to a federal appeals court judgeship. Barron is the chief architect of Obama's drone policy as it applies to the extra-judicial killings of American citizens. His policy (a secret policy) was used to justify the killings of Samir Khan, and the al-Alawkis

Paul says that he is "appalled" and "horrified" that we now live in a country where a mere accusation is enough for Obama or those he designates to "legally" order the death of an American citizen - at home or abroad - without ever having charged that person with a crime in a court of law as was done in the case of Kahn and the al-Alawki's.

Last week, the United States Senate voted to confirm Barron to a lifetime appointment to the Federal court. What good is having a Constitution if it can be ripped to shreds by activist judges and Presidential Executive Orders?

The most frightening thing about this entire issue is the complete lack of transparency. Even the process for determining the “guilt” of a targeted individual is, and will continue to be, classified. The entire idea of accusing a person of a crime and trying them in a court of law before a jury of their peers has been thrown out the window by the Federal government. And in case you haven’t noticed, the Department of Homeland Security has issued guidelines that determine who they consider to be a terrorist threat that can be broadly interpreted to include just about anybody.

If you are on one of those lists – and if you aren’t on one by now you should be ashamed of yourself - the President and those he designates can declare you to be a terrorist threat and take your life without any Congressional oversight or judicial review whatsoever. Attorney General Eric Holder and CIA director John Brennan have both refused to say that drones will not be used to target Americans domestically, again without charges or a trial, and that thought is frightening - or should be - to Americans on both sides of the aisle.

In a letter from Eric Holder to the Senate,  the Attorney General said “It is possible I suppose to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. “

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/05/politics/obama-drones-cia

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/us/drones-five-things/index.html

Today, a Democratic American President named Barack Obama has the power to kill anyone he wants using only his pen and his phone. In 2016, that power could be transferred to a Republican President named Sarah Palin, Chris Christy, or Jeb Bush. And now they have backup to take the lives of any American citizen they choose on the Federal appeals bench.

Are you concerned now? 

You can watch the entire, explosive, 30-minute interview with ACLU attorney Nate Wessler by clicking this link: http://bobpowell.blogspot.com/2013/02/aclu-lawyer-calls-obama-judge-jury.html

ADDITIONAL SOURCES:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/david-barron-drone-memo_n_5373015.html

http://rt.com/usa/158460-cia-director-metadata-kill-people/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/us/drones-five-things/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/05/politics/obama-drones-cia

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/05/holder-drone-strike-against-americans-in-the-u-s-possible/

http://www.bustle.com/articles/24154-rand-pauls-new-york-times-op-ed-on-drone-memos-sees-him-agree-with-the-aclu-for

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/opinion/show-us-the-drone-memos.html?_r=1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-to-reveal-justification-for-drone-strikes-against-american-citizens/2014/05/20/f607bb60-e066-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html

CIA Spy: "Iranian Regime Responsible For Boston Marathon Bombing," More Attacks To Come

A former CIA spy who had once been embedded inside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and maintains contacts within the regime today, says that a highly placed source inside the Iranian intelligence apparatus has said that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the bombings at the Boston Marathon that took the lives of three people and injured 176 more, many of the injured suffering traumatic amputation. 

Reza Kahlili says that the United States was warned months ago that these types of attacks would take place, and that the Iranians see President Barack Obama as weak, and unwilling to confront Iran in a shooting war. If, however, war does begin between the Islamic regime and the United States and/or Israel over their nuclear program, Kahlili says there are scores of al-Quds trained terrorists already in position in the United States just waiting for orders to strike soft targets like malls, movie theaters, and critical infrastructure around the nation.

UPDATE 4/19/13 -: In a story released on World Net Daily today, the CIA spy featured in this interview says that just because the bombers were Chechen does not mean they were not controlled by Iran. Kahlili has said, even in this interview, that the Iranians use proxies all of the time; most famously Hamas and Hezbollah, so that if the terrorists are captured or killed, there is no evidence linking them back to the Islamic regime.

Also, recall that the Iranians tried to use a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago. Add that to the fact that Chechens are fierce fighters who have ZERO compassion for innocents as evidenced by the Beslan Elementary School Massacre, and that they go off to wage Jihad for the "fun" of it, and Kahlili may still be right.

BOSTON BOMBERS FOLLOWERS OF IRAN'S AYATOLLAH