Revealing the secrets minus the Times

It was pretty disgusting to see the New York Times over the last eight years reveal secret after secret about how we were prosecuting this war. There was the revelation of the NSA's terrorist surveillance program, the big reveal on the SWIFT program, and we can't forget that it was the Times who broke the story about who was waterboarded. But gone are the good old days where the press decided what the public should and shouldn't know. But now our government is perfectly content to release those secrets all on their own much to the detriment of our security:

‘Does it shock the conscience?” Chris Wallace, the Fox News Sunday anchor, pressed former CIA director Michael Hayden about waterboarding. General Hayden gave the only responsible answer that honesty would allow: “It depends on the circumstances.”

Wallace’s question came after the Obama administration’s shockingly irresponsible decision to release government memoranda that spell out, in exquisite detail, the enhanced interrogation methods that were approved for top-tier al-Qaeda detainees in 2002–2003. Certainly President Obama is entitled to his rose-tinted opinion that more is to be gained by shelving the tactics than by further exploiting them. As chief executive, moreover, it is his prerogative to supplant a policy of proven effectiveness with one based on vague, counter-historical hopes of depressing terrorist recruitment. He could easily have altered the policy course, however, without giving a tactics seminar to our enemies.

The revelations will make al-Qaeda a more efficient killing machine: better able to resist our efforts to thwart its attacks. Worse, they will paralyze our intelligence community, which now knows that even a presidential assurance complemented by Justice Department guidance and congressional encouragement will not protect agents from second-guessing and possible legal jeopardy a few months or years from now, when vigilance is no longer in fashion and political power has changed hands. To complete the triple play, the disclosures demonstrate to intelligence agents that the commander-in-chief is not to be trusted: He claimed that coercive interrogation tactics beyond the anodyne Army Field Manual measures were being studied to determine whether their authorization might be appropriate; but the revelations make the “study” a hollow gesture — there is nothing to be gained from authorizing tactics the enemy has already been armed against.

Let me be clear, even though so many have been already, that this was an absolutely obtuse decision by the administration. Why? Because our enemy knows what we used to use in terms of interrogation techniques, and now they know they'll NEVER face them, if caught. Andrew McCarthy, who wrote the above (follow the link, and read it all) has prosecuted terrorists in the past as a federal prosecutor in the Clinton Justice Department. If you've read his book Willful Blindness then you know now what he knew then, which was that administration wasn't prepared to deal with terrorism. It had no clue how to really proceed against these animals, and while the subsequent administration understood the gravity of the issue, this one seems content on tearing it all apart.

Only God knows why Barry and Company have decided that this needed to be gotten rid of; why it was necessary to reveal these techniques and secrets. If their excuse is "we campaigned on transparency, and we're delivering" then these people have no business running the show. They're simply too stupid to be trusted with the the responsibility of protecting this nation. They're more interested in fulfilling a talking point for their minions in the mouth-breathing, fever swamp Left that actually keeping this nation protected.

See, now that our enemy knows it'll never face these techniques while Barry's in charge, they've been given a blank check to hit us as often as possible. Couple that with Barry's pronouncement that we're not at war with Islam, and our enemies are still laughing themselves silly. (YES, I know we're not at war with Islam, but we are at war with the most virulent strain of it, and there are those int he religion that, while they may not be jihadis themselves, they are willing to protect these insane fighters.)

Barry really doesn't have a clue as to what he's doing. We warned people during the election that the man was an absolute rookie; a rebel without a clue, if you will. Now, more and more people are seeing him for what he is. He's an idiotic Statist who is letting other Statists -- like Biden, like Granny Rictus, like the Cryptkeeper -- run the show. When he makes decisions on his own, we see the rube in presidential clothing. With his advisers in his ear, he probably bought their idea that this was a smart move.

Riiiiight. I hope they remember that when our next city is targeted by these animals, and 3000 more people end up being killed. I know we will, and we'll be demanding heads on a platter.

Publius II