Michael Hayden, Former CIA Director, Tells a Whopper

The former director of the CIA, Michael V. Hayden, reveals that the purpose of keeping the CIA interrogation memos secret was to preserve the right to torture people in the future.

He writes on CNN.com that releasing the CIA interrogation memos was a "mistake" and claimed "to reveal the details of this technique would tie the hands of a president in a future emergency -- since, after all, laws and policies and presidents could always change"

He means the policy about torturing people. He means "tie the hands" of any President who wants to torture people.

Michael Hayden: "Based on a declaration I signed, the judge had agreed in 2008 to allow us to continue to protect -- on the grounds of national security -- the specifics of waterboarding, a technique that had not actually been used since March 2003 and one the agency had not even authorized for use in years."

If what you are saying is the truth, why would it have been necessary to fire me for saying that "waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong" on my classified blog? Something doesn't add up. If the practice had discontinued, and there were no plans for its revival, then I would have merely been reprimanded and my blog taken away.

Instead, I was fired and put under investigation for my clearance. I was followed everywhere I went for a week and a half. I am blackballed from my former profession. That's fine. I took the risk and will accept the consequences. However, do not pretend that exactly how you torture people is itself classified. The only classification is that it happened at all, and you wanted to be able to do it again. That information is not critical to national security, it is political.

Michael Hayden claims that the choice to release the CIA interrogation memos was political. It was. So was your desire to keep them secret. By exposing the illegal practices the CIA was engaged in under the previous Administration, President Obama let everyone know that waterboarding and torture were not acceptable practices. He further let them know that breaking the law and violating human rights will eventually be exposed. Good for him.

War Crimes! Why Are We So Outraged?

Torture as the Bush Administration's Biggest Legacy - the officials of the Bush Administration committed war crimes. The footnotes in the Torture Memos which I discussed extensively in 2006 show that the Bush Administration did indeed know that Waterboarding is Torture, and Torture is Wrong. And they authorized it anyway.

I wrote about the Torture Memos back in 2006 and was roundly ignored. So did the New York Times, by the way. And this outcry we hear now is a little cowardly. Where were all these civil liberty patriots when the violations were happening? They were too frightened to confront the Bush Administration.

As a contractor at the CIA, I spoke up about the wrongs of torture and its illegality through my classified blog. I warned the people doing waterboarding that they may be criminally prosecuted. Of course, my intelligence career was destroyed. I now practice elder law.

There are probably going to be people prosecuted for torture eventually. In the typical American way, some lower ranking person is going to be strung up as an example. We can't let that happen.

The Dick Cheney and John Yoo types can't be allowed to walk away without consequences. If they can, then other outrages on civil liberties will be attempted, and will one day be successful.

You Mean Torture Doesn't Work?

No it doesn't. But those who worship at the altar of power and revenge don't care.

Torture was never effective. And "no European lives were saved." Right, Secretary Rice? The bottom line is that the worst attack on American soil happened under the Bush Administration just one month after a memo "al Qaida Plans Attack On US Soil" was drafted specifically for President Bush. You know, just before he went on vacation for a month.

You can expect that members of the Bush Administration will be indicted in Europe this year sometime. I sincerely hope that the attorneys that laid the groundwork for allowing torture to take place are indicted as well. We were all there after September 11th. Your particular case of fear is no justification for turning your back on the Constitution and the rule of law, not to mention the oath you took as an officer of the Court.

Cowards and Fools - Lawyers on DOJ Torture Memos

Cowardly lawyers across America are outraged at the Department of Justice memos authorizing torture and the suspension of civil rights by the Bush Administration. And they wait until Bush is out of office to say it as loud as possible.

The contents of memos written by John Yoo have been in the public domain for years. Only now are members of our esteemed legal community are getting up in arms. Where were they when it was a real risk to speak out?

Let me tell you something. When I was fired from the CIA as a contractor for using my classified blog to denounce the practice of torture and waterboarding in particular, I was told that everything I had ever read and everything I had ever written would be examined for criminal activity and forwarded for possible criminal prosecution. And that's what I've had hanging over my head for two years. The only reason I was in that precarious position is that I crossed the Bush Administration who openly threatened me with a political prosecution.

And I would do it all again. Waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong. Not to mention stupid, shortsighted and ineffective.

So you will forgive my disdain for the lawyers who find their consciences late in the game.

You can read references to the Torture Memos in previous blog posts of mine back in 2006. You will see that the legal reasoning was available for outrage even then.

http://econo-girl.blogspot.com/2006/09/torture-memos.html

http://econo-girl.blogspot.com/2006/09/torture-memos_15.html

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