The Suffering of Abu Zubaydah
by Orson BeanThe Los Angeles Times tries hard to present different viewpoints on its Op-Ed page. But last week, they hit a new low with a column by a lawyer named Joseph Margulies, pleading for mercy on behalf of one of the three terrorists America has water-boarded since 9/11: Abu Zubaydah. Here’s some of what the column said: “Partly as a result of injuries he suffered while he was fighting the communists in Afghanistan, partly as a result of how those injuries were exacerbated by the CIA and partly as a result of his extended isolation, Abu Zubaydah’s mental grasp is slipping away.
“Today, he suffers blinding headaches and has permanent brain damaage. He has an excruciating sensitivity to sounds, hearing what others do not. The slightest noise drives him nearly insane. In the last two years alone, he has experienced about 200 seizures.
“But physical pain is a passing thing. The enduring torment is the taunting reminder that darkness encroaches. Already he cannot picture his mother’s face or recall his father’s name. Gradually his past, like his future, eludes him.”
In his editorial, Mr. Margulies describes how Abu Zubaydah was water-boarded: “They strapped him to an inverted board and poured water over his covered nose and mouth to produce the sensation of suffocation and insipient panic. Eighty three times. I leave it to others to debate whether we should call this torture”, he writes. “I am content with the self evident truth that it was wrong.”
The CIA did all this to Zubaydah, Marglies concludes, “because they believed he was evil”. Because they believed he was evil. Because they believed he was evil. When I had calmed down a bit after reading this, I typed out a letter to The Times which they printed. Here’s what the letter said:
“She looks into his eyes. Hers are filled with terror. The heat is unbearable. Her skin is beginning to blister. He reaches out and takes her hand. His hand has a deep gash in it from the shattered glass of the window he has helped to smash. ‘Hold on tight to me,’ he whispers. ‘Keep your eyes closed. Don’t look down.’ Together, they step through the jagged opening of a high floor of the World Trade Center. On the sidewalk below, people shriek in horror.
I don’t know the young woman’s name, but I do know that, like Abu Zabadah, she can’t picture her mother’s face either.”
Orson Bean’s latest novel, M@il For Mikey, is published by Barricade Books
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120 Comments
Excellent article.
I will NEVER understand the left's propensity for symapthy when it comes to bad guys. And their utter disdain for the good guys.
God bless you Mr. Bean—insight in response to absurdity.
Well said, orson.. that was the first thing that came to mind when I got to the lawyer's "Sympathy plea"…
We all make choices in life. He chose poorly. No sympathy.
The only thing new here is the name- Zubaydah. Sadly this story echoes back to other conflicts disliked by the left. Notice no one had any problem with bombing the Serbs back to the stone age under Clinton's watch. If you hate the policy attack those who are fighting it…
What's a POS like this Commie Margulies going to do to protect regular folks like you and me? Not a damn thing. There's a special place in hell for people like him.
thank you Mr. Bean…each and every one of us should send letters in cases like this and deluge every "news"paper, television station or any other source that takes up for these murderers.
every time i read this kind of article my blood boils…the idiots in this country who take up
for this kind of monster and never once think about the hell the people in the World Trade
Center felt that day and the agony their spouses, children, parents and others still feel today
from the loss they suffered. and not only do the uneducated idiots in this country do it, now
we have a president who runs all over the world apologizing to people who would love to
see every AMERICAN citizen gone from the earth!
What a strange state of affairs when our media attempts to humanize terrorists and dictators, completely omitting the inhumane acts they are guilty of. I see them trying to undermine the credibility of our government and our economy so they can shove their idea of utopia down our throats. I think I understand why they do what they do. But I can't wrap my head around the thinking process. They try to say we're brain damaged because we don't agree with them. But what kind of mind can excuse the acts of a terrorist and then try to blame the victim for seeking to prevent those acts from happening again? Not a healthy one, that's for sure.
Zubaydah should be drawn and quartered and his remains buried in swine feces.
