House Majority Leader: Congressional Hearings Should Explore Pelosi's Interrogation Briefing

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at a news conference on the economic stimulus package. Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

From FOX News:

Democrats will hold a series of hearings on Justice Department memos released last month that justified rough tactics against detainees, including waterboarding -- simulated drowning -- and sleep deprivation.

The House majority leader reluctantly agreed Tuesday that congressional hearings should investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion that she wasn't informed, more than six years ago, that harsh interrogation methods were used on an Al-Qaeda leader.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., called Republican challenges to Pelosi's assertion a diversion from the real question of whether the Bush administration tortured terrorist suspects. Nonetheless, he acknowledged the controversy should be resolved.

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My Comment: This is going to get very very messy.

Democrats: CIA Is Out To Get Us

Image: Dems, including Sen. Carl Levin, charge that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on waterboarding in order to deflect blame away from itself. Photo: AP

From Politico:

Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself.

“I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters [of the CIA] that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was briefed on interrogation techniques five times between 2006 and 2007.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said he finds it “interesting” that a document detailing congressional briefings was released just as “some of the groups that have been responsible for these interrogation techniques were taking the most criticism.”

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My Comment: Are these people paranoid or what?

The documents that were released shows the hypocrisy of our politicians ....they are (today) critical of the torture techniques that were used, but they are the same politicians that sat in on discussions of torture 6-7 years ago.

They are embarrassed and angry that their duplicity has been shown .... and it appears that they will be wanting revenge.

U.S. Politics And Waterboarding

Image: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she 'concurred' with Rep. Jane Harman's 2003 letter protesting the use of waterboarding. Photo: AP photo composite by POLITICO

From Politico:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi learned in early 2003 that the Bush administration was waterboarding terror detainees but didn’t protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels, a person familiar with the situation said Monday.

The Pelosi camp’s version of events is intended to answer two key questions posed by her critics: When, precisely, did she first learn about waterboarding? And why didn’t she do more to stop it?

Pelosi has disputed a CIA document, released last week, that shows she was briefed in September 2002 on the “particular” interrogation techniques the United States had used on Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. Pelosi has said she was told then only that the Bush administration was considering using certain techniques in the future — and that it had the legal authority to do so.

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My Comment: The sentence that made me roll over in laughter was this one ....

.... didn’t protest directly out of respect for “appropriate” legislative channels ....

Cough cough .... Madame Speaker, you are the "legislative channel".

Bush Attorneys Who Wrote Terror Memo Face Backlash

From AP:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pressure is mounting against two former Bush administration attorneys who wrote the legal memos used to support harsh interrogation techniques that critics say constituted torture. John Yoo, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is fighting calls for disbarment and dismissal, while Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals faces calls for impeachment.

Justice Department investigators have stopped short of recommending criminal charges, but suggest in a draft report that the two men should face professional sanctions. A number of groups across the country agree, and some want even stronger action.

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My Comment: Everyday this story is in the news .... the morale of our intelligence agencies and its personnel gets worse and worse. No one in any of our intelligence agencies is going to take any risks or actions even if it is approved by all politicians and oversight committees. A precedent has been set in which any future administration can now take a ruling and change its interpretation or its legality at a whim .... with such an environment now in place, who would want to work for the CIA or any legal department that is responsible for overseeing government action.

Torture Probe Might Target Cheney's Office, Dodd Says

From Politico:

A Dodd supporter just sent us an extended version of the video clip we posted earlier. In this one, the Connecticut Democrat goes considerably farther in calling for hearings and possibly a criminal investigation into Bush-era interrogation tactics -- and suggests such a probe may need to focus on Dick Cheney's staff.

For openers, Dodd criticizes the White House for de-classifying the so-called "torture memos" without having a follow-up plan for dealing with the fallout -- quipping, "I don't know who the genius was in the room that night."

