RUSH: Let’s go now to full-fledged sound bites of our buddy Jose Rodriguez being interviewed by Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes. Jose Rodriguez, CIA interrogator who was head of the clandestine services for George W. Bush. They don’t get any better at what they do than Jose Rodriguez. He sat for an interview with Lesley Stahl for 60 Minutes. And here’s the first bite. She said, “So, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding, specifically 183 pourings of water in about half a dozen separate sessions. Jose Rodriguez said the average pour lasted ten seconds.”
RODRIGUEZ: Can I say something about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? He’s the one that was responsible for the death of Danny Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter. He slit his throat in front of the camera. I don’t know what type of man it takes to cut the throat of someone in front of you like that, but I can tell you that this is an individual who probably didn’t give a rat’s ass about having water poured on his face.
STAHL: He never believed for one second you were gonna kill him?
RODRIGUEZ: No. And let me just tell you, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would use his fingers to count the number of seconds because he knew that in all likelihood we would stop at ten. So this doesn’t sound like a person who is afraid of dying.
RUSH: He wanted to be executed at first until he heard that Holder wanted to put him on trial in New York City, and then he said, (imitation) “Wait, I’ll go for that. You give me two years on CBS and ABC in an American courtroom in New York? Okay, I’ll delay any martyrdom and the 73 virgins until I finish with that.” He wanted to be executed. Now, this next one, this is one of my all-time favorite sound bites. This is Lesley Stahl of CBS News. You will hear what to me is an amazingly hilarious distance from reality. I do not know what world news people live in. She says, “So what happens? Did the sheik break down? Does he cry? Does he fall apart after your waterboarding?”
RODRIGUEZ: No. He gets a good night’s sleep. He gets his Ensure. By the way, he was very heavy when he came to us and he lost 50 pounds.
STAHL: What, his Ensure? You mean like people in the hospital who will drink that stuff?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Dietary manipulation was part of these dire techniques.
STAHL: So sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, I mean, this is Orwellian stuff. The United States doesn’t do that.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, we do.
RUSH: I just love that sound bite. That is one of my all-time favorites. This guy knows exactly who he’s talking to. She can’t believe that we would torture somebody with bottles of Ensure. I myself have been tortured with Ensure. Many Americans are given Ensure in hospitals. It’s packed with vitamins and nutrients and calories. Cancer patients and others who cannot eat solid food, it’s a way to keep ’em alive. It’s not torture! Granted it’s a liquid diet, that may be torturous to some people, but Lesley Stahl thinks that’s just… (imitating Stahl) “Ensure! The stuff they give people in hospitals? Did you recycle?”
And our buddy here Jose Rodriguez, “Yes, yes, dietary manipulation was part of those dire techniques.” He’s just toying with her. “Yes, yes, dietary manipulation was part of these dire techniques.” (laughing) Dire techniques. Torture. Ensure. (laughing) And then she says, “Why, sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, I mean, this is Orwellian stuff, The United States doesn’t do that.” “Well, we do.” (laughing) See, folks, as the mayor of Realville, I love running into other fellow citizens of the place, and Jose Rodriguez obviously lives in Realville. “Yes, we do. Well, we do. We give people Ensure. We engage in dire techniques. Dietary manipulation.”
You know what else they did? They played that Barney song. (singing) “I love you, you love me.” What’s the rest of the song? “We’re as happy as can be,” or whatever it is. But what kind of thinking is it that leads you to believe that drinking Ensure is Orwellian, that making people drink Ensure is Orwellian? Obama is Orwellian. If you Google “dietary manipulation,” it’s what Moochelle Obama does. Moochelle Obama is totally devoted to dietary manipulation. And they don’t call that torture. Moochelle Obama is trying to tell us what we can and can’t eat. So we have one more sound bite here.
Lesley Stahl says, “You retired from the CIA in January 2008, spent the last year writing this book published by the CBS company, Simon & Schuster. And in the book you say that by canceling the interrogation program, President Obama has tied the government’s hands in the war on terror.”
RODRIGUEZ: We don’t capture anybody anymore, Lesley. You know, the default option of this administration has been to kill all prisoners. Take no prisoners.
STAHL: The drones!
RODRIGUEZ: The drones. How can it be more ethical to kill people rather than capture them? I’ve never understood that one.
STAHL: President Obama has said that what we did was torture.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, President Obama is entitled to his opinion. When President Obama condemns the covert action activities of a previous government, he is breaking the covenant that exists between intelligence officers who are at the pointy end of the spear hanging way out there, and the government that authorized them and directed them to go there.
RUSH: Hear, hear! That is exactly right. These guys were given orders to produce information. They did it, and now Obama and Eric Holder want to bring them up on charges. He is exactly right. This is obviously a great man here, Jose Rodriguez. Now, Lesley Stahl, I have a question for you: “What would you prefer, to be blown up by a drone or have to drink Ensure?” I ask the question ’cause she said, “Well, Obama said what you did was torture.” Of course that makes it “torture,” if Obama said it was torture. But I’ll ask you, not just Lesley Stahl: “Would you rather be blown up by a drone or volunteer drink Ensure and listen to Barney?” (singing) “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family. The great big hug and kiss from me to you. Won’t you say you love me, too?” And they play is that over and over and over, and it drove ’em nuts. They played that song over and over. It drove those guys absolutely batty. Verse two: “I love you; you love me. We’re best friends like friends should be, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you! Won’t you say you love me, too?” And just loop it. And during refrains, bring in a bottle of Ensure, and they were driven nuts.
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