So how long before we hear the tired broken record talking points of:
Support Obama (all hail) by slamming Bush (satan and the blue meanie and Mengele and Gargamel and gollum all rolled into one)
SHAME! (or other phrases to make you feel bad) on you for supporting torture
Racist (or bigot or homophobe, as if those word would make us pee our pants)
We won (so now you have to do what we say, in the true spirit of bipartisanship)
where were you for the past 8 years(because we all aggreed with every single thing Bush did)
Darth Vader (or Voldemort, because it is a little passe to use Hitler all the time)
Haliburton/Corporations (because no good person would possibly work for one)
Teabagging (Tee-Hee-Hee)
Or Hitler (because using Darth Vader might make you look like a dork)
I'm sure i forgot a few. but i just saved you guys a lot of time. Really it is time for some new material. I just hope you rise to the ocassion
Yes, I'm sure the "mental grasp" of someone who believes blowing himself up in the name of his god scores him 72 virgins was pretty firm to begin with.
Beautifully. Beautifully said. Idiotic moral relativism has left us unable to recognize our enemies even as they're slicing our throats.
And hey, Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney General, is fresh from working for a law firm that represents 17 Gitmo residents.
"They try to say we're brain damaged because we don't agree with them."
Yes, and we get less sympathy from the left than a "brain damaged" terrorist.
They think in "shades of gray," you see, as well as "power differentials."
Whoever has more "power" is considered bad, not what the one with more power is fighting for or why.
To actually admit that someone could be evil would be to "think in black-and-white," a cardinal sin if you are progressive.
While we conservatives see it as sympathy, it is actually a liberals' hatred of themselves that fuels their lunacy. It is not for us to understand, but to accept. They hate themselves, they hate the USA and it's values, and they hate us God fearin, gun totin Patriots. I just tell the Libs to "go screw yourself"….it makes me feel better….
Aw, the poor guy. Considering his current condition, I would suggest cheering him up by playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever" played by the Marine Corps Band, at full volume.
Dear Mr. Bean- I read your response and I began to visualize what those poor souls stuck in the World Trade Center had to go through on the morning of 9/11. Your letter was so vivid that I felt tears welling up inside. On September 12, we were all united. But, I had this nagging feeling that it would not last . I was right. That anyone could attempt to equalize what our CIA did to three mass murderers during an interrogation aimed at preventing another 9/11 with the atrocities these Islamist terror merchants have committed is beyond my ability to comprehend. Thanks for such a powerful rebuttal to these ludicrous efforts to humanize those who act in the most inhumane of ways. I will never understand how our society turns perpetrators into victims and vice-versa. Its like living in the world of opposites.
During a red, white and blue laser light show.
WeaponX, we recognize them, they all follow the Demorat party, they have no morals. They kill the innocent and protect the guilty.
Just look for any car with a Odumbo sticker. That is the enemy!
What I have to say is off-topic, but I'm finding this curious. When Janeane Garofalo calls republicans racist, there's a huge hub-hub and rightful criticism, yet when a republican symbol like Joe the Plumber uses the word "queers" to describes gays and says he wouldn't let gay people near his kids, as if gays and lesbians were child molesters, not one peep. Maybe the silence may mean republicans agree that his comment was wrong. It's not as if we're seeing republicans decry the "unfair" response by the PC crowd. I prefer to believe republicans are becoming more open-minded. I was genuinely surprised by the comments in Christianity Today, where there was a sense that Joe overstepped the opinion line.
I know what to do to KSM and Zubaydah. Waterboarding will look like a walk in the park…. A few lines from "Pulp Fiction" come to mind.
we're gonna need some proof with that wreckless allegation…
"“…he suffers blinding headaches … permanent brain damage … an excruciating sensitivity to sounds… The slightest noise drives him nearly insane… has experienced about 200 seizures."
There's a facility in Terre Haute, Indiana that can fix all that with just a couple of shots. Worked wonders for Timothy McVeigh.
well it only took 33 minutes
but you at least get credit for some new ones
(see my comments below)
How do you rape someone in Abu Ghraib and Bagram ?? Where do you get this stuff ??