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My Comment: A part of me says that Sen. Dodd is doing this to divert attention from his ethics problems .... but another part of me says that there is more support for such an investigation than what is being reported on.

I personally expect some form of "investigation" in the next few months. This criminalization of policy is going to set up a terrible precedent on how the justice system can be used to persecute political opponents. This may bring a considerable amount of support from opponents to the previous administration's ,policies on interrogation .... but by going through with such an action I can guarantee you that there will be blowback from the Republicans when they return to power in the next 4, 8, or 12 years.

No Prosecution, But Possible Disbarment For Lawyers Who Drafted The Interrogation Memos

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Tuesday rejected the Obama administration's claim that a lawsuit involving extraordinary rendition must be halted for national security reasons, and reversed a lower court dismissal of the lawsuit. (ABC News Photo Illustration)

Torture Memos: Inquiry Suggests No Prosecutions -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — An internal Justice Department inquiry has concluded that Bush administration lawyers committed serious lapses of judgment in writing secret memorandums authorizing brutal interrogations but that they should not be prosecuted, according to government officials briefed on its findings.

The report by the Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal ethics unit within the Justice Department, is also likely to ask state bar associations to consider possible disciplinary action, which could include reprimands or even disbarment, for some of the lawyers involved in writing the legal opinions, the officials said.

The conclusions of the 220-page draft report are not final and have not yet been approved by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The officials said that it is possible that the final report might be subject to further revision but that they did not expect major alterations in its main findings or recommendations.

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More News On The CIA Interrogation Memos

Source: No charges seen over interrogation memos -- AP
Justice Likely to Urge No Prosecutions -- Wall Street Journal
DOJ nears completion of 'torture memos' probe -- Politico
Torture lawyers want report amended -- UPI
Bush Officials Try to Alter Ethics Report -- Washington Post
2 authors of Bush administration torture memos under pressure -- China View
Sanctions, Not Charges, Expected for Lawyers Who Drafted CIA Memos -- Wall Street Journal
Draft report urges that lawyers who wrote harsh CIA interrogation memo not face criminal charges -- Chicago Tribune

My Comment: This will kill the legal departments who are responsible for providing legal opinions and advice on sensitive national security or military affairs. When one looks at the persecution of these officials, no lawyer in his right mind would want to have such a job.

Torture And The Debate On Torture -- News And Commentaries

At the heart of the debate is whether the CIA interrogation techniques produced useful information from detainees Photo: AP

Effectiveness Of Harsh Questioning Is Unclear -- Washington Post

Detainee May Have Faced Few Traditional Tactics

During his first days in detention, senior al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed was stripped of his clothes, beaten, given a forced enema and shackled with his arms chained above his head, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was then, a Red Cross report says, that his American captors told him to prepare for "a hard time."

Over the next 25 days, beginning on March 6, 2003, Mohammed was put through a routine in which he was deprived of sleep, doused with cold water and had his head repeatedly slammed into a plywood wall, according to the report. The interrogation also included days of extensive waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.

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More News And Commentary On Torture And The Debate On Torture

CIA Reportedly Declined to Closely Evaluate Harsh Interrogations -- L.A. Times
CIA never assesed interrogation techniques: report -- AFP
Did CIA 'enhanced interrogation techniques' work or not? -- Christian Science Monitor
McCain: Don't Investigate Torture Memos -- CBS News
Spies Come Out to Criticize Memos' Release -- ABC News
CIA ignored warnings from US soldiers that torture and extreme stress would not work -- The Telegraph
Military agency warned against ‘torture’ -- MSNBC
The CIA Will Pay the Price -- The Washington Post
Allies split with US over torture -- Times Online
Inside accounts of interrogation approval differ -- AP
A Crack in the Wall of Secrecy -- New York Times Editorial
Security Before Politics -- Washington Post
Let the Senate Investigate the Interrogations -- Wall Street Journal opinion
Enough with the torture sanctimony -- Toronto Star opinion
Examining torture in the Bush era -- L.A. Times editorial
Truth about torture: Obama must block witch hunts into CIA interrogations -- New York Daily News Editorial
I never believed the US would turn on its torturers so swiftly -- The Guardian opinion
Stop the Scapegoating -- Washington Post
The Time to Investigate is Now -- New York Times

