ROEDER WARNS OF ADDITIONAL VIOLENCE…. The man accused of assassinating Dr. George Tiller in Kansas a week ago called the AP to say there are plans for additional attacks.
Scott Roeder called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail, where he’s being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. George Tiller one week ago.
“I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal,” Roeder said. When asked by the AP what he meant and if he was referring to another shooting, he refused to elaborate further.
While threats of this nature have to be taken seriously and deserve scrutiny from law enforcement, the fact that a suspected terrorist, with ties to extremist groups, is openly talking about additional acts of violence, has some relevance to the larger debate about interrogation policies.
John Cole asks, “[W]hen do we get to start waterboarding this guy?”
Does he have any children whose testicles can be crushed? Will we keep him up for weeks on end in stress positions in extremely cold rooms to get him to break? Beat him? … So when do we get to start torturing this guy?
John, of course, wasn’t seriously recommending torture. In fact, he went on to specifically reject the idea of torturing anyone.
But in the context of the arguments from torture apologists, one wonders whether Charles Krauthammer & Co. would consider Scott Roeder and his threat of “similar events planned around the country” evidence of a ticking-time-bomb scenario.
