RUSH: Last night on The CBS Evening News, they played a couple clips from 60 Minutes Sunday night, an interview Lesley Stahl did with former CIA interrogator Jose Rodriguez. I know people who know this man. He is a patriot, a hero, a great guy, and he’s one of the vilified CIA interrogators at Club Gitmo. He participated in the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He waterboarded him, so CBS tracked him down. Lesley Stahl says, “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was tough. You had to pour water on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed more than 180 times.”
RODRIGUEZ: 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. 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, for crying out loud. KSM wanted to be martyred, and I’m sure his wife wanted to have sex with him after he died. Jose Rodriguez ran the clandestine service for Bush 43, the guy being interviewed here by Lesley Stahl. So Lesley Stahl then says, “So what happens? Does he break down? Does he cry? Does he fall apart?”
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. He lost 50 pounds.
STAHL: What, his Ensure, you mean like people in the hospital who 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: (laughing) I love it. These liberal newspeople can’t believe he’s forced to drink Ensure. That’s torture to them. For those of you who don’t know what Ensure is, it’s a dairy-based beverage that’s loaded with calories and nutrients, primarily for cancer patients who can’t eat. It is a compassionate product. It’s a product designed to keep people alive. I went to a golf tournament down in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, and I came back, this is some years ago, and six weeks after I came back I had this intestinal thing, painful as it could be. So I was taken to an infectious disease doctor, a great doctor, and, of course, when you go in, they immediately think — I mean, here came the colon cancer doc, and here came the gastrointestinal — and the first thing they think of is cancer. Here comes the CAT scan.
I’m gonna listen to this again. So what happens? Does KSM break down? Does he cry? Does he fall apart after a 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. He lost 50 pounds.
STAHL: What, his Ensure, you mean like people in the hospital who 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: (Laughing) You know something else that Jose does here? Lesley Stahl has no clue what’s happening. I’m convinced. He said, “Oh, yes, well, dietary manipulation was part of these dire techniques.” Dire techniques! Ensure, sleep deprivation, dire techniques. He’s just having fun with her. Yes, they were part of these dire techniques. And she’s buying it. That’s Orwellian. By the way, you know who else does dietary manipulation? Try Michelle Obama. She is leading a movement of dietary manipulation in this country. Does Lesley Stahl not know anything about US history? How does she think that we treated German and Japanese prisoners who had intel information that we needed? She says here, “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was tough. You had to pour the water more than 180 times.”
I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think he was waterboarded 180 times. I think that is a claim that’s nowhere near accurate. The New York Times, by the way, claims that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 266 times. That’s not even physically possible. But despite that, Jose Rodriguez, “Oh, he didn’t give a rat’s ass about having water poured in his face. He counted to ten, he knew –” (laughing) This is an illustration of the two different worlds. Here is Jose Rodriguez, who lives in a really dangerous world, keeping this country safe. Here’s somebody who lives in the equivalent of a penthouse, never leaves it, has no clue what goes on, really, outside the CBS penthouse and is astounded that a prisoner would have to drink Ensure. That’s a dire, dire technique. Ha-ha-ha.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So here’s the headline that CBS has on their press release for 60 Minutes Sunday night. Here’s the headline. Ready for this? “CIA spy behind the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on Al-Qaeda detainees talks about those harsh methods and defends them for the first time.” 60 Minutes Sunday. “Ex-clandestine service head Jose Rodriguez also questions the White House’s drone strike policy that has killed Al-Qaeda leaders instead of capturing them.” Ensure. Grab sound bite 21 again. This is an all-time greatest hit. Lesley Stahl says, (imitating Stahl) “So what happened after you waterboarded? Did you recycle? Was there recycling? Did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed cry? Did he fall apart?”
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. He lost 50 pounds.
STAHL: What, his Ensure, you mean like people in the hospital who 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: (Laughing) Yes, it was all part of these dire techniques. Ensure is part of these dire techniques. Do you know what else they did? I’m told from a reputable source they also played that song by Barney, the kid character, “I love you; you love me.” They played that over and over ’til it drove these guys nuts. They just played the Barney song on a continuous loop, drove ’em nuts.
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