The Debate On Releasing The Torture Memos

The Oval Office

In Obama's Inner Circle, Debate Over Memos' Release Was Intense -- Washington Post

Some Feared That a Partisan Outcry Could Obstruct Larger Agenda

As President Obama met with top advisers on the evening of April 15, he faced one of the sharpest policy divides of his young administration.

Five CIA directors -- including Leon E. Panetta and his four immediate predecessors -- and Obama's top counterterrorism adviser had expressed firm opposition to the release of interrogation details in four "top secret" memos in which Bush administration lawyers sanctioned harsh tactics.

On the other side of the issue were Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and White House counsel Gregory B. Craig, whose colleagues during the campaign recall him expressing enthusiasm for fixing U.S. detainee policy.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates had said he supported the disclosures because he saw the information's release as inevitable and because the White House was willing to promise that CIA officers would not be prosecuted for any abuse. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen sided with Gates.

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My Comment: To release or not to release .... it appears that the White House debate centered on politics, and how this release would impact their overall agenda. When the decision was finally made .... the decision was done purely for politics .... national security be damned.

I posted a few weeks ago that President Obama was not going to release the memos .... that it would not only jeopardize national security, but it would also open the door for the politicization of national security. In short .... I said that President Obama was smart enough to keep Pandora's box closed.

I was wrong.

Pandora's Box is now open, with only years of Congressional investigations and legal battles that will not only damage national security (as predicted), but it will also set a precedent in which political parties can then use the legal process to attack their opponents and/or their philosophies.

Not surprisingly .... a released Rasmussen poll clearly states that 58% of respondents say release of the CIA Memos endangers National Security. The American people understand the consequences of what has happened this past week .... I can only hope that President Obama has figured this out also.

Pressure Grows On Obama To Call For Interrogation Panel

“The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically,” said a 2001 memo written in President Bush’s Justice Department and released by the Obama administration. Alex Brandon / Associated Press

From McClathcy Newspapers:

WASHINGTON — If growing political pressure doesn't subside soon, President Barack Obama may have to do something he's resisted doing since he took office: support a new investigation into how the Bush-era CIA interrogated suspected terrorists using techniques that are widely considered torture.

Again Thursday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama thinks that the idea of a commission wasn't "workable" and that "something like this would likely just become a political back-and-forth."

Liberal activists on Thursday delivered 250,000 petitions to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding an independent prosecutor. Liberals in Congress are calling for a commission. Obama himself all week refused to rule one out, saying that a bipartisan, independent panel would be the best option.

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My Comment: Personally, I completely support a bipartisan and independent investigation on this matter .... an investigation that would look at the entire affair from who and what was done to obtain intelligence and information, to a listing of the attacks and threats that were nullified or prevented because of this intelligence. And when completed .... a full account must then be given to the American people for their input and judgement.

But .... (heavy sigh) .... I am very skeptical that this is going to happen.

With talk of an investigation being bantered around just in the past 24 hours .... many senior Democrats have since come out that (as part of their oversight responsibilities at the time) they were present when discussions of interrogation techniques were outlined. Of course .... realizing the political minefield that this is within their own political base .... I have also been witnessed to the 101 excuses that these same politicians are now listing in front of any TV camera that is working on why they should not be held accountable for what they were actually responsible for.

With politics being politics, I know that such an investigation will probably discomfort everyone .... and worse .... it would politicize intelligence operations and criminalize policy differences at a time when the U.S. is involved in two major wars and must face a number of foreign policy challenges united.

