Obama tossed some more red meat to his constituents (at the expense of our safety): Obama Administration to Investigate CIA Terror Interrogations.
How stupid a decision is this? CIA Director Leon Panetta is threatening to quit. Panetta isn’t exactly a Dittohead Limbaugh listener.
Among the investigations: The Washington Post reports a now retired CIA officer used a gun, and another a power drill, back in 2002 to “intimidate a captured al-Qaeda suspect.” That former suspect, by the way, was USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. I wonder if the families of those 17 sailors shed a tear for the “intimidation” of this killer?
A statement from Mr. Panetta hit the nail on the head:
“I make no judgments on the accuracy of the 2004 IG report or the various views expressed about it,” Mr. Panetta wrote. ”Nor am I eager to enter the debate, already politicized, over the ultimate utility of the Agency’s past detention and interrogation effort.”
Still, he wrote, “this much is clear: The CIA obtained intelligence from high-value detainees when inside information on al Qaeda was in short supply.”[emphasis mine]
Exactly! Let alone the triviality of this — we “simulate,” we “intimidate,” we “threaten,” whereas our enemy flies passenger planes into skyscrapers and cuts peoples’ heads off — note the complete lack of context. These same CIA officers were in 2002 being grilled by Congress and the public as to why they didn’t stop 9-11. So we captured a bunch of the terrorists. We demanded answers. But now these same CIA personnel are being grilled because seven years later the Obama administration needs a quick PR victory.
And what else other than investigating the CIA would one expect from Obama for such a victory, given his cash for clunkers debacle, lots of egg on his face from a unified American public saying “no thanks” to his single-payer health care proposal, a DOA climate change bill, TARP Part Two, or as George Will noted, “an 85 percent unspent stimulus.” (aka, not a stimulus).
Approval rating is down, call in the investigators! This is a tried and true Pavlovian response from the ‘blame America first’ wing of the Democratic Party.
It’s also adding a little insult to the injury following the UK releasing the 1988 Lockerbie bomber. Sure it’s the UK, not Obama, but other than the typically bland “we’re disappointed” statements from team Obama, there’s not been much of a reaction. It’s as if they’re recollecting a bad meal — “we’re disappointed with the fillet” — rather than the release of a terrorist who murdered 270 people.
How’s about a bit of outrage? Leftists are great at outrage, so long as it’s targeted at Big Oil, or Big Pharma, or Big Banking, or Big Anything, so long as it’s not, you know, Big Terror.
One can’t see how any of this could be a political victory except amongst his most Kool-Aid filled backers. Most Americans will recognize that keeping the country safe requires a bit more than name, rank and serial number from terrorists who have several aliases, but no rank, and no serial number.
At the same time, this administration which excels at apologizing for American behavior is creating the exact risk-averse intelligence culture which assisted 9-11 hijackers in executing their murderous plan. Adds the UK Daily Mail, “Tactics in the grey area between torture and legal questioning – such as sleep deprivation and playing loud music – will be banned.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ll sure sleep easier knowing that we won’t deny a mass murderer like Khalid Mohammed of his beauty rest.
You see, it’s not enough to start a witch hunt against our intelligence services. The Obama administration is also going to castrate them:
President Obama has approved the creation of an elite team of interrogators to question key terrorism suspects, part of a broader effort to revamp U.S. policy on detention and interrogation, senior administration officials said Sunday.
Obama signed off late last week on the unit, named the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG. Made up of experts from several intelligence and law enforcement agencies, the interrogation unit will be housed at the FBI but will be overseen by the National Security Council — shifting the center of gravity away from the CIA and giving the White House direct oversight.
Panetta says he expects a flood of employees from the CIA. But the ones who remain won’t be in charge of investigating much. Instead, the White House is going to “nationalize” the intelligence biz, micromanage it from the top, becoming subject matter experts on interrogation. Yeah, that’ll work about as good as them becoming subject matter experts on the automobile industry. And how’d *that* experiment work out, fellas? Not so hot, eh?