Wow that's an odd twist.

We have moved from denial to various vague exculpatory assertions.

The real heat will come from overseas. These assholes made a lot of enemies, and those enemies will now take the opportunity to reply. There are also going to be boatloads of angry, outed foreign spooks, and I expect they will have something to say too.

Every time they try to weasel out of it, they are going to hear "forced rectal feeding".

I give Feinstein credit, she nailed it on the wall for us.

they don't have far to go to get out of jail free--even the liberal Dems are arguing that we lost November because we didn't unanimously and unconditionally defend everything the guy who praised child rapists as skeert patriots has promoted ...

It's the function of a counter-intelligance agency to be paranoid beyond reason and to come up with ideas that may enhance security. It is NOT their function to worry about legality, morality, or even practicality. That is the job of the people set to oversee the agency's activities. It is much the same as with scientists who invent more and better ways to destroy the Earth and every living thing on it: their job is not to wrestle with moral questions, but get on with developing an enhanced neutron bomb.

What has happened with the CIA is that the technicians have taken control of policy, and may have gone so far as to deliberately mislead the decision-makers as to what they are doing. This coup was aided and abetted by a long line of spooks who have attained the highest offices in the land, and are prepared to do "whatever it takes" to advance their agenda. Meanwhile they cravenly accuse opponents of not using due diligence in "saving American lives," knowing full well that no one is going to be so politically asinine as to suggest that some things are more important than saving lives. (They will, needless to say, spend those same lives profligately if it is considered necessary to achieve their ends)

-- Mal

Or so we asserted 60-some years ago. So I would assume "just doing their job" would suffer from the same dismissal.

On the other hand, it certainly would be a disappointment if the policy-makers behind this debacle were to avoid punishment and disgrace.

It is interesting that McCain & Feinstein are in cahoots on this.

... since it would appear they generated the orders in the first place. That, however, is the prime obfuscation to which the torture apologists aspire: to hide who actually "made the decision" to employ torture.

I wonder if it matters. We live in/have created a culture in which the ends consistenly justify the means, and those ends are defined by a small coterie of rich and well-connected individuals. The use of torture on "terrorist suspects" is simply a part of a larger zeitgeist which is concerned only with expanding and protecting the power of these individuals, whatever the cost in terms of blood, enviromental damage, or tyranny. In a country where property is more important than human life, where a growing percentage of our own people live in poverty, despair, and persecution, it is no wonder that the "other" is treated even more inhumanely, especially if that other is so foolish as to oppose the steamroller. And this is hardly new, as a casual glance at the history of this nation will show. But it's all good, because God is on our side.

-- Mal

As was the case with fabricated intelligence on Iraq's WMD's?