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March 29, 2005
The Culture of Life Marches On

Via Billmon and Atrios..

Bill Tierney is one of the protesters outside of Terri Schiavo's hospice in Florida..

The legal battle over the life of Terri Schiavo may have ended, but a thick, fervent crowd remains in the makeshift encampment outside the Woodside Hospice House here . . .

No, we're not going to go home," said Bill Tierney, a young daughter at his side. "Terri is not dead until she's dead" . . .

Mr. Tierney, a former military intelligence officer in Iraq who works as a translator and investigator for private companies, cried as he talked about watching the Schiavo spectacle on television and feeling the utter need to be at the hospice.

New York Times

Turns out this isn't the first time this guy has been in the news. He is in fact a former interrogator for U.S. forces in Iraq.

''The Brits came up with an expression – wog,'' Tierney said. ''That stands for Wily Oriental Gentleman. There's a lot of wiliness in that part of the world.''. . .

After explaining his various psychological tactics to the audience, interrogator Bill Tierney (a private contractor working with the Army) said, ''I tried to be nuanced and culturally aware. But the suspects didn't break.''

Suddenly Tierney's temper rose. ''They did not break!'' he shouted. ''I'm here to win. I'm here so our civilization beats theirs! Now what are you willing to do to win?'' he asked, pointing to a woman in the front row. ''You are the interrogators, you are the ones who have to get the information from the Iraqis. What do you do? That word 'torture'. You immediately think, 'That's not me.' But are we litigating this war or fighting it?'' . . .

Asked about Abu Ghraib, Tierney said that for an interrogator, ''sadism is always right over the hill. You have to admit it. Don't fool yourself – there is a part of you that will say, 'This is fun.' ''

Boston Globe

Atrios dug up some more great stuff from this guy, from just before and just after the start of the war.

Former weapons inspector Bill Tierney... said on the Sean Hannity radio show that we will be shocked with what we are going to find in Iraq. He has no doubt we will find huge amounts of what Iraq swears it does not have.

In addition, Tierney said that he has told our government where Hussein has hidden an underground uranium plant. Tierney said "I can drive there with my eyes shut."

Free Republic

Wow. That's pretty confident. How would he possibly know such a thing? Here's how..

Tierney's methods of ascertaining this location were rather unconventional. "I would ask God and just get a sense if something was valid or not, and then know if I needed to pursue it," he said. His assessments through prayer were then confirmed to him by a friend's clairvoyant dream, where he was able to find the location on a map. "Everything she said lined up. This place meets the criteria," Tierney said of a power generator plant near the Tigris River that he believes is actually a cover for a secret uranium facility.

Coast to Coast AM

Comments

Previous Comments

obviously not a member of the reality-based community . . .

Wow, I was just watching the news on T.V. Flipping back and forth between FNC and MSNBC and CNN. On all three channels I was able to watch one of those religious right nuts talking about the Schiavo situation. Yeah his arguments were right out there. Who was it you ask?

Jesse Jackson

The religious right sure does some wierd stuff. I can tell that this is a totally partisan issue and that Democrats are on one side and Republicans are on the other.

Was that acerbic?

Dude, don't be so sensitive.

Also, your sarcasm is misplaced. I have never said that all Democrats are on one side and Republicans on the other. I don't give a rat's ass what party you belong to. If you're an idiot, you're an idiot. And if you disagree with me, you're an idiot. There, I said it.

You also fail to back up the point you seem to be trying to make, namely that Jesse Jackson's views on the Schiavo case defy the neat left-right, religious-secular divisions that I never asserted.

What did Jackson say? Without that, you have no point.

Jesse Jackson is a religious person, agreed. The term "religious right" does not mean that all religious people are on the political right.

This issue is in reality one of the least partisan media circuses we've had in a while. Huge majorities of Americans of all political stripes believe that the government has far overstepped its bounds in this case and that Terri Schiavo's end-of-life decisions should be made by her husband. The right-left split in this case is an invention of the media and a tactic to make one side's position appear to be more popular than it is.

So no, it wasn't all that acerbic. It wasn't all that interesting either.

My point is that it seems that so many people want to make this a right left issue when it is truly not. Thos on the left and the right lean different ways on this issue and some in the same direction in opposition to their party.

Not that interesting, no. I go to your site becuase I have nothing else to do. But you do respond quite a bit for something not so interesting. Thanks.

After reading this post, Tierney sounded like he supported torture. Readers should go to the link below and read the entire article. (this is the danger of posting someone's comments out of the context of the whole). Tierney's point was that interrogator's need some experience so that they DO NOT resort to physical tactics. (he supports psychological tactics). Glad I took the time to read the entire Boston Globe article.