Senators say no witch hunt aimed at spy agencies

[babylonsister]

Senators say no witch hunt aimed at spy agencies

By PAMELA HESS
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- While eager to find out more about the Bush administration's harsh interrogation and detainee policies, Senate Democrats are hinting that spy agency veterans need not fear that the groundwork is being laid for punishing those who carried them out.

People working in intelligence agencies worry that they may find themselves pursued in criminal and civil courts over their actions now that a Democratic administration critical of President Bush's policies is coming into power.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein told The Associated Press in an interview this week that there is a clear distinction between policymakers and those who execute the policy.

"They (the CIA) carry out orders and the orders come from the (National Security Council) and the White House, so there's not a lot of policy debate that goes on there," said Feinstein, D-Calif. "We're going to continue our looking into the situation and I think that is up to the administration and the director."

Feinstein declined to comment on whether her committee would take specific action to offer legal cover to those involved in harsh interrogations that some critics say amount to torture.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_INTELLIGENCE?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[stillcool]

1. I'm shocked. Really.. Who's going to take the fall?

[NOW tense]

2. There would have been a witch hunt only if

Sarah Palin was VP and that would have been focused on citizens not the CIA.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. A witch hunt is a search for persons accused of specious crimes

I was under the impression that torturing prisoners is a war crime, a real crime, a crime against humanity recognized in international law that we are signatories to. So Sen. Ron Wyden is full of shit when characterizing this as a 'witch hunt'.

On the other hand I am also fairly confident that we established at Nuremberg that just following orders is not a valid defense against charges of this category. So that would make Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein either an idiot or a liar. As one of the enablers of torture, on the other hand, she should be very interested in trivializing and downplaying the seriousness of the small matter of war crimes committed over the last eight years by our government.

[saigon68]

5. Torturing and water boarding Brown islamics

is OK if you are white and educated.

and have passed a back ground check as a "REAL AMERICAN"

[dkofos]

4. Maybe if they concentrated on WAR CRIMINALS, and not witches

they would get somewhere.

[zorahopkins]

6. "I Uuas Only Follouuing Orders"

It seems to me that after the atrocities of UUUUII, uuhen people were found and then tried for uuarcrimes, some of those people said, "I uuas only follouuing orders".

They did not get auuay uuith it then.

It should not be an excuse nouu.

Note: In protest of the continuing occupation of OUR Uhite House by the illegal and totally corrupt Bush/Cheney regime of thugs and cronies, I REFUSE to use the letter betuueen "V" and "X". Instead, I use a "double u", as in "Uuhite House".

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. What about the "witch hunt" the spy agencies conducted on citizens

most of whom probably were engaged in lawful conduct? Aren't they important too? Or is the fact that some citizen's civil liberties almost certainly were willfully and illegally abridged just not as important (wait, wait, don't tell me :eyes:)

[Solly Mack]

8. "harsh interrogations that some critics say amount to torture."

This phrasing is meant to suggest that it isn't a case of the government torturing people but that people who don't like the current government claim it is torture....so it becomes a case of he said/she said...when the fact is and remains, the US tortures people.

The use of the phrase harsh interrogations is another way of doing it....the media will claim they are trying to be unbiased by using that phrase but that's a crock of shit.

This sets up the "debatable" talking point. And I said they would do this long before Cheney said it was all "debatable"

If one side says one thing and the other side says another...it can be considered debatable what the truth is...

So then the goal becomes to claim that the people who say "enhanced interrogation techniques" are torture are just "critics" and people who "hate Bush"...so they have a motive to claim it's torture -attempting to make the "claims" meaningless and discredit people.

When, again, fact is...it isn't a claim....it's a fact...and it isn't "enhanced interrogation techniques"...it's torture

But the truth..and the much needed clarity on the subject...becomes lost in the diversionary "debate" that has now been constructed

As for the bullshit "witch hunt" talking point...it's not a witch hunt to go after the guilty and those calling it a witch hunt only seek to discredit those demanding justice...and in the doing, they excuse the atrocities and protect the war criminals...and when you protect a war criminal then you're really no better than the war criminal.

Not everyone in the CIA was engaging in war crimes...perhaps those are the agents that should be protected instead of the guilty who were...

[spanone]

9. seeking truth and illegality is not a witch hunt