I'm glad that I am not God. I'd hate to judge everything that we do.
But I can say without hesitation that preventing another massacre and gathering life-saving intel by making brutal zealots "uncomfortable" doesn't faze me a bit. We have allowed so much PC language into common usage "hate speech", "Fairness Doctrine", "investments (taxes)" that we turn the monsters into "victims". Our current administration has made the Clinton years look almost good by comparison.
Does anyone on the left want to protect our nation? Are the only real patriots out there now enemies of the state according to Napolitano? I was born in the USA but now live in a country that is hard to recognize…and I didn't leave.
Laser lights are a nice touch.
Well, if you believe that, then shouldn't you be looking for excuses for those who were guilty of those supposed "thousands" of rapes (love to see your sources on that. And Huffpo doesn't count) that occurred? Why don't you tell me how stressed the Abu Ghraib guards must have been to "torture" those poor, defenseless terrorists. Where's your compassion? Where's the empathy? I mean, if you're going to find excuses for the low-lifes who flew the planes into the World Trade Center, then don't the same principals apply to everyone else? (Not that I support any of your supposed claims)
I didn't think so.
More people have died in Ted Kennedy's car than in Abu Ghriab when the Americans were running it. When Saddam was running it, they killed thousands a year there. Pretty sure that we mayhave doing some frat style hazing and abused their fear of dogs and women's underwear, but past that , even the NYTImes couldn't find evidence of anything past that. Pretty incendiary to say what you said, unless you're kidding that is ?!?
As they say in the puffington host, boo frickin whoo !
"Rape and torture thousands????" Yup, gonna need some proof to back up that one shablon.
Or I can just say that Zubaydah is single handedly responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Americans. See how easy that is to say.
Or I can say that Obama only became President of the Harvard Law Review because of the color of his skin. (oh wait, New York Times, Feb 6, 1990 backed that one up). Ok, I only have to prove the first point.
Ok just a hint: using the same phrases twice for the same article leads one to believe you have run out of good ideas. It also makes you sound like a broken record.
We expect more of our trolls here.
Maybe people like Zubaydah will fare better in the future now that the President — by releasing formerly top secret memos that describe interrogation techniques in detail — has created what amounts to an information hotline terrorists can use to make the interrogation process less stressful. See this Onion-style parody here:
http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/04/obama-creates...
Man, you know we're in trouble when we're feeling nostalgic about Clinton.
Seriously Shablon, if you keep this up, you just might loose your credibility. Never mind, that was a moot point. Where did you get the 1.5 million number? How about the thousands of rapes…. what are you talking about. If this actually happened, the Mainstream Media would be all over it. They NEVER miss an opportunity to bash the U.S. Give us a credible source.
Yes, but enough about Saddam.
Our moral values, in contradiction to the Liberals', is we don't think terrorists responsible for the death of thousands of innocents ought to go to bed and sleep calmly at night.
The left are gonna get us all killed. enough already.
I remember 343 Fireman, Policemen, and Port Authority doing what they can to help. I remember 2,974 people died in the attacks. I remember bug-phobic Abu Zubaydah does not like bugs. He was not water boarded 83 times. To bad this lawyer does not know the facts. I could only wish he had 200 seizures then we could show "Empathy" and operate on him to help this poor man out.
"“…he suffers blinding headaches … permanent brain damage … an excruciating sensitivity to sounds… The slightest noise drives him nearly insane… has experienced about 200 seizures."
Sounds like a good start. Let's give him the same treatment we gave to Manuel Noriega when he was trapped in the Vatican's embassy in Panama City.
Thak-you Orson! It never ceases to amaze me when morons show up to try to garner sympathy for the devil that wants nothing less than their head on a pike. I say let's put them both into the same locked room with a sharp knife and see who needs the sympathy and who wins. Also, I kept saying GOOD! everytime the idiot made a statement about the devil lossing his mind. I personally think that event happened way before our military got their hands on Abu.
[...] Via Big Hollywood [...]
