Official: US may create terror interrogation unit

Official: US may create terror interrogation unit | Top AP Stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering creating a special unit of professional interrogators to handle key terror suspects, focusing on intelligence-gathering rather than building criminal cases for prosecution, a government official said Saturday.

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The more things change, the more things stay the same--or so it seems.

First, I will say that the focus on intelligence-gathering as opposed to criminal prosecution is the correct focus. Terrorists are not criminals, nor should they be given the protections our system of laws affords criminals--they are undeserving of such charities.

However

Why is a "special unit" necessary? Why can't this just be farmed out to the CIA--long the nation's primary agency for intelligence collection?

One possible explanation might be the desire to exploit the loopholes in Executive Orders issued on 22 January 2009.

• "Torture" prohibition as described in Executive Order "ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS" only applies to persons detained in "armed conflicts", which are differentiated in the Executive Order "REVIEW OF DETENTION POLICY OPTIONS" from "counterterrorism operations.
• The CIA is the only entity required to close its detention facilities.
• Only detainees captured in "armed conflicts" are required to be disclosed to the International Committee of the Red Cross
• The conformance to interrogation techniques of the Army Field Manual are applied only to detainees captured to "armed conflicts."

Now, if Dear Leader decides it's a good idea to waterboard some Al Qaeda types to keep the US safe from international terrorism, then good on him. I honestly hope this is exactly what it suggests to my cynical mind--an effort to sidestep his earlier amateurish condemnations of the interrogation techniques used during the Bush Administration, techniques which Dear Leader's own Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis C. Blair, deemed effective, saying that

High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country.

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Still, if Dear Leader is planning to use his own loopholes, where does that leave Attorney General Holder's contemplations of criminal investigations and possible prosecutions of Bush Administration people for the use of such techniques?

I heard this on the radio and I laughed so hard that I almost swallowed my snuff.

I don't know whether to laugh, or cry, when PBO's cronies want to put Bush in jail for conducting enhanced interrogation, then turn around and create a team to do that same damn thing.

Posted by Celticlord: First, I will say that the focus on intelligence-gathering as opposed to criminal prosecution is the correct focus. Terrorists are not criminals, nor should they be given the protections our system of laws affords criminals--they are undeserving of such charities.

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Not only that, but the Geneva Convention specifically states that illegal combatants, such as terrorists, do not have the right to protections under the Geneva Convention.

I don't know whether to laugh, or cry, when PBO's cronies want to put Bush in jail for conducting enhanced interrogation, then turn around and create a team to do that same damn thing.

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I don't think the Obama Administration could have gone any lighter on or been less critical of the Bush Administration if they tried.

Moreover, most of the opening post is speculation. Obama could very well be building a team that doesn't stand in the shadow of the CIA, which has been morally compromised, I guess, or for any number of other reasons.

Morality Games said:

I don't think the Obama Administration could have gone any lighter on or been less critical of the Bush Administration if they tried.

Moreover, most of the opening post is speculation.

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For political reasons, no. I'm astonished at the hypocrisy of it all, though. I'm wondering if PBO's following will be as critical as they were of Bush.

apdst said:

For political reasons, no. I'm astonished at the hypocrisy of it all, though. I'm wondering if PBO's following will be as critical as they were of Bush.

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In politics, every reason of any category, moral or extra-moral, has a political dimension. Point is, they didn't expend political capital and national unity blaming the administration that was in before them, which is more than I can say of others. Of course, like most bipartisan gestures, it was pointless.

Anyway, what hypocrisy? The article says the FBI and CIA will probably "have a role" along with some less known agencies, and that it doesn't reverse any of the Administration's previous stances on the Bush's Administration's harsh interrogation methods. That hypocrisy is going to come about is not apparent yet. Like I said, the opening post is speculative. '

Cross-defense agency teams get created all the time.

Morality Games said:

Anyway, what hypocrisy? The article says the FBI and CIA will probably "have a role" along with some less known agencies, and that it doesn't reverse any of the Administration's previous stances on the Bush's Administration's harsh interrogation methods.

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Of course it doesn't. Thing is, this new "special unit" could waterboard anybody and everybody it got its meathooks on and still be within the parameters of Dear Leader's official policy on the matter.

What is not speculation is the precise language of Dear Leader's Executive Orders and the loopholes in his "anti-torture" stance contained therein.

What is speculation is whether this new unit is an effort to utilize those loopholes.

One can only hope that his recent realization of how important this is will lead Obama to quash any talk of investigations/prosecutions for Bush Administration officials. He's a reasonable guy who knows that he would be opening the door for those who come after him to do the same, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him take that path.

RightinNYC said:

One can only hope that his recent realization of how important this is will lead Obama to quash any talk of investigations/prosecutions for Bush Administration officials. He's a reasonable guy who knows that he would be opening the door for those who come after him to do the same, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him take that path.

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PBO's rhetoric has changed, dramatically, since taking office. I said it before he got elected. I said it before he was inaugurated. On 20 January, he was shown, "the binder". The binder filled with all the information that only the president gets to see; not Congress; not the ACLU; not subject to, "right to know", laws; not anyone. There's no doubt in my mind that PBO sat his ass down in the Oval Office, looked at the, "binder", and said, I'm gonna have to eat some **** over alotta this".

Being the politician that he is, his strategy is brilliant. He knows that Leftists are so love sick over his ass, that they will agree with anything he wants to do. He'll keep Bush's interrogation policies in place, name it something like, "Just like enhanced interrogation, only different", and the Libbos will be behind 100%.

I know it sounds like I'm being a smartass, but I'm not; even the prisoners in the Gulags wept when they heard that Stalin had died.

apdst said:

Being the politician that he is, his strategy is brilliant. He knows that Leftists are so love sick over his ass, that they will agree with anything he wants to do. He'll keep Bush's interrogation policies in place, name it something like, "Just like enhanced interrogation, only different", and the Libbos will be behind 100%.

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I am going to bust a gut laughing when waterboarding is re-titled "Intensive Nasal Lavage."