The poopy-storm engulfing the CIA and the Obama Justice Department continues. First, the administration decided that the CIA couldn’t be trusted to interrogate high-value terrorist targets, creating a team that will probably revolve around the FBI – and be controlled in the White House – instead. The new interrogation guidelines reportedly use techniques set out in the Army Field Manual – no sleep deprivation, no loud music and, waiter, make sure the remoulade isn’t too tart.
In short, give them the comfy chair.
Then, Eric (“Dialing for Chinese Dollars”) Holder announced that he would appoint a special prosecutor to look into alleged abuses (amounting to three waterboarding sessions with guys like Khalid Sheik Muhammed). This, after an independent investigation already recommended that there should be no prosecutions.
This was too much for Leon Panetta, who reportedly had a profanity-laced screaming match with Holder and certain puke White House staffers over the transfer of interrogation duties and the coming DoJ inquisition. So now he’s talking back in a letter to CIA employees. From Fox News and The Corner at NRO:
· The CIA itself commissioned the Inspector General’s review. The report, prepared five years ago, noted both the effectiveness of the interrogation program and concerns about how it had been run early on. Several Agency components, including the Office of General Counsel and the Directorate of Operations, disagreed with some of the findings and conclusions.
· The CIA referred allegations of abuse to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution. This Agency made no excuses for behavior, however rare, that went beyond the formal guidelines on counterterrorism. The Department of Justice has had the complete IG report since 2004. Its career prosecutors have examined that document-and other incidents from Iraq and Afghanistan-for legal accountability. They worked carefully and thoroughly, sometimes taking years to decide if prosecution was warranted or not. In one case, the Department obtained a criminal conviction of a CIA contractor. In other instances, after Justice chose not to pursue action in court, the Agency took disciplinary steps of its own.
· The CIA provided the complete, unredacted IG report to the Congress. It was made available to the leadership of the Congressional intelligence committees in 2004 and to the full committees in 2006. All of the material in the document has been subject to Congressional oversight and reviewed for legal accountability.
…I make no judgments on the accuracy of the 2004 IG report or the various views expressed about it. Nor am I eager to enter the debate, already politicized, over the ultimate utility of the Agency’s past detention and interrogation effort. But this much is clear: The CIA obtained intelligence from high-value detainees when inside information on al-Qa’ida was in short supply. Whether this was the only way to obtain that information will remain a legitimate area of dispute, with Americans holding a range of views on the methods used. The CIA requested and received legal guidance and referred allegations of abuse to the Department of Justice. President Obama has established new policies for interrogation.
And all of this as the just-released CIA report and the “Cheney Documents” reveal that tough interrogations did work, particularly with shitbirds like Khalid Sheik Muhammed, who reportedly sang like a sewer canary after thirty seconds on the water board.
Final note: for all his righteous puffery about “enhanced interrogations”, it’s being reported that Hope ‘n Change is going to continue “rendition” – but with more “oversight”.
What a punk.
More from Hot Air here, here and here.
More from Ed Morrissey on Enhanced Interrogation.
