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Originally Posted by dculkin
I have no idea whether Obama acted decisively. The problem the Hannity crowd is facing is that they twist, distort, and attack every little thing Obama says or does, so their credibility is nil. Maybe this story will be substantiated by someone worthy of belief, meanwhile all we have is yet another rant from the Obama haters.
Cheney has the same problem. His record of incredible dishonesty has become almost comical. For someone who lies so frequently, you'd think he'd get good at it. At any rate, today he says that the CIA's interrogation techniques worked and claims that he has requested that the rest of the interrogation memos be released. And guess what - almost nobody believes a word he said. Bummer to have blown your credibility, isn't it Mr. Vice President? Of course, the loss to the country is that we lose the institutional knowledge of the former VP. He is just taking up space at this point.
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The problem the League Of Extraordinary Obama Defenders crowd is facing is that they twist, distort, and attack every little thing any critic says or does, so their credibility is nil. Maybe these pathetic arguments will be substantiated by someone worthy of belief, meanwhile all we have is yet another rant from the Obama sheople.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0409/DNI_Blairs_highvalue_info_memo_on_web_for_days.html
Categories: Bush Administration
Obama intel chief: tough interrogations yielded "high-value info"
President Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, told colleagues in an internal memo last week that the aggressive interrogation tactics approved by the Bush administration yielded "high-value information" which helped the U.S. in the war on terror.
“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country," Blair wrote in a memo to the intelligence community the same day Obama ordered the release of legal memos detailing the techniques, which included waterboarding, slamming detainees into "flexible" walls, and prolonged sleep deprivation.
Blair's assertion of the program's fruits was notable because while former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney and others have claimed that the program produced volumes of useful intelligence,
Obama and other top aides have refused to acknowledge any benefits from the tough tactics. As recently as Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs demurred when asked about claims that the program helped break up terror plots.
Curiously, Blair's assessment that the program was to some degree a success was omitted from the public press statement he issued on Thursday. However, even that press release signaled some distance with Obama by cautioning against 20-20 hindsight prompted by reading the legal memos "on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009."
Blair's internal memo has been posted on the Web since Friday, the day after Obama released the legal opinions from the Justice Department. A blog post Friday at a non-profit think tank, the U.S. Naval Institute, noted several discrepancies between the press release and the internal memo. The press release also omitted a line claiming that Congressional leaders and executive branch officials were "repeatedly" briefed on the interrogation program and allowed it to continue.
Critics who have branded the tactics as "torture" said the issue of whether the program yielded some intelligence was largely beside the point.
"The issue is not whether the CIA obtained information, but whether it was reliable, whether it was lawful, and whether the CIA could have obtained the same information and perhaps more through the use of lawful means," said Jameel Jaffer, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who pressed the lawsuit which triggered release of the legal memos.