Now that the U.S. government has managed to successfully locate and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the debate over whether using so-called enhanced-interrogation methods to gain intelligence in order to protect the homeland has only intensified.
But on Tuesday’s “The View” on ABC, co-host Joy Behar offered her own idea – a book deal. Co-host Whoopi Goldberg referred to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s declaration that enhanced-interrogation methods work and that evoked protest from Behar, accompanied by a suggestion.
“There’s a few ways to look at that. I mean, for example if we use these enhanced techniques, then they can use them on us,” Behar said. “[I]t just encourages more of it around the world and our soldiers have to endure it. And then the other thing is it’s possible that a $6-million book deal would have worked just as well, you know what I mean? There are other ways to get information out of people, pay them off. Who knows what would have worked?”
She reiterated her point that use of enhanced-interrogation methods puts U.S. prisoners of war at risk.
“What I’m saying is a lot of people are tortured and they get a lot of information out of it, as you’ve just pointed out – maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t,” Behar said. “You have to decide if it’s worth it to torture that many people to take a risk that it will happen to us.”
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However, Betty White said based on her experience, which goes back a few years, she didn’t think this debate would ever be settled.
“I remember seeing a Franchot Tone movie when I was a kid and when I was a kid was you know, two centuries ago,” White said. “But they showed torture, bamboo shoots under the fingernails and it was the most horrific thing I had ever seen. Well, it was what was being used at that time and if we haven’t learned anything in all those years and we’re still fighting each other and fighting wars, I think it’s a hopeless case we’re ever going to learn anything.”