Obviously, Senator Feinsteins staff borrowed Rolling Stone Magazine investigators to put together the Senate Democrats political CIA interrogation report. No CIA directors or key managers of the program were interviewed. Eleven years after the last terror suspect was water-boarded and over five years after enhanced interrogations were banned, this report serves no real purpose. Its political findings were already known. Its conclusions are suspect. The report states that the enhanced program produced no real tangible results, while former CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss, Mike Hayden and current CIA director John Brennan all have concluded that it did. In fact, Bin Laden was found utilizing information gathered through these interrogations. Enhanced interrogation techniques were approved by the Justice Department, President Bush and Congress. Congress received 30 classified briefings on this intelligence. Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Feinstein attended CIA briefings. There was only one person who had objected to the process at that time and that was Rep. Jane Harman. Our soldiers undergo these very procedures as part of their training. A special prosecutor even investigated the CIA in 2012 and came to the conclusion that no criminal charges were justified. Most importantly, the report doesnt put the actions in historical context and attacks the very personnel that were working hard to protect Americans. Remember, America had just been attacked, 2, 997 American had been killed and there was the very real possibility that more attacks were coming. The CIA was tasked with a mission to gather as much information as possible to prevent future attacks, to find the terrorists, and get them... and they did. We were at war. Despite what this president thinks, we still are. So what was the purpose of this report? Politics. Here are a few guesses. 1. To place blame on the Bush administration - even though rendition actually began under President Clinton. 2. To divert attention away from this administration and the Democrats failures. 3. To deflect responsibility away from those congressional leaders who were briefed but did not act against the programs making them co-conspirators who acquiesced to a process that was no longer in vogue. 4. Personal revenge. The CIA had wrongfully accessed Senatorial computers and Senator Feinstein was determined to make them pay... But at what price? Our national security? US Personnel? Our nations ability to gather intelligence? Senator FeInstein should be ashamed of herself. The President has no shame. Compare this to this current administrations policy of droning. Im not against droning. Im not opposed to water-boarding. I have no problem eliminating the enemy but because this administration does not want to interrogate enemy combatants and do not want to house them at Gitmo nor have a place to put them, our ability to gather intel on the ground has been severely weakened. By killing combatants, you lose the valuable intelligence needed to anticipate terrorist threats, find other terrorists, validate intelligence and dismantle their operations. Seven CIA operatives and contractors were killed by a Jordanian doctor who they had recruited to provided actionable intelligence in Pakistan, when he blew them up with a suicide bomb. Without corroborative intelligence, how can you be sure the intelligence provided is good? This released report does more harm than good and the conclusion it should have reached is the only thing that was tortured was the truth. investors/editorial-cartoons/michael-ramirez/729867-truth
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 06:27:03 +0000
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