This is a time when President Obama should lead .... but instead .... we have him now passing the buck to his Attorney General with the hope that he can now distance himself away from this mess. This has been handled very poorly by the White House .... and I know that in the end there is going to be blowback from this debacle.

Who Signed Off On The Interrogation Techniques

Bush, Rumsfeld and Rice in December 2001. Chuck Kennedy / MCT

Document: Cheney, Rice Signed Off On Interrogation Techniques -- McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A newly declassified narrative of the Bush administration's advice to the CIA on harsh interrogations shows that the small group of Justice Department lawyers who wrote memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques were operating not on their own but with direction from top administration officials, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

At the same time, the narrative suggests that then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell were largely left out of the decision-making process.

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More News On The Torture/Interrogation Memos

Rice delivered OK to waterboard as Bush's adviser -- Yahoo News/AP
Congress Debates Fresh Investigation Of Interrogations -- Washington Post
Harsh interrogations approved as early as summer 2002 -- Mercury News
Effectiveness of Interrogations May Prove Elusive -- New York Times
Obama’s torture memo two-step -- Christian Science Monitor
FACTBOX - Birth and death of CIA waterboarding -- Reuters
White House fights back on torture flap -- AFP
Obama's Image-Building Campaign Threatens National Security, Republicans Warn -- FOX News
Official: Interrogation methods worked, but at too big a cost -- CNN
Presidential Poison -- Wall Street Journal opinion
Congress Knew About the Interrogations -- Wall Street Journal

Obama Muddles Torture Message

From The Politico:

President Barack Obama’s attempt to project legal and moral clarity on coercive CIA interrogation methods has instead done the opposite — creating confusion and political vulnerability over an issue that has inflamed both the left and right.

In the most recent instance, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a memo to the intelligence community that Bush-era interrogation practices yielded had "high-value information,” then omitted that admission from a public version of his assessment.

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My Comment: I have the complete opposite point of view. I personally believe that they know what they are doing .... and they are being very successful at it. They are not only appeasing their base, but are using this situation to insulate themselves from any future terrorist attack on U.S. soil .... since it is due to former President Bush's and the fault of his policies that have made us hated and the target of the world. The fact that the main stream media is going along with this .... including the Politico .... I would have to think that they have succeeded already.

Report Links CIA To Military Harsh Interrogations

Prisoners are seen at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention centre near Baghdad airport April 21, 2009. REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ CONFLICT SOCIETY)

Military Helped With CIA Interrogation Tactics -- L.A. Times

Military helped with CIA interrogation tactics, report says. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said top civilians in the Bush administration allowed a military training program to be used to mistreat detainees. A senator says the report 'connects the dots' to show how techniques familiar to military experts found their way into controversial memos by the Justice Department.

Reporting from Washington -- A U.S. military agency that trains troops to resist and survive torture offered crucial help in developing harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA, according to a Senate report to be released today.

The military expertise also was used by the Justice Department to develop controversial legal justifications for abusive interrogation methods, the report by the Senate Armed Services Committee said.

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Update: Report links CIA to military harsh interrogations -- Yahoo News/AP

My Comment: On the one hand President Obama talks about moving forward .... but on the other hand he goes back. Sigh ....when old news is being recycled as news you know that there is an agenda being played.

So what is that agenda?

The groundwork is now being prepared to attack the weakest link in the war against terror .... the prosecution of the attorneys and legal experts who laid the legal foundation for these operations. The consequences from this will be profound and long lasting .... no right thinking lawyer or legal expert is going to touch counter terrorism or counter insurgency affairs with a ten foot pole .... and if he or she does .... they will just play it safe, thereby neutering and making impotent any effective strategy to obtain information from captured terrorists or combatants.

We are in a time of war battling against a very deadly enemy. And while President Obama is reluctant to release the memos that Vice President Cheney has requested should now be declassified in order to show the danger that we are in .... we (the public) are now stuck in only getting the message from the Government and Justice Department .... and any alternative point of view on this important issue be damned.