Awwwwww… my palms bleed poor Abu. Somebody ought to take him out back and put him out of his misery. Really who gives a $hit, I don’t care if he’s drawn and quartered, sling that islamofascist piece of horse squeeze down the nearest drain. Newspapers are wondering why they are in trouble? Dumb sons-of-bitches!
Well put, BP!
Stan, you should be running DHS.
A twenty-one gun salute, for the finale, accidentally aimed in poor Abu’s direction!
For the pinhead that thinks that we "murdered" over a million Iraqis and raped thousands, BITE ME! I didn't murder anyone nor did anyone under my command. I helped LIBERATE 50 MILLION PEOPLE from tyranny. I suggest you take a long read on the Convenctions. TERRORISTS DON'T GET ANY PROTECTION! We have the right under the rules of war to terminate them on sight. But we don't. We treat them better than they deserve. As far as interrogation goes, in my experience use what works. Of course I would expect you to understand having the responsibility of command. I know that a discharge pit works in interrogating these animals.
Accidental? Bull! Incidental is more like it. Temination in the field has become preferable to the damn paperwork. Besides, in this time of high unemployment, I am sure that you can see the benefit of increased expenditure of ammo in terms of replacing what our boys use.
oh yes the incontrovertable source {margin : o;}
and are you serious using the same article 3 times? and doing it twice? LOL
What a maroon!
Wow! I like it. Take it further and play the ENTIRE Souza catalog and the National Anthem. Now if this pinhead had been whining about listening to Pilosi speak, I would have to consider his claims. Hell I would even PAY you to "defend" him. (shudder) Can't believe I said that. No disrespect intended counselor.
Bravo, Mr. Bean! Your description of what probably occurred just before that couple plunged to their death brought tears to my eyes. Either Marglies is amoral or has Stockholm syndrome. Every time one of these "murderer" apologists publicly tries to entreat sympathy for these monsters, there needs to be ten times the response from right minded folks whose moral compass points true north.
It doesn't take long for the racism of the left to show up.
and you project this on to us?
wow you sure got us there, man how could we have missed it. all this time the Israelites have been destroying all that is right in the world. Thank you for showing us the truth. your superior powers of reasoning and observation are truly astounding.
At first first I thought you were wrong
then I thought you were misguided
then I thought you were a moron
now I know you are racist bigot
all in the course of 2 hours
well done, next time just get to point and save us all the needlessness of giving you a chance.
This guy specializes in hyperbole. This that he posts has been put before Congress in 2004/05. Allegations of rape haven't been proven, to my knowledge. Besides, where are the vaunted defenders of Islam, the Democratic blowhards? Other than extreme exaggeration, this is crap.
and the Blue Angels, overhead.
Frankly don't care about Abu Ghraib or whether these pukes live or die in screaming agony. 8th century barbarians best gone from the planet. ASAP in fact.
"Thousands of rapes" – only in your imagination. Show me the evidence, not just shrill accusations without facts to back it up. More leftist propaganda, just what is to be expected from apologists for our enemies.
Speak that cr*p in my home, against my country, and I would personally execute your leftist a** on the spot. Pink mist all over the walls. C'mon up to Alaska and spout your nonsense, we know how to deal with both predators and slime molds like you.
rAT
I couldn't take the case. I'd have to listen to her in court, and then I'd be on trial for murder (albeit I would have the defense of justifiable homicide). But thanks for thinking of me. Maybe Andrew's stronger than I am.
Thanks for info, America hater. I'm sure there were horrible stories from the War of 1812 I don't want to hear about either.
God love the Blue Angels. Maybe we could get them to do it on Fleet Week instead of flying about two feet above my roof. I love it, but the cat has to be sedated.
Oh, inhumane acts like what the Persian army did in ancient Greece? What is your problem, America Hater?
My reply accidentally went below your earlier comment. Lawyers are lousy with computers.
—Additional reporting: Oorlagh George and Alicia Ng—
What are these people? Favored posters at the the Daily Krap?
"thousands"
Why not make it , "millions"? Remember to put your pinky finger to the corner of your mouth.
