At CIA HQ, Obama Defends Torture Memo Release

The problem IS Al-Q.’s strong constitution.

I hope someone slipped a wire on Obama.
I would love to hear what he says around his buddies at the WH.

No one can identify a single interest of the United States that was advanced by the disclosure. The current CIA director and each of his four immediate predecessors opposed it. Not a single national security official from this administration has stepped forward to explain or defend it–only political officials.
Two weeks ago each of those memos was legended “Top Secret,” meaning disclosure of their contents would pose a “grave danger to the security of the United States.” That danger did not go away–Obama merely released the memos.

His refusal to identify other factions of Islamic terrorism besides Al-Qaida only emboldens them. In fact, his refusal to use the words “Radical Islamic Fundamentalists” is troubling in itself.

Ohh to be a fly on the wall when he first walked in the CIA to hear what his first question was.
What is the CIA?
What do you do?
Why are you important?
What does “top secret” mean?
What does “classified” mean?
It’s embarrassing.

this is typical obable, he hates bush so much that he risks the countrys saftey, leaks documents, then to the cia well sorry about that sucks for you though

Oh Oh! the Rush Limbaugh disciples are in full force tonight on this blog. That can be translated to superb ignorance!

stanly whats it going to take for you libs, a hugmungous bombing before you get a clue man

stanley, how do you know that, I bet you have never listened to rush, you listen to cnn pmsnbc right, those who insult americans everyday

I always thought that one was innocent until proven guilty..so you do dehumanizing things to someone to find out if he/she is innocent or guilty! The Rush Limbaugh frontal lobeless are in full force on this blog..where are the commonsense bloggers?

How about in the interest of maintaining standards and truth and integrity that Obama release his birth certificate, and college records. Oh, that’s right, it would embarrass him… enough said.

We have an approval seeker as our president, trying to play all sides for his own gains. At some point, those that are taking the blame for his actual policies will get sick of being the scapegoats. Typical Chicago politician.

This decision was both dumb and dangerous and we will all pay for his idiocy.

How then is the US different from Al qaeda or Iran where human rights are neglected if torture is exalted? This move by the President is not only to show US leadership, it is also to increase the security of US citizens all over the world. This action boils down to a fundamental saying – ‘do onto others what you want done to you’.

“Here’s the problem Stanley they are not American citizens they do not get the same rights”
The backbone of this country is the idea that rights are natural, that they are neither given nor granted by government but are inherent in merely being human.

Dream on! Obama will be president for 8 years. Sit back and watch a real president operate after the last eight years of crap. Now Obama has to clean up the load of horse excrement left by the most brilliant George Bush and the Rush Limbaugh bloggers are criticizing him already after three and a half months. The frontal lobeless wants Obama to clean up in 3 months the horse excrement which the most brilliant George Bush built up in eight years. These people are mentally challenged or something. Anyway like most, I treat it as comedy central..you Republicans are one funny lot.
Posted by: Stanley | Apr 20, 2009 5:36:32 PM
———————
Looks like the laugh is on you Stanley. These were methods utilized by dem pres. Clinton, including the special black op cites out of the country.
You probably don’t even know that Clinton’s choice to stage supplies and goods during his bosnia and then Yugoslavia war was Halliburton.
These methods were not invented by and not initiated in the Bush administration. It is just the first time the media complained about it. As Janeanne (racist) Garafolo said when asked about this “it wasn’t cool to protest Clinton”.
That dems pretend this is a Bush/Cheney invention is demonstrable of their ignorance and simple minded hatred of Bush. Bush policies mirrored Clinton’s.
By the way, where is your outrage over the Obama continued use of a few CIA black ops cites, and his use of Bagram Air force base as the new, less comfy Guantanemo like prison? LOOK IT UP YOURSELF
Dems are hypocrits and don’t care if their guy does exactly the same thing, as long as he pretends to do otherwise.

