by Mark Silva
The president may have been traveling in Mexico, but the White House was answering questions about the announcement that none of the CIA operatives who carried out the harshest interrogation of detainees in "the war on terror'' will be prosecuted.
At the same time that President Barack Obama announced that no one will face prosecution, he released the memoranda of the Bush Justice Department which had given the legal green-light for the interrogations, including water-boarding and more.
"You have to bear in mind a bit about these memos, and that is these are legal authorizations for specific actions to be undertaken,'' Robert Gibbs, press secretary for the Obama White House, said in Mexico City. "There are people... hardworking people at the CIA that did what they were told based on the authorization that they'd been given. The president believes it would be unfair to punish those.''
Instead, the White House is asking critics to look at what Obama has ordered since he took office, an end to practices such as water-boarding, which Attorney General Eric Holder has called "torture,'' and adherence to the Army Field Manual in interrogations, in addition to closing the camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within a year.
Gibbs wants to "underscore the actions that the president of the United States took related to this on the second day of the administration by instituting only the guidelines that were in the Army Field Manual and essentially banning all of these activities from the use of -- by the use of this government and this administration...
"The president, as you know, was geared at looking forward and that is why the tough decisions were made to end this practice once and for all by the government.''
Denis McDonough, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications, said: "I think it's fair to say that given all that's happening, given the fact that the president took a very forward-leaning policy direction, as Robert said, on the second day of his administration to make clear that these tactics, these enhanced interrogation techniques, would not be permissible in his administration.
"I think he would have preferred to not have spent the last month methodically working through this issue -- speaking with personnel from Justice, from the Central Intelligence Agency, from the National Director of Intelligence, with members on Capitol Hill. I think that he would have preferred to have to have moved beyond this,'' McDonough said. "But the fact is there is a court case and the president believes that he, out of respect for transparency and the rule of law, had to take this step.''
Comments
Wink, wink , wink...my understanding that Leo at the CIA has not ruled out "enhanced techniques" as he left opened that requests would be made if circumstances warranted such measures (see Congressional testimony at confirmation hearing). Also there exists a classified version of the field manual which no one in the MSM every inquires about that is far more relevant to reality. Just ask the lefty Senator from Calif. and she will "blurt" out another secret. Of course, none of the Democratic leadership, who were brief on all of this extensively and quietly nodded approval, are mentioned or held accountable. Nah, they never take responsibility. The niavete' of you lefties in fighting the war on terror is remarkable similar to a child hollering to mommy "its not fair, he hit me, make him say sorry" Fighting terrorists is a dirty business, maybe Obama should just tell them to go home and leave us alone, you know, like a time out and then they will behave. Fat chance. If these terrorist goons fear us and the consequences of their actions so be it. Better than dead innocent Americans. PC utopian wars are a fantasy.
Posted by: bubba Porter | April 17, 2009 9:22 AM
Very good to know that America still does not have ex post facto laws. In a NORMAL World it would not have been necessary to re-affirm that.
Posted by: Django - N Exile somewhere in/around the 30th Parallel | April 17, 2009 9:38 AM
Read the memos, Bubba Porter. I think you macho boys might be the naive ones living in the fictional world of Jack Bauer.
Posted by: Flo | April 17, 2009 10:40 AM
Overheard in a recent daily oval office intelligence briefing...;
"Wow!-all these people want to do what to us? And it's my job to stop them? Really?
Posted by: heartburn | April 17, 2009 2:21 PM
Bubba's right. Every wartime President of the United States other than Great George W. Bush were wrong. Torture is a good thing. The US was on the wrong side of history all those years we criticized nations like Nazi Germany, The Soviet Union, Niorth Vietnam and Saddam's Iraq for their use of torture. We should have been praising them and emulating them instead. Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wilson, Nixon were all naive wimps for not making torture official US policy. Bush thankfully saw the light, and was able to embrace the fine examples of Stalin, Hitler, Ho Chi Minh and Saddam Hussein to make the US a center of torture as we always should have been. Bush's name will forever go down with those heros for having the guts to reject silly notions of human rights and war crimes and to embrace the values of torture and fear. No more PC utopian wars, we need to follow the shining examples of the SS, the KGB, and the Republican Guard!
Posted by: Rushpublican | April 17, 2009 3:35 PM
I'm sure the loon s/b all happy now.
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/95391/Closing_Guantanamo_and_expanding_Bagrams_detention_facility
Posted by: Terry | April 17, 2009 6:50 PM
Yes. Now let's give John Demjanjuk a new trial.
After all, he in good faith was just following the Wannsee Protocol.
Posted by: ornery | April 17, 2009 8:18 PM