Mr. Price can run faster than me. Besides, I'm not sure I could afford him. I think he would be insulted. On further review, I can see how turning either of you gentleman loose could be a bad thing. Wouldn't want you to engage in a defense that is half hearted. You are far too valuable to my need for daily amusement.
That's just a slow day in Saddam's Iraq. Not to mention your 1.5 million people slaughtered is fictitious.
DUde YoUr RanDoM CapITals HAVe conFIRmed YoUR inTELlecTUAl SUperorITY
PLease TELl us MorE. SHAre your INterNets SearchS of WIsdOm wITH Us, o GreaT OnE!!!!!111111111111111111 One ONE Eleven One!!11
Oh brother, a truther.
Move along people. Nothing to see here. No point in arguing facts to someone who thinks they know the "truth."
*gag*
My favorite Plea for the Suffering Terrorist story was about the one who reportedly "still has nightmares" from the trauma of watching a Koran flushed down the toilet. Working for the MSM must mean never having to do your homework, or even employ your frontal lobes.
p { margin: 0; }
US TROOPS HAVE BEEN BAMBOOZLED INTO DYING FOR JEWS
911 truth from Alaska:
http://www.csi911.info/CSI911.html
On the morning of 9/11 I walked into a liquor store to get a coffee before work and I saw everyone in the store surrounding a tv watching the terror unfold. Two images that are seared into my mind are that of a man that climbed out of the window to get away from the inferno inside and after a minute or two slipped to his death; the other was of the two women that walked out on what seemed like a plank, hugged each other and jumped to their deaths. I try to imagine myself in the position of those who went through this unspeakable horror. It makes me want to nuke some of the Islamic crapistans and the state sponsors of terrorism worldwide.
Those like Zubaydah should be disemboweled, decapitated, his head sent to the Taliban and his carcass stuffed with pig shyt and left to rot.
THANK YOU! I am trying to not create a scolding * you to the left as i try to use humor to spread a message but this is EXACTLY what I am looking for. The victims, what they really went through, won't ever be detailed or receive the true outrage that is mustered among these soul-less hateful far left wackos.
The L.A times has as much credibility in discussing what to do with terrorists as Paris Hilton does in wearing underwear while building a space ship.
This really cheered me up. Well, the meaning behind it is what I am referring to.
I know better than to argue with you because you're a deluded idiot. But my father–in-law is a General and a former fighter pilot. He frequently works in the Pentagon and the wing that was hit was the one that he worked out of when he was there. Friends of his were killed on 9/11. He knows more facts about what happened that day than you ever will. Your fairy-tale sources make this crap up out of whole cloth to attempt to discredit an administration they don't like without any thought to the people they hurt in the process or the terrific damage it does to this country. You add nothing but ignorance to this discussion and deserve nothing more than derision so that's all you'll get from me. Take your delusions back to Huffpo.
No that's just a slow day in Saddam's Iraq. Your 1.5 million number is fictitious at best.
[...] a scumbag. On the positive side, a great piece on what a scumbag that lawyer is and how much the L.A times blows for writing [...]
whats a few zeros when you are on a good rant?
150 thousand hundred rapes
500 million jobs lost in a month
10trillion national debt
This is the future everyone, wow! We're doomed!
Wow
The author can correct me if I’m wrong but I think many misread the comment.
“today a US serviceman was captured by Taliban. Do you think that he would prefer waterboarding or getting his nuts smashed with a rock?”
Seems like an obvious swipe at the weepy hermaphrodites that wailed over waterboarding. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if a liberal preferred to have his nuts smashed instead of being waterboarded, they’re nutless wonders already. By the way, in college we referred to waterboarding as keg stands. “Sadistic Zio fascist maniacs” seems to have been aimed at said weepy hermaphrodites.
p { margin: 0; }You are funny Satan, I like you!
I am in total agreement with you!
Now we are on the Extremist List because we don't agree with them.
1.5 million people! WOW! That IS a lot. All killed by American troops did you say? Wow. Thanks for the truth-er.
