On "Fox News Sunday" former VP Dick Cheney gave a wide-ranging interview to Chris Wallace (transcript--6 pages; video clip-- approx. 25 min.). The CIA investigation was the centerpiece, but Cheney covered other matters as well. DEFINITELY either read or see this one. Asked by Wallace, "So even these cases where they went beyond specific legal authorization, you're OK with it?", Cheney answered: "I am." Cheney noted that the documents released last Monday by the White House show that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad & Abu Zubaydah provided most of the intelligence re al-Qaeda that we garnered after 9/11; KSM & AZ were 2 of the 3 detainees who were waterboarded (the other was the mastermind of the Oct. 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole). Cheney did endorse the stepped-up use of Predators by Team Obama.
Newt Gingrich calls for 44 to fire A-G Eric Holder for siccing a special counsel upon CIA interrogators who were already cleared by career Justice Department prosecutors. An Andy McCarthy posting I missed in July shows one example of the kind of lawyer Holder is now hiring at Justice: a lady lawyer who worried that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad's guilty plea was not genuine. Pajama's Media editor Jennifer Rubin offers the inside scoop at Justice: how Justice thoroughly reviewed CIA interrogations during Bush 43 and how Holder has politicized Justice to burnish his own "independent" credentials. Read the details and weep.
Then read Joseph Finder's New York Times op-ed on CIA Double Jeopardy, which begins by juxtaposing Eric Holder Geneva Convention quotes from 2002 versus 2008. Finder's must-read 2-pager notes that defense lawyers will cite the legal principle of estoppel--a concept that runs through many areas of law, holding that having taken one legal position, a party is estopped from changing position later on in pursuit of expedient legal advantage---in making their case. Finder also notes that violating the principle of institutional continuity in matters like this undermines the legitimacy of governmental action itself.
Bottom Line. Even if all those probed by the special counsel are exonerated, and even if all legal fees are paid for defending anyone charged and acquitted, immense, irreparable damage has been done to our intelligence community. No administration's assurance of protection for good faith action can retain value, because no future administration need feel bound by same. Errors of judgment made under a complex set of rules face possible harsh judgment in future administrations even if forgiven initially. Our enemies can rejoice, while we repent at leisure--in all likelihood, it will be a painful repentance.
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