CIA Addendum

*Further Update*  Vice President Cheney, on Fox News Sunday, said he thinks AG Holder is being extremely partisan, acting on a political play to hurt America's capacity to fight terrorism.
However, John McCain, god bless him, said, "I think the CIA interrogations aided Al Qaeda in recruiting...and hurt our ability to make alliances abroad, and, according to the FBI, there were other ways to perform these interrogations [within the law]."

*EDIT* I forgot to also reference the other set of "torture memos" released in April that was from a CIA Counsel. These are the documents Cheney repeatedly refers to when he wants to make the case that torture "saved American lives."

This will be much less complex than the previous post, but it's important information nontheless. I was shocked with some of the wording by reporters and some of the comments from the sources in the newspapers today about more details in this investigation.

Three things are happening: (1) The White House is in a squabble with Dick Cheney, (2) Congressional reaction to the investigation, and (3) how much of the information is being kept quiet by the Obama Administration.

Clearly Obama hates America.
Per ABC News:
"former vice president Cheney said yesterday that the probe 'serves as a reminder why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security.'"

POLITICO tells of a Republican Congressman who said the following:

"You wonder which side they're on"

And again, Michigan's own Pete Hoekstra, stirring the fire, said:

"We need a CIA that is focused on keeping American troops safe and winning this war, not worried about what politicians and the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. may do to them for doing their job"

They were in fact not doing their job, Congressman. They broke the law. But it was in the interest of national security so therefore it's okay in your book. Dang fool.

WaPo columnist David Ignatius is worried that the CIA will have its hands tied (or perhaps, shackled?) the next time there is something at stake. It's interesting that a CIA agent would want to call a lawyer before dumping gallons of water in someone's face. And Joe Scarborough, a man I typically respect, foolishly said this morning on his TV show, "the best and brightest are running out of the CIA this morning."

The two most bizarre editorials come from the two biggest papers. I have never read a New York Times editorial and thought, "do they know what they're saying!?" They want it to become political, even though they understand it can't be, and want the higher-ups to be prosecuted. WaPo also says essentially, "Obama caved in to Bush" (my words).

Darth Cheney claims he was right.

Despite the former Vice President saying the above comment, his biased biographer says:
'The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, who has written a sympathetic biography of Cheney, said on Fox News' Special Report, "The document that was released yesterday that describes pivotal information gained from detainees as a result of interrogations is actually dated June 3. The one that Cheney requested was dated June 1st. There is, I'm told by an intelligence source, more information in the June 1st one.'"

Apparently, Cheney didn't tell us everything? He is glad some Agency officer waterboarded Khalid Shaykh Mohammed 183 times in order to find out information that might have been false. I read that as, his claim that without these interrogations they would have gotten nowhere is totally false. LA Times agrees.

Obama knows more?
While all of this is shocking, there seems to be some conjecture among the media that Obama isn't doing enough. The appointment of a career CIA officer to oversee the interrogation rules and their changes isn't a reason to freak out and say nothing is going to change.

POLITICO also says, Obama is in bed with the Bush administration on investigating the CIA.

Strangely, The NYT and Wapo have concurring articles that suggests the CIA was in control of the interrogations, and even did some cleaning house when Khalid Shaykh Mohammed almost died.

There is obviously a lot we *don't* know, but it just seems like the media reversed some of its approval of what Obama did, and also got some absolutely STUPID politicians to offer the other viewpoint. However, the larger issue is that this is turning into a political mess. Am I wrong?