I have heard defense of torture from people as it is a necessary evil but no one has even come up with valid intel from it in years or it would be in the news as well. However, even if you follow some of these memos that were leaked.
Ordermonger
————–
In fact there was valid intel. Cheney is challenging Obama to release/declassify the full memo information that details the vast amount of intel obtained from these methods.
The Obamedia won’t cover it or demand it though, so likely Obama will pretend it was useless.
Cheney will also do an interview on Fox news requesting this as well. The mainstream media won’t promote the fair request.

Frontal lobeless. Stanley quit using Janine Garofalo’s phrase from her moronic tea party diatribe. She was neither informed or funny nor are you.

As soon as cancer was found, I noticed the immediate attempt at canonization of old Teddy by the main stream media. They are saying what a “great American” he is. I say, let’s get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.
1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.
2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops, the man can’t count to four. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him like “he” charged President Bush received.
3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his “education” NEVER advancing past the rank of Private.
4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver’s license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959, amazing!!!
5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a “state secret” until in the 1980′s when the report was unsealed. Didn’t hear about that from the unbiased media, did we.
6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur’s keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.
7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, after passing several houses and a fire station. Then two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew, that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began “calling in favors”, ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn’t call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy’s “political enemies” have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS.
Kopechne’s family received a small payout from the Kennedy’s insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy’s family paid their attorney’s bills… a “token of friendship”?
8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the “standard-bearer for liberalism”. In his very first Senate roll, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.
9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of and increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the Pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court Nominees, as if he were the standard bearer for the nation in matters of right. What a pompous ass.
10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than “great American”, a “blonde in every pond is his motto”.
Let’s not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero — how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is…

“That dems pretend this is a Bush/Cheney invention is demonstrable of their ignorance and simple minded hatred of Bush.”
The brand spanking new excuse from the torture fetishists on the right wing?
Clinton did it too!
Next time a right winger talks to you about personal responsibility, laugh in their face.

T. Kennedy sickens me which is why when Bush brought him to the forefront of the education fold,I, a staunch Republican, lost all faith in Bush. That, however, didn’t make me dumb enough to vote for Obama.

Lately by taking several timid actions, Obama has proved within 100 days that he is not Lincoln or Reagan but he is Obama and a timid non-white excecutive, who was fortunate enough to be awarded the white house only because Bush was idiot and brain dead. However, Bush will be remembered for his unwavering stands on many policy matters, Obama will be remembered as a lizard, who can change her color very often looking to the danger. History says that if the President cannot change his policies in the first 100 days, he will never be able to do it and will follow the path of destruction of following the policies of his predessor. Obama has barked too much about the changes but has done very little in changing our human rights records, records of racism, records of crimes against humanity by our troops and troops of our allies and our human gesture towards Muslims and Islam.

As principled as the President’s stand and intentions might be, I wonder what he will consider doing when the CIA has a high value suspect with info on a possible attack, but who just won’t talk. Will the President knowingly let Americans be attacked and die…maybe by the thousands?

“Some day when a terrorist detonates a nuclear bomb and wipes out an entire city, and the attack could have been thwarted by torturing information out of a known terrorist operative in custody, we’ll at least have the comfort of knowing that we “respected the rule of law.” ”
Right wingers seem to operate from the perception created by a fictional TV show of a ticking time bomb and only torture can save us.
Thankfully most of us live in the real world and realize torturing people only creates more terrorists.
So right wingers basically want us to abandon our ideals for results that only exist on TV.

I noticed obama has decided to keep bush’s wiretapping policies in place and now he isnt going to try to prosecute those responsible for the torture policy. So he gets a pass even though he said he and his administration should be held to a higher standard?

“I noticed obama has decided to keep bush’s wiretapping policies in place and now he isnt going to try to prosecute those responsible for the torture policy. So he gets a pass even though he said he and his administration should be held to a higher standard?”
No pass from me.
Obama is wrong on FISA.
He was wrong to switch his vote last year and he is wrong now.

The torturing of terrorist prisoners will continue. It just wont take place in Gitmo or be done by the CIA, but they will be present while another country does our dirty work for us.

What a sick place we live in today. From this posting you could feel that all people who criticize the President are white and those who feel he does no wrong are black. Wake up and stop trying to stir up trouble between the races.

