In the desperate efforts to relive the glory days of both the 1960’s Hippie/Anti-war movment and Watergate, House and Senate Democrats are going beserk trying to recreate the only victory they’ve had in their entire lives.
The CIA interrogation tapes of Al Qaeda operatives, that have been subsequently destroyed, is the latest hoped for “Gotcha!” of a party and Congress that has accomplished absolutely NOTHING since it won power in 2006 except attempt after attempt to destroy a president and his party by securing defeat in a war they authorized, and weaken America in the contest against our enemies.
Much media trumpeting of the destroyed CIA tapes of U.S. interrogation techniques of Al Qaeda prisoners has reached air-raid siren status among the Left. In predictable fashion, the Democrat Leadership feined outrage and made public spectacles falling all over themselves in talking-point heaven to compare the destroyed tapes to the “18 minute gap” in Nixon’s Watergate tapes and rushing to microphones to be the first to demand a Special Prosecutor investigate:
Democratic Senate leaders compared the CIA’s actions to the Watergate scandal.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked, “What would cause the CIA to take this action? The answer is obvious — coverup.” “What is at stake here goes to the heart of the rule of law and justice in America,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
This afternoon, Durbin wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging him to investigate a possible “obstruction of justice.”
But as we are discovering – this is simply another straw of desperation that is filled with deliberate hypocrisy and false outrage for political consumption by the Left. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan) all witnessed the CIA waterboarding technique in September of 2002, as members of the House Intelligence Commitee and NONE of them objected to the procedure. In fact, they asked whether or not the technique was “strong enough” to break the will of captured Jihadists.
Today however, in another flamboyant act to stage political theater, two of these individuals; Rockerfeller and Harman were also aware that the interrogation tapes were scheduled for erasure. Rockerfeller admits finding out that the tapes were destroyed in Novermber 2006. OVER A YEAR AGO. Harman wrote a letter asking that the tapes NOT be destroyed, but learned that they already had been. We can only assume that the other leading members of this Oversight Committee were also aware of that at the time.
But now, all-of-a-sudden, a year later – it’s a “scandal” with Watergate possibilities???
As the new York Times duly notes:
“Jane Harman also knew of the intention to destroy the tapes, and she at least ‘urged’ the C.I.A. in writing not to do it.” But he notes, “But when she found out the C.I.A. had destroyed the tapes, where was Harman’s press conference? Where were the congressional hearings?”
Indeed, where WAS the press conference and calls for hearings a year ago?? Was it not important? Did it not rise to the level of Watergate status last year during the Election cycle?
Ah yes – there was this little thing called national security at one time in this country, and Intelligence Matters are restricted to high security clearance – of which the eight members of the Congressional Intelligence Committee possessed and were restricted in discussing. By law they are prohibited from acknowledging or discussing anything they learn on the Intelligence Committee until such information is declassified. To Democrats, “Classified” under a Republican Administration means “Coverup” and as such, “classififed” is just an obstacle to be overcome. Much like they treat the Constitution.
Consider all the “leaks” we’ve had about our ‘intelligence’ apparatus of late – does anyone even allow the possibility that some of these creeps on this committee are engaging in treason and breaking the law by discussing what they are not allowed to discuss?? How else does such national intelligence matters get disseminated to willing members of the media for publication?
The entire notion of waterboarding being declared as “torture’ by this same bunch is nauseating in the extreme, since they were not sure if the technique was severe enough to break reticent Al Qaeda terrorists back in 2002. Yes. Not only were these same Democrats feigning outrage over “torture”, they watched the procedure and asked if the technique was strong enough to break hardened terrorists!
I don’t know about you – but after seeing the videos of slow beheadings of Americans at the hands of Al Qaeda, and how bodies of Americans are drug through streets and hung up by wire on bridges, the idea of a pitcher of water poured on my blindfolded face to get information about terrorist operations is not quite in the same universe of comparison. America apparently does not have the guts or stomach to do what is necessary to stop what our enemies clearly are more than willing to do to us. We would rather think ourselves moral and noble by treating barbarians who are plotting to kill us, like we would like to be treated in similar circumstance. Such a misguided sense of morality is not noble or American, it’s stupid. We can think ourselves better and moral all the day long, treating captured Jihadists like guests at the Hilton, and it will not make one iota’s difference to Al Qaeda terrorists.
But let’s talk about the rule of law as it pertains to intelligence gathering. If no one from the Gang of Eight committee ‘leaked’ the practice the CIA was engaged in on Sheik Khalid Mohammed, the entire world would not now be aware of America’s intelligence methods. And yet we hear Kennedy and Durbin pontificate endlessly about the “rule of law” when I am of the opinion that their own Democrat leaders were engaged in breaking it themselves by leaking intelligence information for use as a political weapon.
The Democrats demand an accounting. They demand hearings. They demand upholding the rule of law and adherance to morality. We hear them demand all these things when they knew of them in 2002. They charge criminal coverup, while some of us are still waiting for someone in Congress to raise an eyebrow over Sandy Berger’s theft of National Security Documents he stuffed into his pants.
The truth is in this day and age of our political fall from Christian Republic to Caligulan Rome – the means justifies the desired end result: absolute power. There is nothing sacred in politics, except the politcal weapon of Political Correctness, and then, it is selectively applied. Sandy Berger gets a pass for what would be a felony, just as his boss William The Impeached got a free pass over lying under oath to a grand jury. Democrat Congressmen can have oodles of cold hard cash stuffed into their freezers and investigations are called “racist” and “partisan witchunts”. But when it comes to Republicans or national security, there is no reverence for the country, or our sovereignty, or our security. All is fair game to achieve a political win, regardless of the consequences. Regardless if it results in our defeat in the face of Jihadists, regardless if it ends up as a bright sunrise over an American city some dark night in the future.
Torture update: What did Nancy Pelosi know and when did she know it?
What the Democrats Knew and When They Knew It
Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002
In Meetings, Spy Panels’ Chiefs Did Not Protest, Officials Say
Pelosi Knew About Waterboarding in 2002: Media Frenzy to Follow?
Sword At-The-Ready 