I remember
driving around to my business appointments for days after the attack. Everyone
was furious and ready to take whatever action to prevent another attack. Over
and over again, I heard about those kids who lost their fathers and those
sickening images of people jumping to their deaths.
Torture? Yes torture was watching those towers collapse and
know that hundreds were killed instantly! Yes torture was knowing that kids
like my 3 sons would grow up with a dad to play catch with or talk
sports.
For the
record, I think that the Bush administration reacted with proper urgency after
9-11. We had just lost 3,000 Americans, and worse than that, we had no idea
of who we were at war with.
This is what the partisan Feinstein memo did not take into
consideration. This is why CIA Director Brennan, and his predecessors, sound
so credible when they speak of the awful choices that the CIA had to make, as
David Gergen wrote:
"Brennan also made clear that the CIA (he served as deputy director under President George W. Bush) was not prepared to run a detention and interrogation program -- who would have thought they needed one?
They put it together quickly, but -- as Brennan readily conceded -- some agents then went far beyond the rules, employing brutal interrogation techniques.
He should also have conceded that was torture.
What has been missing in much of the hyperventilation over the Senate report is that the number of people water boarded was actually tiny: three says Brennan, though the Senate Committee insists the number is slightly higher.
With numbers that small, it is far more believable that most agents -- as Brennan said -- acted within the rules.
Is this any basis for treating the CIA like a brutal, rogue operation?"
It would have
been nice if this report would have been like the 9-11 or WMD reports. In
other words, bipartisan.
On the
contrary, the Feinstein memo was highly partisan and will contribute nothing to
understanding what happened or lessons we can learn from what
happened.
Again,
bipartisanship roared its ugly head and everyone is a loser.
P. S. You can
hear CANTO TALK here & follow
me on Twitter @ scantojr.
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