The policy of torture has been officially ended by the Obama administration and Bush officials maintain that torture has not happened for a couple of years.
And yet right wingers are angry that they cannot simulate drowning on some suspect.
Posted by: Ryan C | Apr 20, 2009 6:26:59 PM
—————
Not exactly true. Obama has not “closed” all CIA black op sites overseas. Now let’s be honest. These are not club gitmo in their nature. He has kept these for his own, shall we say, benefit.
He gets the best of both worlds. He can claim no more torture, but quietly shuffle prisoners off to a “few” foreign sites for interrogation.
That does not even begin to include Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan, where Obama has quietly opened his own guantanemo bay, without the frills, and without the scrutiny, and with the willing silence of the Obama media. We have no idea what techniques are being used at Bagram because no one is allowed to know.
So much for the most open administration in history.
LOOK IT UP.

THIS IS A SIMPLE ISSUE…THE WORLD WILL WAIT FOR THE “GOP” TO INTRODUCE A BILL OF LAW TO CONGRESS THAT INCLUDES TORTURE. THE “GOP” EVIDENTLY STILL BELIEVES IN HIDING BEHIND ILLEGAL ACTIONS. PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE “GOP” MEMBERS ASK YOU LOCAL AND FRIENDLY REPRESENTATIVE TO CHANGE THE LAWS ON TORTURE……I SEE A YELLOW STREAK IN THE GRAND OLE PARTY!!!

One of the precursors to the September 11, 2001 terrorists attack, was the
1993 World Trade Center bombing, which occurred on February 26, 1993, that kill six people and injured more than a thousand.
According to law enforcement officials, “…the attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef’s uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. And in November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.”
I bet this bombing (Feb 26, 1993) took place because the USA had been using waterboarding or similar torturous methods against these outstanding lovers of freedom.
Durn, I forgot, they did not use waterboarding on these guys. Maybe if they had, Khaled Shaikh Mohammed would have been captured prior to the 9/11 terrorist attack, in which he was one of the major player.

“Not exactly true. Obama has not “closed” all CIA black op sites overseas.”
From last week:
The CIA is decommissioning the secret overseas prisons where top al-Qaida suspects were subjected to interrogation methods, including simulated drowning, that Attorney General Eric Holder, allied governments, the Red Cross and numerous other experts consider torture, the agency said Thursday.
The steps announced by Panetta are consistent with a Jan. 22 executive order in which President Obama directed the CIA to halt the use of its secret overseas detention facilities and use only interrogation procedures authorized by an Army Field Manual.”
Now there is an enemy combatant holding facility in Afghanistan that will not be closed but it will be held to the same no torture guidelines.

“This right winger surely is angry about that, but even angrier about the reckless and indefensible release of those memos.”
Of course the right wing is angrier about being truthful about torture than the actual torture.

Obama is an indiot!

“Obama is wrong on FISA. He was wrong to switch his vote last year and he is wrong now.”
Some of the goofballs are even to the left of Obama. Remarkable.

He is really starting to just do things because he thinks they sound good coming out of his mouth.This isnt high school.We need someone who is going to be a president.We dont need a hall moniter.

President Barack Obama averages a 63% approval rating for his first quarter in office — the highest since President Jimmy Carter averaged 69% in 1977.
What is that saying?
Every time he makes a statement it drops:>
And it was in the 80′s just a month ago.

When the lines blur in the efforts of civilized man in dealing with barbaric acts then you’ll be no better and perhaps even worse than the barbarians you profess to defeat.

This man might have been ok as a community leader in Chicago but, he has no idea of how to run this country. We are a laughing stock to the rest of the world.
I wonder if he ever thinks of the U.S. cizens and people who have been held by governments and tortured, without any regard to their rights.

Will someone please get this guy an “National security and Foreign Affairs ” for dummy’s book ?

Obama’s stunts seem to be more helpful to terrorists than to Americans.

