Guests: Fox News military analysts Col. David Hunt & Col. Bill Cowan
"All over the world the USA is being accused of torturing prisoners taken in the war on terror. Day after day the left wing media pound stories about America mistreating prisoners in Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Those reports are used to incite anti-American feeling and to recruit more terrorists. The truth is that some prisoners have been abused and maybe even tortured. The trouble is the continuing reportage of the allegations is putting lives in danger. Hyping the situation to undermine the Bush administration is disgraceful and should be condemned. But the administration bears some blame as well. It has resisted defining the terror war and explaining what is acceptable and what is not. Thus partisans like Senator Kennedy can legitimately wail away ? he called it a "crisis" that is "embarrassing the nation in the eyes of the world." Talking Points does not believe there is a torture crisis, but the administration does have a different view of how captured terrorists should be treated than Kennedy or the New York Times. We are in a kill or be killed situation that Kennedy and others fail to understand."
Transcript: FoxNews.com
Fox News military analysts Col David Hunt and Col. Bill Cowan joined The Factor to expand on the torture controversy. "The reality is that there are instances of torture," Cowan claimed. "The FBI has expressed its own reservations about what's going on in interrogations at Guantanamo."
Hunt said one problem is the lack of clear and coherent rules. "We have to have a policy on torture. We can't just make this up as we go.
Torture is a tool, and we need a public discussion about it." Both military men said Senator Kennedy's recent statements undermine the morale of our troops and damage the war on terror. "Al-Jazeera will take comments like Senator Kennedy made," Cowan predicted, "and blow them out of proportion, detail all kind of abuse. And that certainly has a negative impact."