I love how the media just continues to get played by our intelligence agencies:
Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, the CIA is girding itself for more public scrutiny and is questioning whether agency personnel can conduct interrogations effectively under rules set out for the U.S. military, according to senior intelligence officials.
Harsh interrogations were only one part of its clandestine activities against al-Qaeda and other enemies, and agency members are worried that other operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan will come under review, the officials said.
Other than Lyddie England and Charles Graner, name one person who has been punished or suffered for actions conducted the last eight years. Yet the CIA and their willing allies in the WaPo keep moving the chains for what is and what is not acceptable: “OMG- someone might accurately calls acts of torture for what they are- how can we do our jobs!” And just so we are clear, that loudmouth jackass Ward Churchill has been punished more for his thought crimes than ANYONE involved with the actual torture of human beings.
Once again, Col. Bacevich:
To frame the question more broadly: When considering the national security state as it has evolved and grown over the past six decades, what exactly has been the value add? And if the answer is none – if, indeed, the return on investment has been essentially negative – then perhaps the time has come to consider dismantling an apparatus that demonstrably serves no useful purpose.
These guys want complete impunity to do whatever they want with total anonymity, and if anyone even suggests reining them in a little, they scream that they can not do their job effectively, work to undermine the elected government, and anyone who points out they aren’t doing their job effectively to begin with is an un-American DFH. Enough. It is long past time to start over.
*** Update ***
My bad. I forgot about General Taguba, who was fired for… investigating abuses at Abu Ghraib. Got too close and had to go.