The blockheads who want us to think and act like the Gestapo, SS, or KGB should leave the U.S. and find a scumbag homeland where they can pursue their pre-civilized life styles. Obama is on the high road on this one and Americans faithful to our core principles support him. Nuts to the Neanderthals who think otherwise.

I love if you are a vet, anti abortion, concerned about jobs leaving the US, or any number of other things that Obama quickly names you a RADICAL but terrorists around the world are not have their feeling hurt by being called terrorists atleast according to Obama’s admin. I guess this means we evil radicals encompass most of the US. Which shows you who Obama really does not like—–

The people who have objected to our conduct in the past 8 years are not just ‘bleeding heart liberals’. There is a substantial number of conservative-vet folks who share the disgust with GW’s conduct of foreign policy, illegal war, illegal interrogation methods, and rendering. The pro-war meatheads can get used to 8 years of progress or head elsewhere.

I guess at least half the country are nuts and neanderthals. Why does Obama need to take 1000 delegates to a conference that means nothing? I thought we had serious deficits and money problems.

President Obama is a very wise and principled leader. The actions of the Bush administration at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay prison are a disgrace to everything America stands for. I am so proud of president Obama for showing the world that we are not barbaric torturers like the vicious dictators we say we detest. If America stands for humanity, freedom and justice, we cannot sink to the level of petty, unscrupulous thugs. If not we will become no better then the bin Laden’s and Saddam’s of the world.

Obama did the right, just and principled thing. The only people who were kept in the dark about the deplorable actions allowed and taken under the Bush admn. were the American people. The rest of the world already knew. And those tortured and who survived then finally released certainly didn’t keep quiet about their experience and what a farce and hypocritic nation America must be to have allowed such atrocities to take place. By owning up to the fact that when fear is used even the most “civilized” and “humane” nation can lose its scruples, Obama has done the right thing by admitting to the world that America was wrong!

Loose Lips Sink Ships.
President Obama is putting the country at risk by continuously telling all he knows and trying to attack the Bush Administration.
Whose team is Obama on?
Does he like the U.S. or just terribly hates Bush? He needs to stop “Hating on Bush” and love the U.S. He needs to stop trying to “Undo” the Past and move ahead. Why is he trying to put the U.S. down all the time from past administrations?
Loose Lips Sink Ships!

A President with the sense of honesty and personal accountability which graced Harry S. Truman.

Obama is grandstanding on what is really not torture, at least not in the sense of barbaric treatment of persons. Still, in a democratic society, it’s best to avoid the bad press. We do fight an opponent not bound by law or country or constitution. Let’s not forget that.

President Obama is the complete opposite of George Bush. He’s smart, brilliant,intelligent,can speak the queen’s English very well. Obama is right again in this issue..He is a man of principle! And he is very popular in this country, much to the chagrin of the Rush Limbaugh disciples on this blog site

“Does he like the U.S. or just terribly hate Bush?”
Neither. He just worships Barack Obama. Notice that after sitting quietly through a 53-minute nutball rant by Commandante Ortega, principally aimed at the Bay of Pigs operation, his only response was to express gratitude that the Commandante had not attacked him for things that happened when he was three years old.
Get it? It’s OK to attack his country, and to attack John F. Kennedy, so long as you don’t attack him.
Can anyone imagine a Truman, a JFK or a Reagan sitting quietly through that screed? Is Obama willing to defend his country against anyting at all?

We do fight an opponent not bound by law or country or constitution–remember that private that was rescued, that women, the blond haired tiny women? She was captured by Iraqis and an Iraqi doctor was responsible for her escape from the hospital- why? Because he saw one of their officers slap her across the face while injured and he said to himself “this is too much. I am on the wrong side”. When you torture ,you do many things, one is you drain the morale and the support of those who want to fight for something good. You also let the world know we’re scum and do not care for our citizens, we asked for this. It is interesting to note, this doctor did this before we were known for torture. How would he have felt after he heard of Abu Grabe? Would it have been ‘too much’ then? When people, if their governments do not agree, if PEOPLE see you are good, moral, principled, it HELPS us in many many little ways that all add up in the end.

