Well, Hope ‘n Change did it. After ‘pondering’ for a month, he released the Bush-era memos on interrogation techniques. From Mike Allen at The Politico:
White House senior adviser David Axelrod says President Barack Obama spent about a month pondering whether to release Bush-era memos about CIA interrogation techniques, and considered it “a weighty decision.”
“He thought very long and hard about it, consulted widely, because there were two principles at stake,” Axelrod said . “One is … the sanctity of covert operations … and keeping faith with the people who do them, and the impact on national security, on the one hand. And the other was the law and his belief in transparency.”
I assume the bad guys pretty much know what techniques they’ll face if captured. This decision disturbs me less for what’s in the memos than in the message it sends. First, it tells the people at CIA that the executive branch is going to yank their pants down – and ours – if it presents a political opportunity.
Second, the release was done merely to continue the narrative of ‘Bush bad, Hope ‘n Change good’. It’s just a cheap shot.
And predictably, Bush administration officials were not pleased. Again from Mike Allen:
A former top official in the administration of President George W. Bush called the publication of the memos “unbelievable.”
“It’s damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama’s action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are,” the official said. “We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary. … Publicizing the techniques does grave damage to our national security by ensuring they can never be used again — even in a ticking-time-bomb scenario where thousands or even millions of American lives are at stake.”
“I don’t believe Obama would intentionally endanger the nation, so it must be that he thinks either 1. the previous administration, including the CIA professionals who have defended this program, is lying about its importance and effectiveness, or 2. he believes we are no longer really at war and no longer face the kind of grave threat to our national security this program has protected against.”
It was nice of Dr. Axelrod to involve us in Hope ‘n Changes’ angst, however.
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