Ok, I just saw your other comments. Obviously I was wrong.
such logic
if we follow it that would mean that since The wright brothers flew a plane, they flew every plane.
and since Jim Henson made puppets, he made every puppet. Since Denzel Washington was in a movie, he was in all movies.
Please tell me more. There is such a vast world I never knew about. You are indeed the enlightened one. Please I beg of you, share more knowledge with us!!!!11111
Carise, stay in the Progressive party please. We need you!
You should also donate to the ACLU, they need the money to enable their defense of NAMBLA. Your understanding of the truth is breathtaking, after all, homo's are just normal people. They dream of staying at home and making babies to ensure their legacy. Unfortunately they're forced by the disapproval of others into a life of incessant bar-hopping and sleeping around and recruiting as if they had no true calling in civilization. It's horrid I tell you!
How do you get to the collapsed comment threads? They don't open when you turn the triangle. wtf?
So, is Abu Doo-doo any more mentally challenged than his islamic cohorts who strap bombs onto their children?
Slather him in bacon grease and let him swim for mecca.
p { margin: 0; } what?
US troops have no reason to be in any foreign country, at all. If they are in Iraq, they are occupiers, and therefore responsible for all murders and mayhem
Yeah, totally true. Thanks again. You can clear one more thing up for me. Do those tinfoil hats get itchy?
I defer to your post….what I was feeling and better stated.
Swine? Wow, that does hurt my feelings, especially with all that H1N1 Influenza A and whatnot. Listen up, commie. America has done more to spread freedom for humankind than any other nation in the history of the world. Now show some respect for it and shut yer pie hole.
Thought it might be aderall and vodka, but on the second passthrough, methinks you're on the wrong anti-depressives, and downing them with quarts of cold duck. Careful, there…the irrational anger and delusional views of reality will give way faster than a monsoon soaked mansion burdened hill overlooking the pacific and, you will find yourself in the throes of a crying jag, dramatically reaching out for an unseen hand of hopeless change. I think those are the side effects the narrator speeds through at the end of the feelgood pharma commercial. Oh and see your doctor.
Rexter, is that YOU? ("YOU BELIEVE IN TALMUD") LOL!!!
This simply MUST be Rexter folks- or else one of his equally anti-semitic neo-nazi/Islamofacist Gestapo brothers-in-arms. LOL!!!
"Zubaydah should be drawn and quartered and his remains buried in swine feces".
I disagree- I think he should be buried ALIVE in swine feces (a MUCH more fitting end if you think about it!).
; – )
Give the A@@ a picture of his dad and turn the radio up, maybe Babs greatest hits.
I believe you're referring to the "pair of pliers and a blowtorch" line?
If so, then I'd say that those murdering terrorist scum actually deserve WORSE treatment, but that pliers and a blowtorch would at least be 1000 times more fitting than mere waterboarding!
That murdering terrorist scumbag most definitely does not DESERVE to be peacefully euthanized like that!
If he really suffers "blinding headaches" ,"excruciating sensitivity to sounds", and seizures, then he should be kept alive as long as modern medical science is able to do so, so that he suffers intolerably every day of his miserable life until he reaches a (hopefully!) ripe old age.
This piece of garbage continues to breathe air. Much more than he deserves. Those innocent Americans and individuals who died on 9/11 DO NOT. No sympathy. No mercy. As long as he breathes he is ahead of what he deserves.
Which one of the trolls are you really? Six of you all sound like you are reading from the same playbook. You all sound like you just woke up from a thorazine nap and sprang into action.
Good post, Orson. The LAT and the oddjob lawyer have not checked their story. The now well known coercion, which the lawyer himself mentioned, could not possibly cause the conditions he described. That thug was somewhere else doing something else to have the problems described. The lawyer slanderously misstates the reason for the coertion; the thug was coerced because he was believed to know something, not because he is evil; the lawyer is evil, and nobody but his voices are torturing him. Why do I say the lawyer is evil? Because he knows about how the souls in the Towers died and teabags their killers. He also knows that if his accusations against us were true he would be as dead as Daniel Pearl.
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