Can we get on with impeachment hearings against this weenie? Enough of this terrorist and communist coddling scumbag already.

We’ll see how much Obama is against torture if something bad happens on HIS watch…where HE will be the guy on whose watch it happened…and will be remembered for. It’s real easy to sit and bash George Bush…every 20-something reporter in the media has been doing that for years. Let’s see him stand for something that takes guts…instead of just looking good in a suit.

Will we all feel better about ourselves if we catch a terrorist that knows of an impending attack (like 9/11) and we do nothing because we feel morally superior to our enemy?
Will the president then come out to the podium and say we did the right thing, despite the deaths of thousands of innocents in less than an hour and a half?
The President has the audacity to hope that that moment never comes

Obama is a fool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if we catch a terrorist that knows of an impending attack (like 9/11) and we do nothing because we feel morally superior to our enemy?”—You are under the assumption that torture results in good information. You watch too much TV. REality is, enemies fill the heads of their terrorists with phony information and teach them how to deal with torture and have false stories that can be fact-checked close enough to make you think it’s real. Torture is a lose-lose situation. It doesn’t work. And if you use torture, you have NOT used other methods that are more effective, such as mental manipulation and making someone feel abandoned by their cause, betrayed, etc. When you choose torture, you are making a decision of what NOT to do as well, and that may very well be a HUGE waste of time and opportunity. Texans like torture, but alas, like much cow boy theory, while it may make you feel better to beat up and humiliate a prisoner, if you study up on what is produces, versus other methods, you wind up with nothing but a lot of hot arrogant air.

Obama remember what America is supposed to stand for. He is making us something to be proud of again. It is a good day to be an American.

He wants to hold us to high standards and follow the law (which terrorists will never do), and yet apologizes for how arrogant we are. The clown in the White House speaks with forked tongue.

Hmmm…interesting, this is an obvious move, however some of his words bother me. Remeber folks, all forward looking analysis indicates that another even more destructive terrosirt attack will almost certainly be carried out by 2015.

Obama is an easy target for dictators like Chavez. Chavez put a good one over on Obama by handing him that book that makes false accusations about our country, but Obama out himself in that position. I feel Obama is too busy tearing down our country, falling all over himself apologizing. He is not a very clever leader so far. Iran is going to toy and play with Obama like a cat does with a mouse. I am fearful for our country.

The Clown of Clowns went back to Texas after Torturing those people…got 1 conviction of the hundreds he tortured, allowed them to linger in a prison without charges….Your Dictator is in Texas receiving Socialized Pension. He should return all that money as Suzy Ozman suggested a month ago. Shame on Bush, and anyone who thinks for one second this was the right thing to do. Shame, Shame Shame!

Frank/Justsayin,
I asked a question…will we all feel better about ourselves afterward when we watch the smoldering wreckage on TV?
If the U.S. had caught KSM a week before 9/11, yes, it is likely the attack would have been stopped.
It may or may not have taken these methods, but it is obvious he wasn’t talking until they were employed.
If it would have taken waterboarding to do it, are you telling me it wasn’t worth the lives of 3000 Americans?
What will America say when the President says- “Despite the murder of another 3000 Americans today and the fact our captive wouldn’t talk,we rejected the false choice between our security and our principles”

What are you ashamed of…or afraid of…Torture? The ones that were Tortured? This is why America does not Torture.

Obama is an idiot. He Oks the predator attacks in Pakistan killing terrorists and children but says getting somebody’s face wet is terrible. He is the hypocrite of the century.

“Where is our prez on that human right issue? Oh, I know, he whole heartly supports it.”
That part is the bald-faced lie. Obama has never supported late term abortion.

Obama basically screwed the CIA over so he could benefit politically by cherry picking CIA secrets and releasing the ones that would benefit him.
This is very similar to how he listened to Daniel Ortega bash America for almost one hour, then afterwards said he was glad that Ortega didn’t blame HIM for America’s ills.
In both instances, Obama has placed himself above our country. There is absolutely no denying these facts.

