Obama Addresses CIA “Torturers”

Apparently the President found it necessary to explain himself to the very people that he has now put in immediate jeopardy with the release of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos. Since when in the course of American history has a U.S. President released top secret documents during a time of war that would only be advantageous to its enemies? These were top secret documents! There is a reason why they were top secret. Knowledge gained from these documents could put American citizens at risk.

During his meeting at CIA Headquarters Obama said, “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.” Now there’s a point that can be agreed upon with the most recent mistake being the release of these OLC memos. You cannot unring the bell and releasing these memos was one mistake that cannot be corrected. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden once said waterboarding led to valuable intelligence from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. What more needs to be deduced from positive results?

And now the President’s national intelligence director has weighed in stating, “High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country,”

The mantra that keeps being repeated after the release of these memos is, “much of this information was already public.” Maybe, but it was only speculation. Now that it is public information, what’s next? Will covert operations be exposed just to satisfy a liberal-voting special interest group?

For a President that campaigned on moving forward with a focus on the future he now seems intent on dredging up and living in the past with the focus now being an uncertain future.