Wednesday, August 26, 2009

No Honor among Thieves or Criminal (defense) Lawyers

Despite being within a short walk of the Kennedy Hyannis compound, the Chosen One apparently was too busy conferencing with his Attorney General regarding the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate CIA officers for engaging in "harsh" interrogation techniques on mass murders to visit the ailing last brother.  Golfing too, but that's worthy.

To my mind, the simulated shooting of a terrorist in the next interrogation room (by firing a blank round w/n. ear shot of the terrorist being questioned, followed by the CIA questioner yelling out to the shooter: "Hey, save a bullet, he wouldn't talk and his time is about up") is
not torture.  Mental cruelty, by scaring a terrorist w/. threats never carried out, is surely mean and even unseemly.  (Burning to death thousands in the World Trade Center towers is beyond words, and to prevent future attacks, I expect  the CIA to deal harshly with the responsible terrorists.)  It is not prohibited by any US statute or international treaty, however.

What is a federal felony is the disclosure of the identities of CIA covert operatives, e.g. Valerie Plame.  Now, we learn that ACLU lawyers for these same terrorists showed them photos of CIA agents, in hopes of identifying these covert operatives for use at upcoming trials where their names would have to become public.  

I await the Commander in Chief's announcement of the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate these egregious violations of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.

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