That Idiot that was ‘placed in office’ by the Supreme Court had no idea what America stood for. He, Bush put Americans/ our armed forces at risk of being captured and Tortured by other countries. The “terrorist” knows Who tortured them. Do some of you idiots think they haven’t told their counterparts? America signed an agreement with other countries to not Torture!!!!!!! What is so honorable about this lawlessness? I’m just grateful that President Obama doesn’t put an American ex-president in Jail. Now that would be for the world to see what kind of ‘dictator’ the courts put in office. Shame on Bush for doing this, and risking all of our lives. Has we become a nation that upholds lawlessness? Seems that way for the cult of Rush, Hannity, Beck, Michelle and the likes.

Well, the man does have chutzpah. He releases those memos and then visits the agency acting as if their principle concern is the loss of some interrogation techniques rather than the undercutting of the agency with the release of formerly-classified top secret memos. DOes he really not get it? Leon Panetta and a raft of former CIA directors and others involved with intelligence operations begged the president not to release these documents. There is no demonstrable benefit to releasing them. End practices that many argue are torture? Fine. Insist publicly and loudly that there will be no torture going forward? Fine. But weaken the nation’s security apparatus by revealing these sensitive documents? There is no reason to do that and I am deeply disappointed.

sngeorgia:
There is no excuse for releasing those
memos!
If as Obama said the info was already
common knowledge due to leaks then
why risk giving more info to our
enemies by releasing the memos!
As far as “Idiots” go President Obama,
VP Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary
Geithner, and last but not least,
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs have
that category locked up!
Put your pom poms down for a second
and take a look at what these
Keystone Kops are doing! Wake Up!

Someone once said
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself”.
Comments attacking Obama for doing the right thing on this are fear in it’s purest sense.

If you people think that President Bush was the first to allow torture to as a tool to get the enemy to talk, you need to wake up! I am amazed that there are people in this country that are more concerned with our enemy’s rights than they are of there countyman’s safety.

you will all notice that like their republican counterparts who work in the government, not one person on the ‘right’ here, gives a valid plan or alternative for anything they rant about..
Republicans are able to read ‘body language’, they have insight into what’s being said in a conversation without actually being there, they are effective liars….
with all that going for them it’s amazing they lose elections…

Obama should be ashamed of himself. He took an oath to “faithfully execute the laws”.
That means PROSECUTE Cheney and Bush for their torture and War Crimes which were committed by the Shock and Awe bombardment of Iraq, when they KNEW that Iraq was not a threat and that there was NO EVIDENCE of WMDs.

After Bush and Cheney RAN OUR NATION INTO THE GROUND, these cowardly NeoCons blame Obama for all their fears.
For thirty years the wealth of this nation has been sucked out of the working class and deposited into the pockets of the filthy rich. Instead of rejoicing that Obama wants to finally (however slightly) reverse this rip-off, some of the comments below are from ignorant, brainwashed CHUMPS, who just call him socialist, etc.
Pathetic People WAKE UP. There is a better life than spending trillions of dollars on War and weapons, living in hyped up fear, corporate welfare, tax cuts for the rich…

You’re acting as if the President of the United States broke the law by releasing these memos, but Bush and Cheney did not break any laws when they outed Valerie Plame? What kind of hypocrisy is that?
Maybe I’m naive right along with President Obama, but I do not want to be protected by the use of torture. I happen to believe that the United States should be better than that. The greatest country in the world should be the greatest defender of all human rights, not the best torturer. If not, we degenerate into a gangster regime no better than Iraq under Saddam.
You could just as easily say that we could reduce crime by getting rid of the Bill of Rights (except, of course, the Almighty Second Amendment).
Why stop at terrorists? Let’s waterboard ALL criminals into confessing. While we’re at it, let’s bring back drawing and quartering for capital crimes. And, just for fun, let’s make it a capital crime to criticize the President–unless of course, he’s a Democrat.

