Clifford May

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Clifford May : biography

1951 –

May supports the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, other than waterboarding, against those captured by the United States in what he calls the War on Terror so long as they are used as a "last resort". He views them as fundamentally different from ‘torture’. He also opposes regarding those captured as either criminal defendants or prisoners of war. On April 23, 2009, May appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart discussing the subject of torture, and he and Stewart engaged in a rather heated yet cordial debate on the subject. Jacob Gershman of New York Magazine later highlighted the exchange as one of the clearest discussions about the issue in the news media.

May supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well as the 2007 "surge" strategy in the country. In March 2008, he wrote for National Review Online, "[w]hat one can not say is that regime change in Iraq was unjustified: Not if you know Saddam’s record, his clearly stated intentions, and his ties to international terrorists – including, as a new Pentagon report reveals, a group headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, now al Qaeda’s second-in-command." In an April 2004 interview with Tavis Smiley, who alleged that Bush had decided to invade Iraq before the 9/11 attacks and manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, May argued that Bush had been continuing the policy of the Clinton-era Iraq Liberation Act and that Bush had pushed the CIA for accurate information.

He also told Smiley, "I’m rooting for the guy in the White House, personally, ’cause I do think he has done a good job". In the aftermath of the American re-deployment in Iraq during July 2009, he wrote for The Washington Times, "[t]he news is not that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. The news is that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in victory– rather than in defeat."

May wrote for the San Angelo Standard Times in October 2012 that, despite the death of Osama bin Laden and other successes against al-Qaida, he considered the group "degraded" but not actually "defeated". He referred to the attempted assassination of Malala Yousufzai as a particular sign of a still dangerous Taliban. He argued,

Disputes and debates

During the beginning of the CIA leak scandal, May wrote in September 2003 that an ex-administration official had told him that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, and May stated that the fact was an open secret widely known across Washington, D.C. He also remarked that he chose not to mention this in his own writings since he considered this to be irrelevant to anything else. David Corn, writing for The Nation in March 2007 in the aftermath of the scandal, disputed May’s assertions, and he quoted Plame as saying that only a handful of people knew about her covert status. Corn then called upon May, along with other conservative commentators such as Jonah Goldberg who had made similar statements, to apologize.

On the October 15, 2007 edition of Tucker on MSNBC, May agreed with host Tucker Carlson’s allegation that Hillary Clinton had used her gender to garner support in her Presidential campaign. May then jokingly referred to Clinton as a ‘Vaginal-American’. The comment was highlighted by Media Matters for America.. Media Matters for America. Published October 16, 2007. Published July 21, 2009. In September 2007, Media Matters for America criticized May for making numerous public appearances in support of the Bush administration without mentioning his relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion or the fact that the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies had received State Department monetary grants.. Media Matters for America. Published September 10, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2009.

After Rush Limbaugh compared Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in August 2009, Salon writer Glenn Greenwald stated on his blog that May had called Limbaugh’s commentary "wrong, outrageous and damaging". May wrote at National Review Online shortly afterward that Greenwald had "[p]redictably" and "dishonorably" misrepresented the statement that he had e-mailed to Greenwald, which he said had criticized specious Nazi comparisons by both Limbaugh, Moveon.org, and Nancy Pelosi.

On December 31, 2009, May jokingly suggested releasing detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Yemen, then sending "missiles to strike the baggage-claim area". He later defended the remarks, describing critics such as Greenwald as "humorless". He also stated that he had intended to highlight the logical disconnect between someone both supporting the extrajudicial killing of suspected militants and opposing the holding of suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay at the same time.