Banned Interrogation Techniques Worked -- Media Finally Reporting The Other Side Of The Story

The CIA's Questioning Worked -- The Washington Post

In releasing highly classified documents on the CIA interrogation program last week, President Obama declared that the techniques used to question captured terrorists "did not make us safer." This is patently false. The proof is in the memos Obama made public -- in sections that have gone virtually unreported in the media.

Consider the Justice Department memo of May 30, 2005. It notes that "the CIA believes 'the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qaeda has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001.' . . . In particular, the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including [Khalid Sheik Mohammed] and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques." The memo continues: "Before the CIA used enhanced techniques . . . KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, 'Soon you will find out.' " Once the techniques were applied, "interrogations have led to specific, actionable intelligence, as well as a general increase in the amount of intelligence regarding al Qaeda and its affiliates."

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Banned Techniques Yielded ‘High Value Information,’ Memo Says -- New York Times

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

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Intel Director: High-Value Info Obtained -- Seattle PI/AP

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's top intelligence official privately told employees last week that "high value information" was obtained in interrogations that included harsh techniques approved by former President George W. Bush.

"A deeper understanding of the al-Qaida network" resulted, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said in the memo, in which he added, "I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past." The Associated Press obtained a copy.

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Obama and the CIA -- Wall Street Journal Opinion

President Obama on Monday paid his first formal visit to CIA headquarters, in order, as he put it, to "underscore the importance" of the agency and let its staff "know that you've got my full support." Assuming he means it, the President should immediately declassify all memos concerning what intelligence was gleaned, and what plots foiled, by the interrogations of high-level al Qaeda detainees in the wake of September 11.

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My Comment: Vice President Cheney is right .... release the rest of the memos.

CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info That Aborted 9/11-Style Attack On Los Angeles

From CNSNews.com:

The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) -- including the use of waterboarding -- caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

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My Comment: This is big news, and if true it undermines President Obama's assertions that changing our interrogation policies will make us safer. This type of news does not only completely undermine the White House's message, but more importantly it reveals to us on how dangerous the world really is .... a message that many in our Government (for some reason) do not want to pass around right now.

BREAKING!!!!! President Obama Reverses Pledge Not To Prosecute Government Officials Involved In Torture Interrogations

President Obama is leaving the door open to possible prosecution of Bush administration officials for harsh interrogation tactics. Photo from MSNBC

Obama Open To Hill Probe Of Harsh Interrogations -- AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is leaving the door to open to possible prosecution of Bush administration officials who devised harsh terrorism-era interrogation tactics.

He also said Tuesday that he worries about the impact of high-intensity hearings on how detainees were treated under former President George W. Bush. But Obama did say, nevertheless, he could support a Hill investigation if it were conducted in a bipartisan way.

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More News On More Investigations on Former Bush Officials

Obama opens door on torture prosecutions -- Boston.com
Obama open to prosecution, probe of interrogations -- Yahoo News/AP
Obama open to some interrogation prosecution -- MSNBC
Obama Open To Harsh Interrogation Charges -- CBS
Obama Open to Prosecution Over Interrogation Methods -- FOX News

My Comment: Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to this administration. There are a number of our citizens who are in the field sacrificing their life to make us safe .... and now our President wants to lay the groundwork to indict them .... even though these men and women are following the orders of their government.

Sigh .... and all of this happening on a day after President Obama said nothing of the sort was going to happen.

But as far as the main stream media is concerned .... Obama gets euphoric CIA welcome. What BS.

BREAKING!!!! Vice President Cheney Calls For Release Of More CIA Memos Detailing The Results Of Interrogation Tactics

Vice President Cheney

Cheney Calls for Release of Memos Showing Results of Interrogation Efforts -- FOX News

Former Vice President Cheney says he knows how successful the interrogation techniques were in collecting intelligence for the United States and wants that information to be released to the public as well as the legal memos explaining the decision to allow the heavily criticized methods.