“Just me
He wants to hold us to high standards and follow the law (which terrorists will never do), and yet apologizes for how arrogant we are. The clown in the White House speaks with forked tongue.”
Just me you scare me with thoughts like these, we should not obey the rule of law because terrorist don’t? What next policemen should not obey the rule of law because criminals don’t? Teachers should not obey rules of their institution because students don’t. Just take a look at your reasoning. it is obvious to me…. but hopefully you can now see the slippery slope.

“Please elaborate…”
His actions speak for themselves. No need to elaborate – it is all over these blogs.
You can ignore what he does at your own discretion. The rest of us are not so blind…

A. Rose
“Don’t know who among us would not have done “waterboarding” or anything else of this nature on 9/11/01, after the scenes of death and devastation. This pretense of being “goody-two-shoes” serves no useful purpose and actually demonstrates naivite at best and pure politics at its worst. Can’t remember this being done in the history of this country. Don’t even think Abraham Lincoln did this. Maybe the president was not channeling this part of Lincoln.”
This mises the point – who amongst us will not jail a a priest paedophile before they go on and abuse children?
who would not go on and arrest the clumbine boys before they went on their rampage??
The point is how low would we stoop against our principles as a nation because there is a threat out there.
Funny enough the threat remains and will always remain. So should we continue to torture??? what is important is how we react to this wrong methods and prevent it from happening and hope we will always do the right thing when the time comes. remember our men and women in the war zones as well as cops on the street face these dilemma everyday…. everyday- just imagine if they act using the memos as a guide… how worrying is that???

If in fact it is wrong to torture terrorists then I ask you, “How much more criminal is it to murder unborn babies by aborting them?”

nothing wrong here, just a bunch of couch surfing, tree hugging, over weight, prisoner freeing, VICTIMS!!
WAKE UP AMERICA, WE ARE BEFRIENDING COMMUNISTS! in case you don’t know… THEY’RE THE “BAD GUY”!!
goodnight, and good luck… we need it.

I love to see and read the words of those who are weeping and wailing, gnashing thrir teeth, twisting their hands as they condemn Obama for speaking the truth to the public about the CIA’s use of torture on prisoners at gitmo – Czeney and all those like him are carrying on like ittle girls and it’s disgusting. Bush’s tactics needed to be made public in full – we all knew what was being done and trust me, our enenmies knew too. Obama did NOT weaken our security in any way by what he di and I applaud him for doing the right thing – dry your tears little boys – there is life after the exposure – things are better for us when truth is told to the world – watch and learn and speak less – just observe.

when two planes flew into our buildings, the terrorists didn’t give a crap about our law… why should we?
you don’t see people getting all out of shape in china! ya know why? BECAUSE IF YOU DO YOU’RE DEAD!!
FEAR THE TAX SPENDING MACHINE!!

Okay, so the memos were released. But if your going to release these, then a list of who in congress / senate were aware of what was going on at the time, and if they signed off on it. This would prevent anyone from jumping on the “it was Bush” wagon. Also, memos that tell what information they got, that may have prevented another attack should be made public. It may not justify it, but at least we would know it was done for the right reasons. If you only make one side of the glass transparent, then you still don’t have transparency.

So many of you are completely missing the point. This is not about ending torture– that’s been done. This is about releasing top secret memos discussing the interrogation techniques and revealing information that need not be made public to all and sundry, including enemies of the state. You are against torture, so you support the president speaking out against torture? Goody. But there was nothing naive about his decision to ignore the advice of Panetta and other intelligence officials about the dangers of releasing these memos.
Tell me– did you not know before Obama released these memos that this administration is against torture and that they have insisted that the interrogation techniques used in some circumstances in the previous administration will not be used now? Of course you did. Did Obama not already make moves to take a stand against torture and express his displeasure about past policies in this regard? Of course he did. What does the release of these memos add? Was it really worth the damage it will do to our agents and our intelligence gathering system? No.

“Top Secret” has no meaning to this administration.
Obama’s only motive was to humiliate Bush and toss a bone to his base.

“WE DONT TORTURE” just another LIE promoted by GWB. I commend President Obama for cleaning this filthy house. We cannot and should not EVER AGAIN be so naive as to think that a LIE like this can rectify our unAmerican ways. It is ALWAYS best to clean house once a pig moves out.

