So apparently it is okay torture, but when it comes to inquiries and investigations - that would ruin too many innocent lives. Hayden thinks public inquiries into the CIA's torture programs would ruin too many good careers. He also called the question of the legality of waterboarding an "uninteresting question" to the CIA. Lots of... interesting... quotes in his interview yesterday.
Also, the media goes from "OMG, the TARP vote is a HUUUUUGE crisis for Obama" to "Big win on TARP for Obama." It's funny.
Also, South Korea refuses bail for the blogger who was arrested for "spreading false economic information."
Can we PLEASE drop all references to enhanced interrogations, enhanced techniques or harsh interrogation measures? Why is the media continuing to play along with this game?
Hayden also defended the agency's use of harsh interrogation methods and said he had advised the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama against going too far in dismantling the agency's controversial counter-terrorism programs.
"These techniques worked," Hayden said of the agency's interrogation program during a farewell session with reporters who cover the CIA. "One needs to be very careful" about eliminating CIA authorities, he said, because "if you create barriers to doing things . . . there's no wink, no nod, no secret handshake. We won't do it."
We have senior Bush officials on the record saying the administration tortured. The media needs to call it what it is - t.o.r.t.u.r.e. And we need to keep on the media to stop using the administration's frame of reference. This is the paragraph I kindly rewrote for the Los Angeles Times:
Hayden also defended the agency's use of harsh interrogation methods torture and said he had advised the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama against going too far in dismantling the agency's controversial counter-terrorism torture programs.
Argh. It drives me crazy. And don't even get me started on Hayden's comment about eliminating the CIA authorities because it creates "barriers to doing things." Hayden had several interesting quotes in his interview yesterday. He said, of inquiries or investigations into the actions of CIA officials and interrogators:
You can't do this to these people.
He said a public inquiry into torture would damage too many careers in the CIA. Uh-huh.
He also remarked, in response to Eric Holder's assertion that waterboarding is torture:
It's an uninteresting question to the Central Intelligence Agency.
Besides, he says they only waterboarded three people (that we know about) and only about a third of the 100 al Qaeda subjects were subject to the "enhanced" interrogations, i.e. other forms of torture. I'm trying to find a full transcript of the interview. If you come across one, let me know.
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It kind of makes this all the more laughable, huh?
As one of his final actions in office, President Bush proclaimed today that Jan. 18 is National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
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Elizabeth Holtzman says the administration must be held accountable:
To fully restore the rule of law and prevent any repetition of Bush's misconduct, the abuses of his administration must be directly confronted. As Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen--recently tapped by Obama to head his Office of Legal Counsel--wrote in Slate last March, "We must avoid any temptation simply to move on. We must instead be honest with ourselves and the world as we condemn our nation's past transgressions and reject Bush's corruption of our American ideals."
It is not about looking forward or backwards, it's about justice. It's about no one being above prosecution. It's about the American rule of law. It's about showing the world that Americans will not stand for these things to be done in our name.
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So what did you think of the big farewell address? I said I wasn't going to watch, but ended up listening to it on the Countdown podcast anyway. It was pretty much everything I expected, which was total delusion.
David Von Drehle asks if anyone was even listening:
Hard to imagine, at his zenith, that George W. Bush would ever want to quote the Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky, but one of Trotsky's famous lines would have fit perfectly into his farewell. "You may not be interested in war," Bush said in essence, "but war is interested in you."
Instead, he used his own words: "Our enemies are patient and determined to strike again." With that final warning, Bush entered the past. But was anyone listening?
Bonnie Erbe wants to tell the "historian in chief" to go fly a kite.
Joan Walsh thinks it was an abomination and "festival of self-pity and delusion." But, on the bright side... four more days! How are you planning to watch the Inauguration, if you are going to? I'm hoping for a live stream on MSNBC.. they should be doing that, right?
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Well, I'm glad there was such a big fuss about the TARP funding and how it was such a crisis and Obama was going to have to veto the Democratic Congress as his first act in office! OMG! Joe Klein thinks the media's drama over Obama's "crises" has been overblown. Well, they need to find drama somewhere...
But, uh, TARP passed this afternoon. And Geithner is, clearly, going to be confirmed. And Bill Richardson has slipped, barely noticed, into the mists of history. I mean, if Obama keeps on having crises like these, he should breeze through the next four, no, eight years.
Now the headlines are: Obama gets first major win with TARP. So much for the crisis!
I thought the deal with the TARP funding was that Bush would ask for it, but it wouldn't be allocated until Obama took office? Well, hours after the vote was announced, the Treasury Department sunk another $20 billion until Bank of America. Now, I believe the first installment of TARP was completely gone, so this had to come from the second portion. Maybe the Obama administration would have done the same thing anyway, but I really didn't want Paulson anywhere near that money. How much more is he going to spend in the next four days?
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Ha! Well, when it comes to Republicans and the stimulus, at least someone is saying it. From Bruce Bartlett at Forbes:
Republicans in Congress are clearly groping for a strategy to deal with the economic crisis and, as yet, have no real alternative to Barack Obama's plan. So far, they're are all over the map, ranging from total opposition to any stimulus to rote repetition of the same talking points that have been coming out of the White House for years.
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Speaking of Republicans, can they get much more embarrassing than this guy?
While he was willing to concede he was wrong about the whole terrorist street dancing routine, King has moved on to the whole “Hussein” controversy.
He doesn’t like the fact that the president-elect will be sworn in using that middle name during Tuesday’s Inauguration.
That is King, as in Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). He says Obama is creating a double-standard by using his middle name in the inauguration. Also the same guy who said al Qaeda would be dancing in the streets if Obama won.
You know, I seem to remember that Iowa was a pretty blue place in 2008, yet King won reelection with 60% of the vote. What's up Iowans?
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And lastly, a South Korean court has upheld the arrest of a Korean blogger for "spreading false economic information." His request for bail was also denied. There is more on his story here from theEconomist. And from the Korea Times:
The ruling Grand National Party hailed the decision, saying "malicious rumormonger should be punished,'' while opposition parties criticized the court for serving as a rubber stamp for the government's efforts to suppress the freedom of expression.
Did I suddenly end up in North Korea and not know it?
And, this is weird. The U.S. government may hire South Korea to build railways here in the United States.
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What's on your mind this morning?