Angry Colonel On MSNBC: Let Me Waterboard Rumsfeld And ‘We’ll See If He Says It’s Torture’
Tensions are getting high as the old issue of whether waterboarding is an effective interrogation tool or merely torture, resurfaces again in the national conversation. Last night former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Bill O’Reilly waterboarding is not torture, and in response, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on The Ed Show and told Ed Schultz that Rumsfeld is plainly “delusional.”
Rumsfeld also declared that waterboarding “produced an enormous amount of very, very valuable intelligence information.” Schultz showing some restraint with his reaction, remarked “it just amazes me how former Bush administration officials are out on the beaten path on the cables just saying [waterboarding] just did everything for the country.” Wilkerson however was furious and claimed Rumsfeld’s statement about actionable intelligence being obtained was “preposterous.”
Wilkerson continued:
“My former boss Colin Powell recently said that Donald Rumsfeld was delusional and deceptive and he could prove both points. My former boss is right. . . . Multiple tiers of bureaucracy gave [Rumsfeld] the information he has. He made sure that his bureaucracy was sycophant. Yes-men, yes-women. He made sure the people working for him told him what he wanted to hear. . . . Let me waterboard Donald Rumsfeld and then we’ll see if he says it’s torture or not.”
In addition to issuing the challenge to Rumsfeld, Wilkerson predicted the reason he is actively trying to make the case for waterboarding is because Rumsfeld and Cheney know if they travel to certain countries abroad they will still be prosecuted for war crimes. Schultz sums up the fiery appearance appropriately, telling the Colonel “he tells it like it is.”
Watch the clip from MSNBC below:
