PANETTA WANTS CIA INTERROGATIONS TO REMAIN SECRET

Leon Panetta, former Democratic congressman from California, and now Barack Obama's CIA chief, is more and more a disappointment. Today, R. Jeffrey Smith reports in The Washington Post that Panetta has asked a federal court not to release details of interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo and elsewhere. Panetta claims (without any evidence) that the release would aid Al Qaeda.

This is a bunch of bull and utter nonsense! Al Qaeda and the rest of the world already know that the CIA engages in torture, whether psychological or physical. Nothing that could be released is going to "aid" Al Qaeda any more beyond the actual despicable interrogation techniques ordered by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Addington, Gonzalez et al.

Writes Smith:

"The "disclosure of explicit details of specific interrogations" would provide al-Qaeda "with propaganda it could use to recruit and raise funds," Panetta said, describing the information at issue as "ready-made ammunition." He also submitted a classified statement to the court that he said explains why detainees could use the contents to evade questions in the future, even though Obama has promised that the United States will not use the harsh interrogation techniques again.

"Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's national security program, said yesterday evening that it is "grim" and "troubling" for the Obama administration to say that information about purported abuses should be withheld because it might fuel anti-American propaganda. He said that amounts to an assertion that "the greater the abuse, the more important it is that it should remain secret." Jaffer said the ACLU is convinced that the public should have "access to the complete record of what took place in the CIA's prisons and on whose authority.""

Panetta has turned into another Cheney. Hide the truth because it will embarrass the CIA or those who actually ordered or performed the hideous techniques.

Today even Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham tried to add a provision to the spending bill to prohibit the release of photographs or other information. Ryan Powers reports for Think Progress on the Lieberman/Graham statement.

Shame on Panetta, Lieberman, Graham and all the others who want to conceal criminal actions on the part of the U.S. government and the CIA.

PORTER GOSS CLAIMS TORTURE MEMOS GIVE AWAY CIA SECRETS

Porter Goss, former CIA director under George W. Bush, writes in today's The Washington Post:

"We have given our enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate. The terrorists captured by the CIA perfected the act of beheading innocents using dull knives. Khalid Sheik Mohammed boasted of the tactic of placing explosives high enough in a building to ensure that innocents trapped above would die if they tried to escape through windows. There is simply no comparison between our professionalism and their brutality."

This is the same old argument that we can't reveal our methods of torture, oops, I mean, interrogation because then the "enemy" would be prepared for it. I suggest to Porter, arrange to have yourself waterboarded for 10 minutes but take as much time as you need to prepare for it, several months if you want. See if your preparations can allow your to tolerate waterboarding even for one minute. Oh, you can also practice being strung up with handcuffs to the ceiling and practice being in that position for two hours. Then you could practice being put into a coffin-like box for two days. So much for Porter's arguments that revelation of these harsh and cruel methods will allow the "enemy" to get ready for them.

Given the inability of any human to prepare for waterboarding or the other forms of American torture, arguments like those of Porter Goss that we give away "secrets" to the enemy just don't pass the laugh test.

Waterboarding and the like have been around at least since the Inquisition. Recall that the Church found them effective to establish the truth of who was a devil or worshipper of black magic. Back then, recall that there were a lot of witches and Satan-worshippers. And by God the Inquisition and its methods made them confess and come clean.

I would like to see if Porter would himself confess to being part of the Qaeda group if he were waterboarded. Perhaps even Cheney, Bush, Rice and Addington, being waterboarded, would quickly "confess" that they were secretly part of Qaeda and planned the 9/11 attack.

LET'S SUBJECT DICK CHENEY TO WATERBOARDING

Marc Thiessen gives us in today's The Washington Post a specious reason supporting his assertion that Obama was wrong to release the torture memos: Al Qaeda will use this information to train its operatives to resist questioning and withhold information on planned attacks. (Thiessen by the way is a former speech writer for George W. Bush.)

Oh yeah! Sure! Thiessen's assertion does not pass the laugh test. Al Qaeda is going to train its soldiers to overcome waterboarding? Or being stuffed in a black box together with biting insects? How about training for loss of sleep for seven days? Or being doused with cold water? These Al Qaeda guys sure are tough and made of steel.

I have a good suggestion. Let's waterboard Thiessen and his fellow torture-defending Bush officials, including Dick Cheney, and find out if they have any secrets to reveal. Perhaps Thiessen and Cheney are really Al Qaeda operatives and are planning an attack against some city in the United States.

If they are innocent, well we will soon know. But let's stop the waterboarding or other torture only if and when they admit their terrorist guilt.