A CIA defector. right on cue
ABCNews led the news tonight featuring an ex-CIA officer involved in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the detainee who was on the waterboarding tapes. His main statement was that "waterboarding was torture but necessary."
Look. No ex-CIA person discusses this sort of classified info on camera without clearing it first. So, either he was cleared to talk about it, or he will be prosecuted.
Because his revelation serves to politically cover torture, I have a hunch he won't be prosecuted.
Later: As an unofficial op, it's working. Front page WaPo, AP, BBC all with the very clear message, "it worked, it was necessary, now ignore it because we're not doing it anymore."
The only comment from the CIA is to confirm his position and credibility.
No clamor against him at all.
Later still: Now the guy is making the rounds. NBC this morning, a CNN interview in rotation....
Look. No ex-CIA person discusses this sort of classified info on camera without clearing it first. So, either he was cleared to talk about it, or he will be prosecuted.
Because his revelation serves to politically cover torture, I have a hunch he won't be prosecuted.
Later: As an unofficial op, it's working. Front page WaPo, AP, BBC all with the very clear message, "it worked, it was necessary, now ignore it because we're not doing it anymore."
The only comment from the CIA is to confirm his position and credibility.
U.S. intelligence officials confirmed that Kiriakou was a CIA employee involved in the capture and questioning of Abu Zubaida. Kiriakou, a 14-year veteran of the CIA who worked in both the analysis and operations divisions, left the agency in 2004 and works as a consultant for a private Washington-based firm.
No clamor against him at all.
Later still: Now the guy is making the rounds. NBC this morning, a CNN interview in rotation....
posted by mikevotes at
6:30 PM
6 Comments:
And yet there have been any number of ex-intel guys who have come out railing against "harsh" interrogation techniques as being not only un-American but highly ineffective. But I guess that doesn't make headlines
So they were able to dig up an ex-CIA stooge to pimp the thugocracy line that torture is "necessary." Interestingly, he didn't tout it's effectiveness at producing results. Factual results.
By
-epm, at 8:45 PM
Right. Like I said in the title, Right on Cue to help give the torture defenders some backing.
By
mikevotes, at 8:56 PM
I agree, it's very suspicious timing. It's also disheartening that America is being asked to rally around torure as something we can all agree on.
I've heard anecdotal reports, backed up by a woman on NPR tonight (Fresh Air), that torture is one of the things motivating the insurgency in Afghanistan. It seems that, far from frightening Afghanis into passivity, torture of one's relatives is a big reason to swear a blood feud against the "occupiers".
By
Todd Dugdale , at 10:30 PM
Well, it's not really asking us to agree on torture going forward. This all seems to be about agreeing that it was "necessary" at the time, and that we should all just look the other way now.
By
mikevotes, at 7:39 AM
Just call it Enhanced Interrogation. Problem solved.
By
Anonymous, at 9:36 AM
But that's he crumb this guy threw out.
He appears rational by saying it's wrong before making the argument that it's okay to let it go.
By
mikevotes, at 11:23 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home