Now that the memos showing the rulings of interrogation techniques have been released, the Obama administration should release additional documents that show what the interrogations yielded, former Vice President Dick Cheney told FOX News on Monday.

In an interview with FOX News' Sean Hannity to be aired on "Hannity" Monday night, Cheney questioned the point of releasing the legal decisions behind the interrogations but not the outcome of them.

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My Comment: I agree with former Vice President Cheney. Since the cat is now out of the bag, release the rest of the memos.

But I will be surprised if President Obama's administration decides to release these documents. If the methods and tactics were successful .... which Vice President Cheney obviously believes they were .... any release of this information will then completely undercut President Obama's message on what the memos signify and represent.

Sigh .... this is what happens when you play politics with National Security .... you always get burned.

WH: Releasing Memos Didn't Hurt National Security

Photo: Rahm Emanuel

From Washington Times:

Top White House officials denied Sunday that President Obama's release of top-secret memos hurt national security by giving terrorists details of U.S. interrogation techniques, as charged by the current head of the CIA and his four predecessors, saying the information was already public.

"Virtually everything that was in those memos has been publicly reported," senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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My Comment: The White House's political staff are saying that everything is OK .... nothing here .... move on. But previous intelligence chiefs and ... I am sure .... most intelligence personnel will say different. Who to believe .... hmmmm .... I call this a no brainer.

The CIA And Released Memos: News. Analysis, And Commentary

Torture and the CIA: Laid out in the light -- The Economist

Memos on CIA interrogation methods have been published. Could prosecutions for torture follow?

“WE HAVE been through a dark and painful chapter in our history,” said Barack Obama on Thursday April 16th, as he released memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel during the previous administration. Dark indeed. The memos lay out, in bland legalese, the reasoning that led Bush administration lawyers to approve the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”, which are commonly held to be torture.

Mr Obama had apparently been mulling for weeks whether to release the memos. In a thoughtful statement he said that America has a right to a certain amount of secrecy in its national-security operations. In this case, however, the techniques described have already been well reported and documented. As important, the practices have been ended. Thus full transparency was best.

Read more ....

UPDATE: The actual memos are HERE.

More News On The CIA And The Release Of The Torture Memos

Obama statement on release of torture memos -- AP
Statement by the Director of National Intelligence -- New York Times
C.I.A. Memos Could Bring More Disclosures -- New York Times
Memos Shed Light on CIA Interrogation Practices -- Voice Of America
Obama Criticized Over CIA Decision -- Time Magazine
Former Bush Officials Warn Against Release of Legal Memos on Interrogation -- FOX News
Torture techniques endorsed by the Bush administration -- The Guardian
'Torture memos' embolden Dems -- Politico
CIA objections slowed torture memos release -- Yahoo News/AP
Bipartisan “Encouragement” for Tough Interrogations -- Commentary Magazine
These papers raise as many questions as they answer -- The Independent

Former Top Bush Offial Says Release Of Memos Does 'Grave Damage To National Security ... We Have Laid It All Out For Our Enemies'

Obama Consulted Widely On Memos -- 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.”

Read more ....

My Comment: I originally did not think that President Obama was going to publish these memos .... but he did. I had said (yesterday) that there was nothing to gain by doing this .... that if he was to release these memos it would be to only appease his base. A political stunt that would make the usual group from the left happy that he is doing something against organizations like the CIA .... and more importantly .... against President Bush.

But on the negative side of this .... this action would have severe consequences. It would reveal to our enemies the tactics and methods employed by our security forces to obtain information .... information that would ultimately be used against us.

To this President .... (and I hate to say this) .... it appears that politics is more important than National Security. Sigh .... I can only hope that when the "shit will hit the fan" .... and it will because that is how the world is .... the people who have put us in this situation would be held accountable for their actions just as President Bush and his administration are now being held accountable for theirs.