Fake values, real values

Item: George W. Bush reminisces about old times:

Sure, we waterboarded Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, former President George W. Bush reportedly said on Tuesday. And he would “do it again to save lives.”

Item: an Army intelligence officer writes in Miliary Review that Abu Ghraib was a "strategic defeat" for the United States, and interviews interrogators who served in Iraq:

These experienced HUMINT leaders believed that it was not only wrong for American Soldiers to employ enhanced interrogation techniques on real world enemies, but that such techniques were largely ineffective. “For an interrogator to resort to techniques like that [techniques derived from SERE schools] is for that interrogator to admit that they don’t know how to interrogate,” said Groseclose, who was awarded the U.S. Defense Department’s HUMINT Collector of the Year Award for 2003. He added, “Our interrogations produced results.”

Both via Scott Horton.

... Bonus irony item:

I prayed a lot. I really did. I prayed before every major speech. I prayed before debates. It was a very important experience. I don't see how you can be president and not believe in a higher power.

Indeed. (Via Political Wire.)