Quoting the Washington Post editorial today:
"AT THE SENATE intelligence committee hearing Thursday on Gen. Michael V. Hayden's nomination to head the CIA, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked the nominee a simple question: Is "waterboarding" an acceptable interrogation technique? Gen. Hayden responded: "Let me defer that to closed session, and I would be happy to discuss it in some detail." That was the wrong answer. The right one would have been simple: No. Last year Congress banned cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment of detainees; one of its explicit aims was to stop the CIA's use of waterboarding, which induces an excruciating sensation of drowning and is considered by most human rights organizations to constitute torture. So why couldn't Gen. Hayden say clearly that the technique is now off-limits?"
Miraculously, the WaPo gets it excatly right. Hayden is an unacceptable choice for the position of Director of the CIA until he states explicitly that "waterboarding" is torture, certainly "cruel, inhumane, and degrading" treatment, and will not be practiced or tolerated by the CIA.
The sustained assault on our nation's moral integrity persists, even by the most appearingly milquetoast of our public servants (Arendt anyone?). But I believe we won't despair or shy away from yet another critical opportunity to collectively act in an effort to help rehabilitate our fallen elites and patriotically protect our core values even as they refuse to.
The law is explicit. Hayden was not. Unacceptable.
I certainly plan on calling my senators on Monday (appropriately, one of them happens to be John McCain, the other...well, anyway one of them is McCain) to insist that Hayden not be allowed to dodge this question.
Please call your senators and urge them to block the nomination by any means necessary (up to, and including, filibuster) until General Hayden states unequivocally that the CIA will not tolerate or practice "waterboarding."