DrSamba:
Learn the facts.
Bush and Cheny Did Not Out Valerie
Plame!
Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary
of State to Secretary of State,
Colin Powell outed Ms Plame.
Everyone covers up this fact because
he worked for Powell and Powell sold
out his own party to endorse
President Obama two weeks before the
election!
The blame for outing Valerie Plame
belongs to Armitage and Powell!

Obama was wrong – No other way to put it. His answer is BS – he starting to do what I feared he would. Not be President of the United States but a pelosi – ried type.
His attorney general is a hater – arrogant fool – he is also wrong.
God only knows what happen in the next 3 years.

THE PREZ IS RIGHT. IF WE DO THIS TO OTHERS, WE HAVE NO FUTURE GROUND TO STAND ON.
WATERBOARDING EACH PRISONER 180 TIMES IN A MONTH AND NOT CALLING IT TORTURE???
“I THINK SOME OF THE GOP IDIOTS HERE SHOULD BE WATERBOARDED 180 TIMES AND TELL ME WHAT THEY FEEL AFTERWARDS.
GET A GRIP.
WE ARE NOT NAZIS.
THIS IS WHAT THE SS GESTAPO USED TO DO.”
Are you serious? This is not what the Gestapo used to do moron. The Gestapo would murder your wife and child in front of your eyes to extract the information they wanted. Then, after they got it, they would send you to a work camp where they used you as slave labor until you died. The blind, reflexively argumentative liberals here who morally equivicate what was done to terror suspects here with the worst of what was done in the Soviet Union, China or Nazi Germany should get their heads out of their butts and engage in a little quantification. Our President just shook hands with brutal dictators who have the blood and screams of thousands of dissidents on their hands and he has the audacity to be critical of CIA tactics like putting a catapillar in a box containing a terror suspect who had a fear of insects? I knew a Marine recruit who was forced to do push-ups over a red ant colony as punnishment for a poorly organized foot locker. I suppose out watchdogs of morality would arrest and charge the drill sargent with cruelty. The problem is this is SOP in the Corps, an institution with a long and proud tradition of producing the best fighting men in this country. We are losin’ it folks.

Silky, honey, try dealing in facts, rather than in Olbermann/Maddow spin. Plame was “outed” by Richard Armitage, assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Both the leaker and the leakee have admitted that is true. It was not a Cheney directive. (And no, I am not a Cheney fan or a Cheney apologist. I voted for Bush twice despite his VP, not because of his VP.)

Notice how they are very careful to say “might bring charges” against officials of the Bush administration who devised “” harsh interrogation “” not stating that it is torture which we have convicted people which perform these types of policies against our soldiers..
You can be sure that they are not the ones being tortured or really give a d….. about the people who they do torture..
Obama and Emanuel has already pardon Bush for his crimes or he would not have made the previous statements of looking forward and not looking back and not prosecution Bush..
Obama has just as much BS and lies with him as his friends Pelosi , Reid , Feinstein , Schumer and the rest of the democrats and republicans..
Seems as if Kucinich was the only person which stated the truth and you could take him for his word..
I hope the independence have a candidate which is worth voting for. Because the democrats have just as much lies and BS as Bush and the republicans..
Our country is controlled by this Global Corporate Empire which our government has help to rise.. The are adding daily many foreign corporations and countries to this Empire..
With this Global Empire in place they will control the jobs market around the world and we will become slaves for the elite…

THE ELECTION of Barack Obama has put our country and every American in it in grave danger. Incompetents at Homeland Security and CIA; release of classified information for no good reason, etc. We have elected an utter incompetent. God help us all.

Members of Congress saw many photos that
have not been released, they also held hearings. I’d like to see those documents too.
Obama engages in the renditioning of prisoners, he’s not better than anyone
else regardless of party, regardless of adminstration. Obama just sent 35,000 more troops to Afghan and how many more
going to Pakistan? He just got $83 billion to continue the war, I’m sick of him blowing his horn, and putting our Country down. He ain’t my hope.